You know it's very rare where I hear a genre of media and think 'Okay, I've literally never heard of that before and am sure you made it up.' You know, I feel like I've experienced everything and no concept could possibly raise my eyebrows any higher than I expect. And yet when I hear a game that officially describes itself as a 'Horrorpunk', it sort of leaves me at a lost. Horror - Punk. What does that even mean? What would it entail? Does the 'Punk' refer to the rebellious nature of it's presentation or a grander rebellion against the norms of Horror? And how can a genre which relies on taking power and control away from the viewer be mixed with a movement dedicated to seizing control and freedom? Why don't we find out together by taking little look into 'Morbid: The Seven Acolytes'.
Oh sorry, did I say Horrorpunk? Apparently this is also a Souls-like game that has the gall to try the Dark Souls formula without the subtlety and restraint. (And need I remind you, Dark Souls features a boss called 'Ceaseless Discharge') Now that isn't to say that I didn't like what I saw, just that the trailer kicked off with, what appears to be, a lady cosplaying as Dark Sun Gwyndolin and using her own oversized womb as a morning star. (It's gonna be one of those games, huh.) Yeah, Morbid is a game that's absolutely seeping in blood and over-the-top gore, and as a DOOM purist I must say that am I somewhat intrigued. Actually, scratch that- I'm all for imaginatively gory in every possible manner. There are those who will undoubtedly find the game grotesque, which is likely the point, but I have to commend the somewhat uncommon direction the Devs took in setting this title distinctly apart from the others.
In terms of actual gameplay, this is another isometric hack-and-slash game that reminds me, at least, of a much more grim rendition of Hyper Light Drifter. (And that was a game about a near genocide, so you can ascertain how heavy this title is aiming at being.) We see our silver haired sprite performing plenty of melee strikes and rolls, and she appears to have a stamina and health bar gauge, so the spirit of the Souls franchise is most definitely not lost on these developers. (Can't wait to try out my prolific rolling skills on their 8-bit version of Pontiff Sulyvahn. That's gonna go great.) There's some customisation in terms of armour, weapons to slot and even some skills to choose; (Oh, there's a break from the Souls formula!) all of which serves to make this game feel enticingly familiar whilst soothingly new. (What? Feels like I got those adjectives the wrong way around? Nah, must just be you.) I also noticed a little bit of side-gun action, implying that Bloodborne wormed it's DNA into the creative process somewhere down the line.
Aesthetically, the game is pretty much the exact archetype you would expect from hearing the descriptor "It's a pixel-based Souls game." We're talking heavy Gothic influences, in fact, even heavier than Dark Souls from what I can see. Which does, admittedly, rob some of the individuality and uniqueness from the environments and makes them all feel a little cliche, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I still think it fits this style of game like a glove anyway. There's wooden villages in the middle of the night, graveyards, bone-strewn caves, dead-tree forests and what looks like a cathedral in this trailer alone, and I'm sure there'll be some sort of Grecian-style ruins and Dracula's Coffin in the full game. (That's just how these sorts of worlds roll.) So far I am liking everything I see, even if it's yet to quite surprise me with any visuals I wouldn't expect from a world like this. But the fact that everything gets regularly drenched in what-looks-like dynamic blood is a nice touch. Also, I like the idea of an isometric adventure title that takes a darker, gruesome twist on the 'too much blood' gimmick, as I'm fairly tapped out of the lighter way it's portrayed in games like 'The Binding of Issac'. Gross me out, if you can, I want to feel something! (It'd make a nice change...)
But whereas the environments maybe aren't tickling my 'creative' bone as much as they could be, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the enemy design, because that is deliciously wild right now. (I mentioned 'Morning Star Womb', right?) Some of the smallest enemies in the trailer that I've seen seem to share this globulous, intestinal look to them which I suppose fits their role as 'bags of blood', whilst the bigger monster are either straight up Gothic horror or that delightful brand of 'body horror' that games are starting to open up to lately. We're talking extra arms, insides on the outside and some dude who literally seems to have had a tip-worth of stuff infused into his being. It's an unsettling defiance of the human form that I hope is driven to it's absolute extreme later into the game. (Am I asking for as much gore and gross-out at as feasibly possible. Yes, I suppose I am.) Other then that there's more evidence of the Gothic blood behind this all with killer ravens and tentacles, (Are tentacles Gothic? They're not, are they...) so there'll be no shortness of variety everytime you get slaughtered.
This title is being constructed by a smaller studio known as 'Still Running' who happen to have a few games under their belt already (although nothing that personally caught my attention) and just the coolest pixel art avatars representing them on their website. Oh, did I mention they are only a team of 6. (Or 6 'dynamic' members. I'll admit, I'm too dumb to actually know what that means, maybe they're saying they contract every now and then, I don't know.) It really impresses me nowadays how we're seeing these particularly impressive looking titles coming out from these relatively tiny studios of concentrated talent, and not even sporadically. 'Still Running' were just formed in 2014 and this is their third game! That's some crazy commitment to the craft and I laud that, truly I wish I had a fraction of that drive.
As someone who is a huge fan of the Souls series, I cannot overstate how much of it's heart I see reflected here. For example, and I'm not usually one to comment on this sort of thing, but the musical track feels so indicative to Dark Souls that it's nuts. In fact, I literally had the title screen for Dark Souls 3 up as I was watching this trailer and I was confused as to why I was hearing the same track twice. It's that epic chorus of haunting voices making noises that we all take for granted nowadays I positively eat it up. There's nothing quite like getting impaled by the Soul of Cinder whilst a thousand obscure voices mumble something indistinguishable in your ear, and I'm glad that's the sort of atmosphere that Morbid is trying to replicate.
In conclusion; 'Morbid: The Seven Acolytes' is right up my alley. It's an isometric take on one of my favourite series' of all time and manages to capture a lot of what I love about that franchise. The game looks fluid, fast and fun and right now all I want to do is get my hands on it and play it, and is there any better desire for a trailer to convey unto it's viewer? Still Running may have kept off my radar up until now but today they're right on it as a Studio-to-watch, because if they can nail this title like their trailer seems to imply that they can then the sky is the absolute limit. Great trailer, hope it's a great game, I'm sold.
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