Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is an isometric soulslike with a Lovecraftian Horror theme. If you enjoy the lovecraftian genre, there is plenty to like here visually and in terms of the game's lore. The setting, the characters and the items are described in great detail within dozens of entries for those interested in that. The soundtrack is also quite good.

Unfortunately, I didn't quite enjoy the gameplay in this one. It's pretty simple and repetitive but relatively enjoyable when you're fighting normal enemies, but falls apart whenever you are facing bosses. A big issue for bosses is that hitboxes (for both you and the bosses to be fair) are quite unfair. A boss might just slash to its side, but will still hit you even though you are below or above the boss, making it unpredictable at times whether you are within reach of the boss or not. In addition, bosses can have charge attacks, in that they just rush towards you. If you don't know that they will do this and don't preemptively run away far enough, there is nothing you can do and you will get hit. There is no way to dodge, parry or block, you can only be far away from the enemy before they charge up.

As a soulslike, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes unfortunately does lots of things wrong, or at least in ways that I wouldn't dare to do them in this genre. For example, the game has to separate its seven or so areas with loading screens. So if you accidentally walk to the edge of a map and enter a different world, getting back to the previous world will not only take 30+ seconds, but it will also reset all the enemies on the map. While doing so, your health and item charges DO NOT refill, which is quite unfair. It's not gonna happen a lot, but it happened multiple times to me, so worth a mention.

Worse offenses are that resting at "bonfires" triggers a loading screen, maps don't show you where you are exactly (which is an issue because so many areas look the same due to the game's low budget and some areas are pretty big) and bossfights always play the boss entrance cutscene, no matter how many times you attempt it, so you spend 10+ seconds on the first boss for every attempt for example. Some take less time, some probably longer, though I didn't finish the game.

I'd say it's worth checking it out, if you already own it, and perhaps worth it on sale, if the positives about this game sound appealing to you, but it's not a soulslike I would recommend.

Reviewed on Dec 06, 2023


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