Morbid: The Lords of Ire

Morbid: Lords of Ire brings a couple unique things to the Soulsborne genre, like how to upgrade weapons and a simplified but enjoyable combat experience. While progression on all fronts lacks the polish needed to strengthen its case, Soulsborne fans should give it a try, especially at $30.

61%Game Brain Score

gameplay, graphics

story, stability

72% User Score Based on 148 reviews

Critic Score 69%Based on 3 reviews

Platforms

Buy Nowfrom $12.26

Buy NowGet on Steam$24.99

Buy NowGet on Xbox Games Store

About

"Morbid: The Lords of Ire" is an isometric ARPG with a 3D perspective, continuing the story of "Morbid: The Seven Acolytes". Players will face gruesome enemies in the five lands of Ire, using a variety of weapons and blessings to defeat them. The sanity system from the previous game is expanded, impacting combat and altering the player's perception of the world based on their mental state.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

72%

Audience ScoreBased on 151 reviews

gameplay24 positive mentions

story3 negative mentions

The parry system is rewarding and adds depth to combat, allowing for satisfying counterattacks.
The game features a variety of enemies and interesting boss designs, contributing to an engaging gameplay experience.
The aesthetic and music are well-crafted, creating a unique atmosphere that resonates with players.

The game suffers from technical issues, including frequent crashes and unresponsive controls, which detract from the overall experience.
The weapon upgrade system is convoluted and limits experimentation, making it difficult to fully enjoy different playstyles.
Level design is often linear and can feel repetitive, with some areas lacking creativity and rewarding exploration.

gameplay
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
32%
64%
4%
The gameplay is a mixed bag, featuring solid defense mechanics like perfect blocks and ripostes, but suffers from repetitive combat due to similar movesets across weapon classes and a lack of character progression. While some players appreciate the unique mechanics and satisfying combat feel, others find the overall experience unpolished and lacking depth, with issues such as scarce consumables and a poorly designed tutorial. Overall, the game shows promise but requires significant refinement to enhance the gameplay loop and balance.
- “The gameplay is fun, reactive, and quite satisfying.”
- “A nice take on the souls genre, with great new mechanics, satisfying combat feel, decent level design, and interesting art design.”
- “The devs seem to understand well the core of this genre, level design, and enemy placement to create interesting gameplay encounters and opportunities for skill expression.”
- “The downsides gameplay-wise is while there's a fair few weapons, all weapons of the same class have the exact same moveset.”
- “The game costing $25 would maybe be fine, if you had gear/armor/skills/attributes like you have in Dark Souls or Elden Ring... but without any of those 'features' in the game, it just leaves a very bland and frankly pointless gameplay loop, because the only reason to play the game then is for the story, and the story of the game is hella meh.”
- “Unpolished gameplay, untested areas and balance is non-existent with arbitrary choices made throughout the game.”
graphics
26 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
46%
42%
12%
The graphics of the game, while not on par with AAA titles, are praised for their unique artistry and aesthetic appeal, successfully capturing the essence of the game's world. Players appreciate the beautiful yet budget visuals, which enhance the atmosphere and complement the engaging gameplay mechanics. Overall, the visuals are considered decent, with some standout elements, despite occasional inconsistencies in quality.
- “Pros: stunning visuals”
- “Really fun combat, loved the aesthetic of the world, to see the enemies from the first game remade in 3D beautifully.”
- “The game does have budget visuals but makes up for that with some very interesting mechanics when it comes to increasing your character viability.”
- “This is exacerbated by the models looking pretty decent, which makes the animations not quite fit the visuals of the game.”
- “Yes, the graphics are not from a AAA title, but it's a €25 game from a small studio and the care they put into all the zones is amazing.”
story
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game's story is perceived as lackluster and serves merely as a minimal framework to justify gameplay, which many find bland due to the absence of character progression and gear acquisition. Reviewers express disappointment, noting that the narrative fails to engage or provide a compelling reason to continue playing, especially when compared to more robust stories in similar games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Overall, the story is seen as a weak point that detracts from the overall experience.
- “The 'story' is there just to give you an end goal so it's not just a mindless parry and slash. Sorry, but 'yeah, remember the bad guys from the first game? Yeah, they're back, you gotta kill them again, get to it' isn't much of a story.”
- “The game costs $25, which might be acceptable if you had gear, armor, skills, or attributes like in Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Without any of those features, it leaves a very bland and frankly pointless gameplay loop. The only reason to play the game is for the story, and the story is really lackluster, so why would you play it?”
- “Most people don't play these types of games for the story, though.”
atmosphere
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
40%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its unique artistry, effectively blending beautiful yet imperfect graphics with compelling music and top-notch level design. Players appreciate the creative enemy design that enhances the grim ambiance, making it a strong addition to the souls-like genre despite some minor gameplay shortcomings. Overall, the atmosphere resonates well with players, contributing significantly to their experience.
- “The music and the atmosphere are awesome!”
- “Level design is top notch, enemy design is creative and fits the grim atmosphere, and in general it's a step-up from the demo that was provided.”
- “The atmosphere and monster design hits just right.”
stability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability has received mixed reviews, with some players reporting minimal glitches during their playthroughs, easily resolved by restarting the game. However, others have encountered more significant issues, such as map artifacts leading to softlocks and various visual glitches, indicating that the game can be buggy at times.
- “The game is pretty buggy.”
- “Map artifacts causing softlocks are not uncommon; I had plenty of visual glitches too.”
- “First, it's buggy.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The music in the game is highly praised for its quality and atmospheric contribution, with many noting its similarity to the first game. The original soundtrack, particularly the track "Redemption," is highlighted as a standout feature, enhancing the overall aesthetic experience.
- “The aesthetic and music are quite good and similar to the first game.”
- “The music and the atmosphere are awesome!”
- “The OST is also delicious, and the track 'Redemption' is so good.”
optimization
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, the game is reported to be well optimized, delivering solid performance and good graphics, particularly on higher-end rigs like the 3080 and 7800x3d at 1440p. Users appreciate the unique combat mechanics alongside the game's optimization.
- “They have their own unique spin on the combat and so far the game seems pretty well optimized.”
- “Graphics are good and performance is solid on my rig (3080, 7800x3d, 1440p).”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
The game offers some replayability through its New Game Plus (NG+) feature, appealing primarily to dedicated players; however, many users feel that the majority of players may not engage with this aspect.
- “I suppose it adds replay value for those interested in NG+, but honestly, most people will never see that.”
grinding
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviews indicate that the grinding in this indie soulslike game is excessively tedious and frustrating, seemingly designed to cater to players who enjoy punishing difficulty rather than offering meaningful challenges. This aspect detracts from the overall experience, reinforcing negative stereotypes associated with the genre.
- “It displays the worst 'indie soulslike' tendencies of being frustratingly tedious for the sake of being 'hard' to appeal to the self-flagellants of the cult of souls.”