Mortal Sin is a recently early access first-person roguelike that blends a boomer shooter’s ferocious speed with an oppressive dark fantasy world. It’s bleeding with style, but it starts off quite simply: a black screen and text that reads “You have retained your sense of self. And that is my gift to you. But who are you really? If not a part of me.” That question echoed in my mind from then on.
Mortal SinPublisher: Nikola TodorovicDeveloper: Nikola TodorovicPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: Out now on PC in Early Access
A similarly cryptic, almost threatening message greets you at the start of every new run, which is appropriate, considering how unpredictably bloodthirsty this world’s cave, dungeon, and forest levels are. In underground passageways, looking up will reveal an unnatural starry skyline. In the silence, you’ll hear far-off whispers. Walking a little closer will reveal that a mountain of flesh was the source of those hushed noises, flailing out of the wall with an outstretched hand. Huge, vacant eyeballs similarly bulge out of the walls, rivaling Junji Ito’s impressive collection of dilated pupils.
Every static-dotted sight is obviously beautiful, but also haunting. Every sign of life is skewered and distorted. Those eyes I mentioned a moment ago, for instance, look tangentially human. Step closer though, real close, and their pupils will reveal an empty cosmic blackness. Corpses are also sewn into the walls, overlapping like a Satanic recreation of Michelangelo’s Catholic paintings.
Your first adventure – if you can call it that – through this grainy world is tough, proving those ominous fighting words true. Running through the first levels, with your initial sword-wielding class, reveals spikey traps hidden in every corner, screaming phantoms waiting to jumpscare you, and a room full of eldritch baddies looking to fight, and kill. On my first run, even after whacking and sometimes dismembering these humanoid horrors, they persisted. They crawled toward me with no legs, they ran around without heads, kicking the air – I once spotted a static torso, still alive, seemingly waiting for a final blow.
After a single death, the ominous text returned: “You reach beyond the veil. Poking and prodding for something greater. Some sense of purpose. What is it you hope to find?” I found myself thinking the same thing about Mortal Sin after that short-lived, horror-filled first try. It didn’t take long to answer my question.