Tag Archives: action

Looks Like Children of Morta Is The Next Big Indie Thing

Pixel art… check. Roguelike… check. Hack and slash… check. Crafting… check. Looks fucking great… check.

Children of Morta is all of those things. It’s the next game from Dead Mage, developers of… Garshasp: The Monster Slayer. Don’t worry though, because, well, just look at this thing:

As the trailer says, Children of Morta concerns the adventures of the Bergson family, whose job it is to protect their home Mount Morta, which has been besieged by an evil force. Its Kickstarter page really drives home the fact that this is a narrative-driven experience, and cites The Binding of Isaac and Risk of Rain as examples of its approach (though I wouldn’t say that either of those games really had any more of a narrative than retrieving the Amulet of Yendor, so we’ll see).

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These boss designs are incredible.

Many playable characters in the Bergson family are listed. John, the patriarch, is a traditional heavy sword/shield type. Mark, the eldest son, is a martial arts monkish character and sister Linda is the archer (though it is also stated several times that she likes to play the violin). Also listed is Kevin the rogue, Lucy the sorcerer, and Uncle Joey – a big dude with a big hammer.

Gameplay is going to consist of crawling through procedurally generated dungeons and collecting divine relics of the Mountain Gods to increase your skill. The mountain’s wildlife can also be tamed into familiars by the native Bergsons.

Children of Morta can be backed on Kickstarter starting today. Their goal is $65,000, and as of this writing they’ve already gotten $2,066 of it. Please, for the sake of video games, back this game.

The Evil Within Review

There’s no escaping the fact that I, and many others, were on the hype train for this game. The horror genre has been in dire need of something that would bring fresh, new ideas to the table and bring interest to the once loved genre again. However, this is not the title to do that.

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Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Review

If you’re like me and you loved Borderlands, but Borderlands 2 wasn’t quite your jam, then you’ll probably find a lot to love in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. I certainly liked The Pre-Sequel several times more than I ever liked BL2, but for every time you’re reminded of how much you like the original, there’s another time you’ll learn to appreciate all the polishing work the sequel received.

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Guacamelee: Gold Edition Review

Forming an opinion on Guacamelee has proven to be a difficult task, and criticizing it has proven to be even harder. On one hand, it’s a pleasant-enough platformer that fancies itself among the $15 indie hoi oligoi. On the other hand, it’s just no fun. What do you say about a game like this? Do you focus on praising the solidity of its mechanics, or chastising its unengaging gameplay and flatline pacing?

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Gauntlet Review

It’s been nearly ten years since anybody’s wanted to make a Gauntlet game, and rightfully so. Fans of the series (and realists in general) would probably be safe in assuming that the pre-Dark Legacy appeal is never going to resurface but from indies. Any new, name-brand Gauntlet would come with so many modern trappings baked-in that much of the point of playing a Gauntlet game would simply be eliminated. Because of this stigma, Arrowhead Studios, the creators of Magicka and Helldivers, were probably the best developers for a new, modern Gauntlet game.

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