Absolutely everyone who knows me well knows how much I love weird video games. Having played hundreds and hundreds of games throughout my nerdy life, I so often value something unique much more than something polished and without many flaws. Weird games come in all manner of oddly shaped packages too. Sometimes a game has a weird story, sometimes the gameplay is completely baffling, sometimes it’s just top to bottom bizarre. Moroi is a game which has a story you could definitely describe as odd to say the least, but the actual action is beyond by-the-numbers.
In Moroi you play as a little warrior fella, who has found himself trapped in The Cosmic Engine. This world is basically just a horrific nonsense land full of skeletons, mutants and quirky little things like torture racks. There’s a sort of spooky voice in your head who occasionally alerts you with a big jump-scare flash that takes over the screen too, who I guess might be trying to help but mainly just gets in the way. To say I had no idea what the hell was going on for the majority of my time would be a massive understatement though. At one point I think I gave the moon its soul back, but before that I watched a frog give birth to a man who then slugged across the floor. It’s definitely very weird, but never in a cleverly curated way. It’s more like someone took all the most messed up ideas of an edgy teen and mashed them all together.
When you aren’t watching bizarre stuff happen, you’ll be exploring the various dungeons that make up Moroi from an isometric perspective. In almost every section of the game you’ll be trapped in some sort of small area, and will need to use your wits to escape further and unlock the way forward. A lot of the time this just means talking to everyone though, until a character does something wild and crazy that blows up the way forward.
It’s not all just happy nattering that makes up Moroi though, sometimes you’ll have to do a bit of fighting. Melee combat involves rushing in and either unleashing a light or strong attack depending on the situation, and sometimes you’ll also have a ranged weapon like a big gun that you can fire twin stick style. This would all be fine if the combat didn’t feel poor. Your attacks are loose and unwieldy, aiming your gun just feels off, and it’s almost impossible to dodge enemy attacks effectively when they come your way. I never enjoyed the combat when it popped up throughout the game, and there’s enough of it that that’s a big issue.
Sometimes though there will be a break from the action for some more puzzling sections to appear. These are a mixed bag all in all, with some simple and enjoyable enough to be fun while others only serve to frustrate. Following wires to objectives is all well and good, but shifting around corridors without anything to explain what the hell is going on is not so much.
I really wanted to enjoy playing through Moroi, but I simply can’t pretend that I did. For some the world will be appealing enough to help carry the game, and even I must admit some sections of it are seriously intriguing. One early scene puts you in the role of another character who is told by his mother to sacrifice his body parts to trees, and it’s gloriously messed up and unique. More of this sort of thing would definitely have meant I had a better time, and also ensured the experience wasn’t vastly disappointing.
While the grim dark fairytale world of Moroi does have its moments, I just didn’t enjoy playing it enough of the time. The combat is nowhere near tight enough to be fun, puzzles are often more frustrating than brain teasing, and the story seems more like random smashed together narrative than something more intriguing. Hopefully some are able to see the light among the darkness of this game, but it’s a hard one to recommend right now.
