Morbid: The Lords of Ire

Absolutely incredible game. Sure the shift from the fantastic pixel art of the previous one is a bit jarring at first, but when you see how much better this one plays while retaining all of the essence of the original - it is well worth it.  The atmosphere is still there. The art direction is still incredible.  Level design is excellent with a lot of things to find, shortcuts to unlock and alternative routes to explore. Areas only get better as you progress, both visually and mechanically, each offering different enemies, each more grotesque than the last and with new attack patterns to learn and counter. Enemies are generally very well designed, well placed and some encounters require careful tactics and stealth in order not to get swarmed.  Combat is visceral, responsive and well balanced. The slow motion kill animations are super satisfying especially when you get the hand of the mechanics and manage to execute multiple enemies in a row. Parry windows are fairly generous and the combat could be a little on the easy side for the most hardcore souls like fans, but for the rest of us it's darn near perfect. [h3]Steam Deck[/h3]  The game can be quite heavy to run , especially on maximum settings. But with a bit of dialing it can run serviceable on deck. Some areas are better optimized than others and at certain spots there some power drain spikes, but overall it is playable. 

Bloody good action-Souls-like with fun combos and satisfying parry mechanics.

I give this game a 7/10 overall. I got it for 10 € in a Steamsale. What I liked: + Length of the game: Takes around 10-15 hours to complete. Nice to have a game that does not take too long to complete. (Granted I missed some items in exploration) + Progression: While there are no stats to increase (like strength, dexterity, ...) I was overall satisfied with the runes on weapons, the reforing of runes and the blessings that you can unlock and choose. + The combat itself - espacially group of different minions combined in certain areas. The last two bosses as well. Took me a while to figure them out but it was worth it (as it should be). What I did not like: - 1 of the bosses (acolytes) was in my mind too easy. It was basically killing their minions and dodging hazards which I managed in my 2nd try (it was more difficult to not fall off the map) and the fight was over to quickly that I was honestly not sure if the boss was bugged or something. - Getting stuck in terrain while exploring and loosing progress. Happened to me a couple of times in the last part of the game which heavily discouraged me from exploring and probably missed a few important items. If this did not happen it would probably be a 7.5 or maybe an 8/10 for me - No armor to equip to add more flare to your character. Things I am neutral about: The difficulty: While the minions were overall good I would have prefered more of the areas with different kind of minions combined, instead of the 2-3 of the same enemy type facing you at once. The bosses overall could be more difficult to defeat with more different movesets. The last 2 bosses were good in that category.