Mortal Sin short review

The art direction is what you might call budget indie horror, but its surreal, graphic-novel style works well enough. For a game two years in the making by a supposed solo developer, it has a good helping of content. There are four large, procedurally generated maps that feel quite distinctive, plus two arena maps. You can unlock over 15 classes, and most come with different weapons that have their own designs and genuine combat differences, like unique attack animations and swing speeds. You’ve got range, magic, and melee, though the game puts a heavier emphasis on melee because it’s more skilful and satisfying. That’s not to say shooting enemies with a giant cannon isn’t gratifying. You can even get an anime-style ultra greatsword here, or just dual-wield them if you prefer. Each class has its own skills and quirks; some are a bit generic if you've played other roguelikes, but most are different enough to give each run a unique flavour.

https://i.postimg.cc/sgGxnPZh/20250711110740-1.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/BbvQ220t/20250704160001-1.jpg

Now for the main focus of the game: the first-person combat. It’s very much in the style like a 'tide' game and Dark Messiah influence (including a kick!), where you have specific swing animations with their own range, and charged attacks that alter your move, like an overhead smash for a single target or a spin for crowd control. Blocking and parrying are here too, of course. The developer also added a combo system with a kick for pushing enemies and a bash that works as a gap closer. It all flows together pretty well, but I mostly just used the auto-combo option. This is a fantastic quality-of-life feature because when the game gets really hectic in the later stages, trying to follow specific combo patterns is the last thing you want to do. You still have to be mindful of what you're attacking, but it makes the combat feel much smoother.

This leads to the limb damage system. The game actively encourages you to dismember and decapitate enemies as the most effective way to kill them, and this has both visual and functional effects. If you decapitate an enemy, they run around like a headless chicken, attacking everything in sight (all enemies can damage each other). If you cut off a weapon arm, your foe will try to punch or kick you instead. Taking out their legs means they’ll drag themselves across the floor to headbutt or bite you. It’s gory and deeply satisfying.

The enemy variety is also fair, from big walking sharks that try to tail-slap you, to shady mages shooting fireballs, and pirate skeletons akimbo-styling on you with dual pistols. The maps often have traps that integrate well with the combat. You can use them to your benefit, but they might just be the reason you die in a chaotic fight. It adds a deliberate urgency to the gameplay, similar to those area-of-effect "jumpscares" that spawn under you.

The roguelike aspects are handled decently and fit the game they’re building. It’s nothing new, but the options are plentiful and work within the system. I really enjoy how skills are linked directly to your equipment, using mana (which is basically durability) as a resource. I didn’t like it at first, but it’s a great way to balance the game and create urgency. For example, some powerful skills might require you to have a helmet equipped, but they’ll drain its durability quickly. If you stack a bunch of them, your helmet could break after just a few uses, making all related skills useless mid-combat. It's a clever bit of balancing that gives the player interesting choices.

My favourite build is the Alchemist

https://i.postimg.cc/N0hMZy1P/20250711105721-1.jpg

with the Siphon skill for massive resource generation. In a room with waves of enemies, I can constantly chug potions for invulnerability, then chug mana potions to recover my gear’s durability, and just rinse and repeat as I watches the room explodes into blood and gores. It’s silly but very fun.

https://i.postimg.cc/MTqGKh37/20250708212733-1.jpg

Another great skill is Shared Misery, which at higher levels can give you an 80%+ chance that dismembering one enemy will also dismember several others nearby.

This design philosophy of player choice runs through the whole game. There are two modes, basically normal and hard, but the game rarely forces you to make things harder just for the sake of it. You usually get to choose. You can find curses that change the gameplay, like giving elite enemies new passive abilities, but they always come with a helpful boost for you. You can take it or leave it, you can even find and pay to remove the negative part of the curse. A recent update also added options in the hub that switch up how each run is played. Again, these aren't there to punish you. You could change the block into a tighter dodge that rewards a better parry, or make the main maps shorter but more like arenas packed with elites. The options in the game are never anti-player; they are there to give you choices with accompanying positives.