One of the best roguelikes in early access has a beefy update that turns it into "what Dark Souls would be like with hordes of enemies"

Screenshot of ghouls standing underneath a giant skull that's hovering in the sky in a screenshot from Mortal Sin.
(Image credit: Nikola Todorovic)

Mortal Sin is one of the best roguelikes around on any platform, but it's still not done reinforcing its already solid bones in early access as a new update basically turns it into Dark Souls "with hordes of enemies."

In case Mortal Sin hasn't been on your radar over the last year or so, it's a first-person, dark fantasy roguelike where you descend into gorgeous procgen crypts to deliver brutally fast melee combos to the ghoulish, sometimes horrifying enemies below. An oppressive tone, 15 unique classes, and some boisterously fun combat is what made me sink into Mortal Sin last year, and it's still getting better.

"After over three months of hard work and long hours, I'm happy to present to you an entire overhaul of the enemies and their AI," lone developer Nikola Todorovic wrote in a recent blog post. "This was the last major system that was left over from the game's original conception, and it felt like I had hit a wall in terms of making the game the way I wanted it to be. So I had to roll up my sleeves and redo years of code bloat to make this happen. The effects of these changes are huge and impact nearly every system in the game."

As part of the huge overhaul, more than 90% of enemy animations have been replaced with new ones that are mostly a "bit slower and easier to read" now. The uglies have bigger brains than before, too, and can "move while attacking, strafe around you, back pedal or run away when they are weakened," while all the hit detection systems have also been reworked completely. There's a ton of other substantial changes outlined elsewhere in the blog post as well, like balance tweaks, new enemy attacks, and the fact that headless foes will now charge around erratically as if, well, they've lost their heads. 

Over on Twitter, Todorovic said the update turns Mortal Sin into a "leaner, meaner, and more exciting" game than ever before. "If you wondered what Dark Souls would be like with hordes of enemies, this one is for you." He also shouts out the nice 33% discount on Steam that's running until November 10.

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Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.