Have you ever wanted to sit in a dark room and dive into a top-down story-driven fairytale with a full spectrum of dark humour? With Moroi, it’s sure to tick the boxes of many adventure horror and fairytale fans, bringing gore and enjoyment to the max. Developed by Violet Saint and published by Good Shepherd Entertainment.

Starting the game, you wake up in what seems to be a prison in the sky, but nothing is as it appears, and nothing feels real. After searching around, you talk to some of the messed-up prisoners, including a royal meat grinder who was imprisoned for eating the cook. Each person had a small questline to collect some messed-up materials to either satiate their hunger or to help you escape.

As you progress, you gain a sword to defend yourself, slowly making your way through the barracks, fighting off every guard. Solving puzzles, fighting waves of enemies, not to mention later picking up what seems to be a Gatling gun called Fury, which tears through enemies. Even collecting enough blood to use your finishing move to gain Life Orbs, which heals you, making progress a lot easier, with three difficulty levels from Easy to Medium to Hard. As you progress, you travel to different locations, some of which seem unreal.

As you travel further down the rabbit hole, you fight new bosses, from killer security robots to evil mages. I noticed some bosses were super tough, and trial and error was my forte in learning strategies to avoid damage. Also, never thought I’d say that wearing a man’s head to shoot lasers or shooting cannonballs from your arm would be so fun. With many puzzles and brain teasers, it felt like the game was getting more messed up as I continued playing. While playing, I noticed many bugs that forced me to restart at the checkpoint or even just visual anomalies; otherwise, Moroi played and looked great.

Moroi is fully compatible with a mouse, keyboard, and controller. Mouse and keyboard controls are simple: the classic WASD for movement, the left mouse button for primary attacks, and the right mouse button for secondary attacks. Also, Space for rolling, E for interacting, and J for your journal, with 1 to 4 going to weapons or equipment. Controller bindings are also very simple, using all the main buttons for movement, etc.

One thing that caught my eye was the amount of detail put into the environment. With extremely crisp block texture and shading, even the weather style and visual effects worked so well and looked amazing.

Even the fight scenes, cutting up enemies with blood flying everywhere and heads rolling on the floor, were amazing. With unique boss fights with amazing attack moves, including chase scenes pushing visuals to the limits, it is a grand time to behold.

The sound—don’t even get me started. Listening to the ambience and rain sounding so real, I felt like I was standing outside in the rain. Flashes of lightning and thunder soon followed, making everything so surreal, which adds so much to the game itself. Even fight scenes with the Gatling gun firing off, tearing enemies apart, or lasers, or blowing up enemies, make it very satisfying.

Moroi has shown that anything is possible with such a messed-up story that drags you into the depths of hell. It was such a blast making my way through this game; even with its bugs giving me the shits, it played and looked well, noting that the game does receive frequent updates, with a great story that pulled you in, while also making you question why you’re still playing. Moroi will be a blast for anyone who isn’t afraid of a bit of gore and a crazy story.

Written by: TypicalCambieAU