Morbid Metal Early Access Impressions: Ghostrunner meets Infinity Blade in fun, flashy action

Do we need any more roguelikes, roguelites, and everything in between? I ask myself the question almost every year, and then one, two, or a few games will step out and prove that we might not need them, but these games still provide plenty of enjoyment. Mewgenics and Slay the Spire II have already made 2026 a great year for roguelikes, but if we look away from the more mainstream entries in the genre, we still find plenty of gems, like Morbid Metal.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first jumped into Screen Juice and Ubisoft's futuristic, fast-paced hack-and-slash roguelite. You start with a simple, five-minute tutorial that gives you the basics, but by the end of your first or second run you'll quickly realise that you've only been taught the most simple skills you'll need. To reach the ceiling of this game will require hours of trial and error as you hone characters, combos, and create the synergy Morbid Metal requires to flow at its best. That said, the early stages are still incredibly fun, and I quickly found myself thoroughly engaged in the combat systems.

Morbid Metal has currently just entered its Early Access release, so there's still a lot of work to be done on a few elements. One thing that instantly stands out as incredibly polished, though, is that combat system I mentioned before. It's fast, fluid, and incredibly flashy. It allows you to create your own rhythm, with special abilities and super smooth character swapping. These things take a minute to get used to, and are a bit tricky if you choose to play solely on keyboard and mouse, but are incredibly rewarding once you've got the gist of it. Quickly jumping between foes as Flux, launching an annoying backline enemy into the air as Vekta, then getting to slam down with powerful attacks as Ekko is a monstrously satisfying experience. The three playable characters are distinct enough that you'll certainly have a favourite, but you'll soon learn to make the most of them all if you want to play to the best of your ability. The overall loop and formula of Morbid Metal might feel a bit repetitive, but as soon as you reach the next combat room and enemies spawn in, it's easy to lose yourself in the flow of a good fight.

In the short time I've had with Morbid Metal, I've not had too much experience with the bosses. Or, more accurately, I've not had any luck beating them in the few hours I spent on the game prior to the Early Access release. They're certainly strong, menacing, and push you far harder than regular enemies do. There's a good amount of variety in the robots you'll face in each run in Morbid Metal. Robots with shields, flyers that can be irritating if you don't take them out early, pesky, smaller foes that'll stab you in the back if you forget about them. They're enough to keep you on your toes, and stop the pre-boss fights from just being one big boring button mash experience.

Morbid Metal, as you may have gathered thus far, has a lot of potential. The setting and story in the background are not quite as intriguing as the combat is engaging, but they're certainly worth thinking about as you strive to free your playable AI character from the endless combat simulations. The narrative is what you'd expect from a roguelike, really. Something to keep you playing, but not the central core of the overall experience. If it's story, setting, combat, and mechanics are all super tight, then, what's the issue? Well, I think that Morbid Metal has the most improvement to do in its roguelike elements, actually.

When you drop into a run, or an iteration as Morbid Metal calls it, you'll immediately know what to do if you've played a roguelike before. Run from room to room, fight a few basic enemies and grab upgrades as you go. With Morbid Metal, this loop doesn't quite feel as compelling as it does in the genre's best. The upgrades seem a little too underwhelming, with a lot of them offering percentage-based increases on attacks, rather than interesting abilities that really change the way you play. With such strong combat mechanics, it's understandable not to want to change that, but at the same time then I'm left wondering if this would have been better as just a regular hack-and-slash experience. The exploration is quite fun, but taking a fall can be incredibly punishing, so at times you're not even sure if you want to strike off from the main path, knowing the upgrade you're likely to get is probably not going to be noticeable. We're still very much in the early stages of Early Access with Morbid Metal, so hopefully this issue can be fixed, alongside other elements that need attention ahead of the full launch. It's worth mentioning the dodge mechanic can also be a bit hit or miss at times.

Morbid Metal is in its current state a blazingly fast, impressive hack-and-slash game, and while its roguelike mechanics do feel like they need polishing to add some worthwhile upgrades for your character, the action is so good that you'll gladly go for one more run after your last defeat, just to sharpen up your combos and test out new ways of chaining them. Morbid Metal is a pleasant surprise in many ways, but it's nice to see that if all goes well with it, we won't just be discussing Slay the Spire II and Mewgenics as the great roguelikes of the year.