Now that Steam Next Fest is out of the way, I’m going to start going back through my list of missed opportunities. Right at the top of this list, perched next to an impending review of Path of Achra, is one of the most enjoyable roguelikes you’ll play this year: Mortal Glory 2.
Gladiators… are you ready?
Developed by Redbeak Games, Mortal Glory 2 is an arena-based roguelike that puts you in charge of a team of fantasy gladiators, and then has you engage in battles with other teams of similarly matched monsters.
I say monsters, because a bunch of the characters that you can recruit would be considered as such by most people. But I’m not monsterist, so I have no problem recruiting minotaurs, hulking trolls, or even Cthulhu-inspired walking squid-men. Some of my best friends are Cthulhu-inspired walking squid-men, as a matter of fact.
At the start you can pick a character of your choice. Each character type brings certain race-based traits to the party, but you can also keep re-rolling them to get a blend of stats to suit your style, and then you also get a bit of random loot to equip them with something at the start of each run.
After that, it’s a case of taking your little friend into the arena. Here you will be engaging in combat, winning battles, earning money, and then spending your hard earned cash on recruiting new party members and equipping everyone with new gear and skills. It’s not complicated stuff, and you’ll quickly develop the basic understanding needed to enjoy the first few hours of the game.
You only live twice
Each new battle in the arena has you facing off against another team of gladiators. Just like your cadre of creatures, the opposing team will be made up of distinctive opponents, each with their own abilities. To survive you’ll need to use the environment to your advantage and keep your units as safe as possible. As you get into position, the first few moves can be a bit loose, but once combat is initiated I think it’s fair to say that every single move counts.
If you make a mistake or two, your gladiators are going to come unstuck. If you run out of health your units will disappear from the arena; not dead but certainly KO’d. You can have a whole team wipe, but only the one, and a second will mean a Game Over. Losing is bad, naturally.
Staying alive is fairly straightforward in the first couple of encounters, but before too long you’ll need to start looking for marginal gains in order to progress further into the game. These improvements are found by upgrading your equipment and learning new skills, which can be found in non combat encounters (more on that shortly) or, more often than not, in the shop.
Combining new skills and spells with pre-existing traits is how you turn a team of flailing fighters into a gang of glorious gladiators that can dominate the battlefield. Learning a powerful new ranged attack is as simple as dragging the icon from your shared inventory onto one of your characters’ portraits. On top of that, everyone has four slots to fill – one for your weapon, another for armour, and then two for other items – and by filling each slot (oh, behave!) your selected character becomes much more dangerous.
Gaping chasms and hidden depths
Being able to knock an enemy back a step or two can be an extremely useful skill. With a weapon that supports the knockback ability, you bash enemies into walls or, even better, send them tumbling down a giant hole in the middle of the arena. Alternatively, you might want to use one of the explosive barrels dotted about the level, or even play it safe and push said barrel into one of the pits so it can’t be used against you, as the AI seems quite fond of triggering their explosions.
If you make it past a team, your gladiators recharge their health and you’re taken to a map filled with interlocking destinations. This part of the game could have been a bit more dynamic; you know the drill by now, it’s simply a case of picking your next encounter from the one or two on offer. That might be another arena battle or even a story scene that is shared in the pages of a book. In the latter, you are usually able to give one of your characters a cool new ability or grab an item.
After a few hours with the game, I really got into the character development side of things. There are so many weapons and skills to unlock and equip, and I’m enjoying the process of learning Mortal Glory 2’s nuances. Each new attempt feels like a chance to take past learnings and implement them in fresh ways, and I’ve still yet to properly experiment with all of the different classes. This isn’t a huge game, but there’s tons of depth in all the right places.
If you took the above as a recommendation, then I’ve managed to get my point across. Mortal Glory 2 is an exciting roguelike that delivers much more than first meets the eye. I love a game that throws you a constant stream of interesting decisions, and the hidden depths and nuances in this one make it one of the more memorable and engaging turn-based games of the year.
Mortal Glory 2 is currently out now on PC Steam. There’s an expansion on the way called Reign of Tyrants, and I interviewed AuroDev about the upcoming DLC. I played the game via code provided by the developer – thank you for that!
