It’s a difficult task to make turn-based tactics games fast-paced, let alone easy to learn. However, the original Mortal Glory, a small indie rogue-lite about fantastical gladiators battling in arenas, did just that.
Mortal Glory 2 takes what the original did and ups the ante, adding a plethora of quality-of-life changes and polishing the overall experience a great deal. This has resulted in a game that is in all ways an improvement on its predecessor but does little to innovate on its own ideas.
Gameplay
Mortal Glory 2, like its predecessor, is ridiculously easy to learn. The game may be turn-based, but players move each individual character around like they would in a traditional rogue-lite. This results in gameplay that’s fast-paced and tactile, making moving units around the map both intuitive and satisfying.
With its low barrier to entry, Mortal Glory 2 is a great gateway into rogue-lites and turn-based tactics games alike. The game follows a structure similar to Slay The Spire, with a branching map that allows players to choose their own path through the level. However, it must be said that Mortal Glory 2’s map offers little variety and is packed with so many nodes that it’s hard to discern which path is the optimal one. Furthermore, the map is rather zoomed-in, and with no way to zoom out, it becomes even harder to plot a path through the stage, with the only option being to repeatedly scroll up and down.
However, players will spend most of their time in Mortal Glory 2 in combat, which is where the game shines. This combat is heavily revolved around tactical positioning, line of sight, and the careful use (and management) of active abilities and mana. Furthermore, environmental hazards, such as explosive barrels, death pits, and even cages full of neutral monsters (that last one is a personal favorite) help inject some variety into these battles.
Every battle rewards the player with a variety of items and gold, which can be anything from a boring old “+2 Protection” armour piece to a special relic that grants a powerful passive or ability. Unfortunately, Mortal Glory 2 is packed with the former, and players will often find themselves inundated with familiar stat-boosting items. However, the variety of powerful relics does present opportunities for synergy and strategic builds.
Characters also level up over the course of each run, allowing players to increase their stats and even, eventually, learn new skills. These combat skills, and how players combine them (they can also be learnt through skill-books, another reward for winning battles), is core to the strategy of Mortal Glory 2. Combining skills and creating powerful builds for your roster of fantastical gladiators is not only what makes this game fun, but is also key to success.
However, Mortal Glory 2 has its downsides. For starters, it’s not uncommon for characters to be one-shot within a few turns of combat, which can be more than a little frustrating. Furthermore, the “rooted” status effect slows down the game dramatically, preventing characters from moving. My issue with this status is that it forces you to pass that character’s turn, especially if they’re a melee character that got caught out in the open. There’s no counter to this, as, unfortunately, “rooted” blocks all movement rather than allowing you to brute-force through it by spending action points. It’s a small gripe, but this status effect is not uncommon and can often feel unfair.
Mortal Glory 2’s variety of charge abilities also feels like untapped potential. Some abilities allow the player to charge in specific directions, but in my time with the game, they have all required targets. This means that players can’t use a charge ability to cover the distance if there’s no target in line of sight, which seems like wasted potential. This can be especially frustrating on characters with low Agility, as the lack of action points means they often arrive at the battle too late to make a difference, and giving them a charge ability doesn’t help if they’re too far away from potential targets.
Combat in Mortal Glory 2 begins nuanced, with many decisions the player can make. However, many battles often devolve into simple slug-fests once everyone’s abilities have been cast. Very rarely did any of my battles last long enough for abilities to come off cooldown. This is likely due to the fact that a lot of damage instances in the game seem to be somewhere between inconsequential and absolutely devastating, making the game’s combat quite swingy.
My last gripe with Mortal Glory 2 is its repetitive nature. Now, while this also works in its favour (as mentioned, the game is ridiculously easy to learn, and it’s also perfect for small, bite-sized play sessions), it does ultimately result in a game that I don’t think I’ll ever sit down and play for hours over a weekend. However, the game acts as a great, satisfying palette cleanser with a few unlocks and a good variety of builds.
This makes Mortal Glory 2 feel almost like a snack and less like an experience to sink hundreds of hours into, which isn’t a bad thing. Mortal Glory 2 may not consume entire afternoons, but if you’ve got a lunch break to spare, it’ll certainly give you a few kicks.
Visuals
Unfortunately, Mortal Glory 2 seems to reuse many of the original game’s assets, and does very little to improve the game’s visuals. However, there has clearly been an effort to make the game’s user-interface cleaner and easier to read.
Mortal Glory 2’s various events are depicted with public domain artwork, which at first glance looks almost like AI artworks thanks to the filter that’s been applied to them. While this certainly does the job, it looks relatively out of place with the rest of the game’s aesthetic.
In fact, that’s my main issue with Mortal Glory 2’s visuals; individually, everything is serviceable, but there’s no sense of coherency. This isn’t the biggest deal, considering the main draw of Mortal Glory 2 is its satisfying combat, but it would have been nice to have visuals that were more consistent.
Performance & Settings
Mortal Glory 2 runs extremely well, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given its simplistic visuals, but there are plenty of settings to tweak for those attempting to run the game on a weaker machine.
More importantly, Mortal Glory 2 features accessibility and quality-of-life settings. Most notably, players can toggle an outline on the active unit, enable team colours, and even change the time it takes for a tooltip to display. Mortal Glory 2 also allows players to change their key binds, which is a welcome feature despite the game’s simple controls.
Sound & Music
Mortal Glory 2 features competent, well-balanced sound design that does its job well. There aren’t many sounds in the game, but truthfully, there doesn’t need to be. Thankfully, Mortal Glory 2’s soundscape isn’t full of ear-piercing screams and high-pitched metal rings.
The music of Mortal Glory 2 is fairly generic, with no real stand-out moments. However, every track fits relatively well, and the combat tracks, in particular, help set the tone and pace.
Conclusion
Overall, Mortal Glory 2 is a polished and tactile experience that’s great for fans of turn-based tactics games and newcomers to the genre alike. Its simple and easy-to-learn gameplay loop makes Mortal Glory 2 one of the most accessible tactics games on Steam, but this comes at the expense of strategic depth and replay value.
This makes Mortal Glory 2 easy to recommend to those looking to get into the turn-based tactics genre, but those looking for something more involved may find themselves disappointed. Despite this, Mortal Glory 2 remains a great palette cleanser that’s perfect for short play sessions.
