Morbid Metal

Set in a distant, dystopian future, Morbid Metal sees machines dominating the Earth and humanity almost completely wiped out. The story takes place within a simulation that was originally created by humans to escape climate collapse on the real Earth. Players control the latest iteration of an AI created by a mysterious Operator and are tasked with reaching the next stage of human evolution. In order to accomplish this, the AI must battle through hordes of other AIs and deadly machines to prove its strength and superiority. In doing so, players explore a world where nature and cybernetics merge. This single-player-only game also employs the roguelite principle narratively: as players battle through procedurally generated biomes, they gradually uncover the secrets of this 'forgotten place' and the origin of this world.

There's plenty of fighting in this hack-and-slash action game, and it's been done really well. The highlight of Morbid Metal's combat system is the ability to switch between characters during combat (shapeshifting). This replaces the style or weapon changes seen in Devil May Cry. Seamlessly swapping characters enables players to chain abilities, extend combos and perform stylish moves. At the Early Access launch, players can choose from three characters: Ekku, Flux and Vekta, each with a different playstyle. Flux focuses on high-damage single-target combat. Ekku is a brawler designed for heavy area devastation. Vekta fights from a distance, using precise attacks to control the battlefield.

Players can adapt to specific opponents by switching quickly. For example, players can start a combo with a fast character (like Flux) and then switch mid-movement to a heavy damage dealer (like Ekku) to finish the attack. Overall, the fights are fluid, fast-paced, satisfying and impactful, especially since the fighting styles are clearly distinct. Hits are emphasised through screen shake and visual effects, giving combat a high level of 'impact'. In this regard, the game certainly doesn't need to hide behind other big names, such as NieR: Automata and Devil May Cry.

Moreover, players are highly mobile and fast, with double jumps, dashes (even in the air) and grappling hooks (anchors). While not quite as fast as the traversal in Warframe, the movement is comparable. There's also a Perfect Dodge system. Dodging at the right moment triggers a counterattack and briefly slows down the action. On top of that, combos can be chained up to SSS with the Style Rank system.

Morbid Metal’s gameplay follows the classic structure of a roguelite, albeit with major customisation through the character-based shapeshifting system. The game features semi-procedurally generated levels and permanent upgrades between runs. A single run consists of a series of battles in various biomes, which are connected by portals or passages. Players often fight waves of machine enemies in these areas and can then choose from random rewards, such as Routines (mid-run upgrades), Devil's Bargains (high-risk temporary modifiers), Eden's Blessings (mid-run upgrades) or healing. However, the environment can be explored to find optional rooms containing repositories (treasures), and resources can be spent at the merchant for bonus health and upgrades. Each section culminates in a boss fight to unlock the next biome.

The battles are challenging at the start because the player character is quite weak. As is typical of roguelites, death means the end of the current run, but not the loss of all progress. With each run, players unlock new permanent upgrades that increase their power and the strategic depth of character builds. These include numerous Corpora, which unlock or upgrade specific effects and enable synergies across the loadout. Unlocked Corpora can appear during runs and be swapped, while Corpora slots can be unlocked through the Void Nexus. The Void Nexus is a skill tree system with incremental upgrades shared across all characters. Then there are multiple Protocols, which are character-specific. These unlock new attacks or enhance existing ones, altering combat flow and refining the playstyle. Protocols can appear as rewards after clearing arenas during runs.

"Besides the character switching mid-combo that gives the hack-and-slash genre a unique twist, Morbid Metal has, compared to some other titles in the genre, a relatively low entry barrier. You just jump in and start slashing. Sure, they might not get to the end of the game with that immediately, but players can explore the combat system in our run-based game structure. It allows them to get comfortable with the combat system bit by bit, while experiencing new twists and turns of the combat every time." - Felix Schade, Founder, CEO & Game Director of Screen Juice Interactive

Felix Schade has been working on Morbid Metal, the prototype of this fast-paced action game, since 2017. Initially a solo project, it was inspired by DotA 2 and Darksiders. His goal was to create a game that he himself would want to play and could really identify with. "Over the years it has evolved and changed a lot, influenced by great games I played along the way. Especially Devil May Cry, Metal Rising: Revengeance and Nier: Automata had a big influence on how Morbid Metal became more visceral, fast paced and stylish over the years," he says. Throughout the development process, he sought feedback on the game online, which was very well received. "While still being early in development, people seemed to see some real potential in Morbid Metal. Especially one Reddit Post that garnered a lot of attention was overwhelming me with positive reinforcement that I am going into the right direction with Morbid Metal," Schade explains. It was this positive feedback that encouraged him to continue developing the project.

Thanks to his frequent Twitter/X posts of clips of the game's combat and visuals, the game caught the attention of publisher Ubisoft, who got in touch and signed the title. The collaboration was announced at the Triple-I Showcase in April 2025. "Felix's unique vision and collaboration with the community drew us in right away," said Anne Blondel Jouin, VP of the Open Innovation Accelerator at Ubisoft. Schade emphasised the importance of working with Ubisoft, given that his team is relatively new and inexperienced. "Ubisoft has been a great partner in funding the project, as well as supporting us in many different areas around publishing. While we are a very young team with most of us working on our first real game, working together with the veterans at Ubisoft also helps us see things from different perspectives when it comes to development and production."

As collaboration with the community was crucial for developing and shaping the game, the original plan to launch it via Early Access was maintained, even though the release date was postponed several times."We are convinced Morbid Metal is fun, but that is only us in our own bubble - we want the community's feedback. The community is the reason why I continued development of this game, so we want to make sure we're moving forward with them together," says Schade. As Morbid Metal evolved, it became clear that the project would develop into a full-fledged game. In 2022, Schade founded Screen Juice in Cologne, with the intention of growing the team slowly while maintaining their ambitions. Over the past two and a half years, the studio has grown slowly but surely to a team of around ten people.

Morbid Metal will be released on 8 April 2026 on PC in Early Access. At launch, the game will feature three characters (Flux, Ekku and Vekta), the tutorial and the Void Hub, as well as two semi-procedurally generated biomes containing a total of ten enemies and two bosses. There will also be a range of progression systems within a single run and for meta-progression. The main path is estimated to take approximately 10 hours to complete, and the game will have the inherent replayability of a roguelite with semi-procedurally generated biomes. The game is expected to remain in Early Access for around a year, although this will depend on community feedback. The developers intend to refine existing features, adjust the balance and progression systems, and add new content to the game, including a new playable character, additional environments, and bosses.

Conclusion

Even in Early Access, Morbid Metal's outstanding hack-and-slash action puts it on a par with other big names in the genre.

Features

• Top-notch, fast-paced, and intense combat system
• Excellent game feel
• Ongoing roguelite progression with numerous upgrades and synergy effects