Morbid: The Seven Acolytes Critic Reviews

Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a challenging game which generally incorporates both the good and annoying elements of a Souls-like experience. Still, it manages to stand out thanks to its strong dark fantasy presentation, rich Lovecraftian lore, and gameplay systems that offer methodical combat and plenty of features to make the adventure satisfying. It’s a difficult game, for sure, but it doesn’t forego quality-of-life features for the sake of being difficult, and so in this sense, many players outside of the Souls fandom can get something out of it.

Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a great top-down Soulslike with the right mix of challenge and reward. It makes good use of the systems and mechanics it borrows from the genre staples and combines this with a darkly beautiful aesthetic and some memorable boss fights. It's not always clear how or the best way to progress, but if you’ve got a hankering for a bloody good time then you won’t go too far wrong with Morbid.

While still a bit rough around the edges, Morbid: The Seven Acolytes is a solid entry with excellent developer support that shows great potential.

Morbid: The Seven Acolytes may not have the deepest gameplay mechanics or thrilling combat, but its meticulous artistry and foreboding sense of dread will keep you engaged throughout its campaign.

Unfortunately, I’m sorry to say that Morbid: The Seven Acolytes still wound up hitting that same point of not quite hooking me in. It never made me sit up in delight and just start playing for the sheer fun of it. Not that it’s supposed to be fun, since you’re wandering into a broken hellish locale that’s supposed to be unfriendly with every step. But I consider the fact that my impulses responded that way as a good thing. Whatever quality prevents these games from quite resonating with me was there and present here, and there’s a lot to like here. The game looks eerily and disgustingly beautiful, weaves a compelling environment, and plays sharply and responsively. So I might be a bit more reluctant to go wade back in, but if you like yourself some Souls-like action and fancy something novel, you should definitely give this a shot. And if you like buckets of blood and body horror, you might get a kick out of it too.

Morbid nails its gloomy atmosphere and bleak setting, but poor balancing, one-dimensional level-design and no explanations lead to a hollow experience compared to the genre-shaping inspiration Dark Souls.

Morbid: The Seven Acolytes certainly isn’t a game you should pick up for its gameplay. The combat is just shallow, but in no way unplayable. If you are intrigued by the game’s world and aesthetics—and you aren’t much of a stickler for gameplay—I’d happily recommend it.

If you look at Morbid as its own entity, the game suddenly looks a lot better. Under the banner of souls like metroidvania, it falls far short of the margin required. I’d suggest waiting for a sale to snap it up.

Quotation forthcoming.