CODEX MORTIS – Review
At a certain point, we’ll have to face the music: AI is here to stay. AI has been incorporated into so many parts of our daily lives, but, of course, we perceive different versions of AI as worse than others. That said, we’ll leave that debate for another time. Today’s review will revolve around a game that’s fully made by AI, and we previewed it a while ago. Our first impression back then was that it was rather enjoyable, but clearly still unfinished. Today we’ll be taking a closer look at the finished product and see if a game that was fully developed by AI would manage to win us over.
Story
While there isn’t that much story in CODEX MORTIS, what’s present is actually quite good. You’ll be playing as a necromancer collecting the scattered pages of the titular CODEX MORTIS, while getting closer and closer to the god who oversees this world. The premise is quite simple, but the story progresses at a steady pace with short but interesting cutscenes. We quite enjoyed that there was a story in the first place.
Graphics
Graphically, CODEX MORTIS isn’t a bad-looking game. The game utilizes pixelated sprites and backdrops, much like many other titles in the genre. In this case, however, as we’ll repeat many more times in this review, everything is AI-generated. Even so, everything blends well together, and we were never under the impression that random assets were thrown into the mix. Everything is presented in a dark and broody style, fitting for the narrative and theme. You’ll see many different enemy models, and we were even quite ‘impressed’ by the number of boss creatures appearing in the different levels. Things can get really hectic on screen, and the UI also takes up some space. Nonetheless, performance was still quite good during these segments. Only on harder levels, when the screen was getting flooded by many monsters, we did notice some frame drops.
Sound
Even though the soundtrack is also fully AI-generated, we were really captivated by the music. The soundtrack, which is comprised of heavy rock and metal tracks, reminded us a lot of a DOOM-like experience. Given the setting of the game, this was a great choice. The music truly got the adrenaline flowing, which motivated us to press onwards. The supporting sound effects are decent, albeit somewhat generic for the most part. When things got a bit too hectic, we did turn down the SFX volume. There’s also some AI-generated voice acting for the story segments, which did add to the overall atmosphere of the game.
Gameplay
CODEX MORTIS is pretty much another survivors-like that doesn’t hold too many surprises when it comes to the basic gameplay loop. In levels, you walk around, you auto-attack enemies, and you just try to either survive until the clock runs out or until you complete fixed objectives. These objectives often consist of collecting items or defeating boss-like entities. When defeating minions, you’ll gain experience and level up, which then allows you to choose passive or active upgrades for the stage you’re currently in. Pick a new stage or meet your untimely demise, and you’ll start from level one again. It’s a tried-and-true formula that works well within the genre.
As stated above, you’ll get a somewhat run-of-the-mill experience while in-game. Luckily, CODEX MORTIS does bring some interesting twists to the table. For example, when playing solo, you can ‘equip’ different characters, who will aid you in combat. Just like your own character, these additional characters can equip items to make them stronger. On top of that, you have skills you can equip, which have certain synergies. Think of a great build with a character with a specific affinity, and you might see yourself making better progress compared to just equipping skills you think look cool. It’s a fun system to mess around with, and it’s a lot more complex than other titles in the survivors-like genre.
The gameplay loop of CODEX MORTIS is certainly entertaining, but it’s not perfect yet. Some of the effects or names of creatures sadly show a line of code instead of what they actually do, and we weren’t a huge fan of how slow the ‘late game’ content was. At a certain point, when you have done your base unlocks, you’ll need to start saving up for additional stat upgrades. While the latter is a fun incentive to keep going, the amount of souls you need to keep upgrading your stats feels like a bit too much, even when playing the endless mode on higher difficulties. While we understand the game not wanting you to grow too powerful too quickly, we eventually stopped enjoying ourselves as we didn’t notice that much progress anymore. Games like Nordic Ashes have found a much better balance when it comes to this.
Conclusion
Even though many people will comment on the fact that the game has been fully developed by AI, we still feel that the developer had some nice ideas to bring this project to life. The game plays like a proper survivors-like, the story is interesting, and the visuals and music tied everything together nicely. While there are still some flaws, and we can’t underestimate the work of developers who pour their sweat and tears into their project, we quite enjoyed CODEX MORTIS as a whole and see ourselves playing it from time to time in the future. We loved being able to play the game with our buddies, which a lot of titles in the genre still lack. If you’re looking for a decent survivors-like, then be sure to check this one out.
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