Mortisomem Xbox Series X Review 6.5/10 "Bite-Sized Brazilian Folkloric Horror"

A new title on console from solo developer David Pateti, Mortisomem casts the player in the role of protagonist Donald Barnes, a merchant in Brazil during 1917 who walks home from his local one night to discover that the feared Mortisomem is after him. 

Long believed to just be a story designed to scare children into behaving, it becomes clear very quickly that Donald Barnes is up against a supernatural force determined to hunt him down, and this is NOT a harmless kid’s tale.Presented with retro styled visuals reminiscent somewhat of the PS1 era, these crunchy graphics suit the gloomy, moody mood of Mortisomem, as does the minimalist audio. The entire game is comprised of small, scattered buildings and long, foggy paths lit with dim lights and bathed in purple hues. As you make your way across the islands, you’ll randomly be attacked by the Mortisomem, attacks which are signalled by the heavy footsteps of the towering monstrosity. You can choose to either run or try to take it down with your firearms, but ammo and weapons are scattered around and so you’ll have to search to pick them up, as well as bumping into some other inhabitants of the islands who can offer bonus items through short side quests to bolster your chances of survival.

A short game that takes around a couple of hours to complete, the continual sense of foreboding atmosphere, and the meagre, tortured lives of the area’s citizens does serve up a suitably creepy setting, but the moment to moment pacing through the areas can be a bit of a trudge, and the fact that you have to hold down the left thumb stick to run – instead of it just being a single click setup – makes traversal slightly unwieldy, and the handling of inventory items as well as the simple puzzle sections feel poorly ported from mouse and keyboard control over to console, making these moments fiddly and cumbersome.

SUMMARY

A game that may sate your appetite for an evening of spooky horror, Mortisomem gets by more on mood than pure scares, and is all the stronger for it – that said, finicky controls and a slight sense of plodding gameplay does take the edge off this bite-size folkloric horror tale.

6.5/10

Melting💦