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Children of Morta is available on: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Children of Morta is also featured in our Xbox and PC Best Games You Can Play articles if you are looking for more great games to play on Game Pass.
At my core, I am a AAA game loving gamer. I love the huge production values, I love the hyper realistic graphics, I love the deep cast of voice actors, set pieces, and cinematic experiences. The big flashy titles with big stories and their big budgets, that’s my jam.
As I have gotten older, and my gaming palette slightly more refined, I have expanded my horizons. I still love a great AAA game but I have learned to start appreciating other smaller and more varied genres. Thanks to services like Xbox Game Pass, these days I embrace a wider variety of games than ever before and sometimes I am rewarded by stumbling upon a gem like Children of Morta.
Children of Morta is a roguelike action adventure game. Much like other roguelike video games, the player is tasked with taking multiple dungeon runs through an area. Each time you play through a run, the area and items you collect are randomly generated.
The game constantly feels fresh throughout the play through and thanks to the roguelike elements there is an addictive quality to the gameplay that easily had me glued to my tv screen for more hours each play session that I anticipated.
The Story
Children of Morta is set in a fantasy world where the Bergson’s are a legendary family of heros. When the land of Morta begins to show dire signs of corruption, the Bergson family sets forth to find out what is happening to the land and ultimately, put a stop to it.
Each character has a backstory you can read and you get little snippets of information about them as you play through the game via story scenes. The Bergson home is the hub world you return to after every dungeon run, while at the home you will almost always be treated to some light dialogue from the characters.
From time to time you get actual scenes that unlock which further character development or give you a bit more story.Sometimes these story segments move the plot of the game forward in a significant way, sometimes they just sprinkle in a little flourish of character building or exposition. It’s just another little element that keeps you pressing on, a theme this game has mastered.
All of the story in the game is accompanied by a narrator, similar to a game like Bastion or what you may see while reading a novel, the narrator acts as the central voice of exposition; this approach is quite effective. I always looked forward to uncovering the next little tidbit of story or insight into a character each time the narrator would begin talking.
Nothing is elaborate about the story, the majority of it is presented in small piecemeal portions and it is very easy to digest. THe player can seek out more information through the codex which is continuously being updated if they choose. The story gets high marks from me because it manages to be effective while remaining unobtrusive to the flow of the game, a notably impressive feat.
Children of Morta is simple yet Immersive
The look and gameplay design of Children of Morta is clean and elegant. The pixel art style does a surprisingly effective job of displaying detail and conveying emotion. Looking over the beautiful Bergson family home is a treat for the eyes.
You start the game off as John Bergson, family patriarch and probably the most user friendly character in the game. As you play on you will unlock 5 other Bergson family members to adventure with.
Each member of the family has a unique play style and you will have to take a slightly different approach to combat depending on which character you are using. John Bergson is a big powerful sword and shield character. He has a decent pool of HP and can block nearly all attacks with his shield making him a slow but effective tank.
Linda Bergson is an archer, she has rapid long range attacks and is fleet of foot making it very easy to dodge away from attacking enemies. The trade off for her when compared to a character like John is that she can’t take as much damage and has to be more aware of her surroundings.
There is an adjustment period to every new character that keeps things interesting. As John you will grow used to standing your ground and fighting off waves of enemies, then as Linda you will have to get used to picking your spots and constantly changing position.
For the most part, characters control the same even if they play differently. You have a main attack and a special attack that typically works for crowd control. Characters can unlock a few more special abilities as they level up and every ability outside of the main attack usually has some kind of cool down period.
This game is kind of a button masher, strangely enough it reminded me a lot of the Dynasty Warriors games, you take on mobs of enemies and somewhat mindlessly bash away. That’s not to say the combat isn’t fun or at times challenging, it’s just that this is a game you can easily play somewhat passively once you find your groove.
For me that’s a big strength of the game as I like to multi task. I may be playing a game passively as I am watching TV for example and Morta is the perfect game to throw on and in enjoy while doing something else.
The Formula Stays Strong Throughout
After you complete all levels of a dungeon (typically 2-3 areas) you fight a boss character. The boss fights are fairly varied and I had fun on all of them. The bosses are pretty unique themselves and offer a decent challenge though nothing in Children of Morta is exceptionally hard and that may be one of my few knocks on the game. Even with the newly added hard mode, the game is fairly painless.
Typically if you are dying a lot it’s because you need to level your character up more or purchase some upgrades for the Bergson family. The challenge of the game is heavily dependent on how much you have invested into your characters through levering and upgrades.
Progression works in a few key ways. The first form of progression is leveling up characters and adding abilities to them through their skill trees. Like most other games you do this through killing enemies and gaining experience.
Secondly you can use money you collect to by upgrades such as increases in experience gain, increases in money gain, increases in family’s health, movement speed, speed of cool downs, etc.
Lastly, every time you have a dungeon run you find items and power ups that can greatly alter your character’s abilities. These items may affect your character directly like increasing speed or health or they may work in other ways like weapons to aide you in battles.
These abilities fall into several categories, charms, divine graces, divine relics, runes, and obelisks. All of these can enhance your abilities in countless ways such as making your critical hits unleash a special attack, or making your special attack also stun enemies as opposed to just damaging them.
Obelisks give you an all new move all together. There is an obelisks you can throw down that damages all enemies around it with a magical attack, there is one that fires three fireballs at enemies around you like a turret, there is one that greatly enhance all of your stats if you stand within its zone.
There is a huge variety of these upgrades and they are always randomly placed in the dungeons. If you happen upon the right combination you can feel darn near invincible as you destroy everything in your path.
Lucking into the right collection of power uips is one of the more satisfying moments in Children of Morta. I’m really impressed with how much variety can be found and how drastically it can affect your play style.
Why I love Children of Morta
This is a game that took me by surprise. Not typically my genre of game or at style, Children of Morta got its hooks into me early and never let go. I played through the entire campaign in about 10 days, ignoring other games I had already committed time and energy to, the pull of this game was that strong.
The combination of approachable gameplay, light story, fast pace, and massive replayability due to the randomized elements and game progression made this game the perfect combination of quality elements for me.
Much like another Game Pass Spotlight game, Void Bastards, Morta manages to quickly capture a players imagination and offer up a title that is inviting to play and never manages to become overwhelming while still throwing new things at you.
A game like this is a stark contrast to the big budget AAA titles that often require a lengthy tutorial and several minutes or hours of gameplay and story to really get going. This game takes off nearly from the start and you just ride along on the journey all the way through.
Children of Morta was simply a joy to play during every hour I put into the game. I’d still be playing it if there was a New Game Plus or a faster way to max out the levels of all my characters. As it stands I will be coming back to Morta when they add online co-op hopefully later this year.
For those of you like me, who are interested in playing a new game that doesn’t take a whole lot of investment, something to hold you over until later this year when some of the bigger titles you may be interested in are coming out, give Children of Morta some of your time. Like me, it may become one of your early favorite game experiences of 2020.
Are you a fan of Children of Morta or games like it? Have a suggestion for an Xbox Game Pass game others should play? Leave a comment below and let us hear it!
Average Rating