TL;DR - This has got to be one of the least fun game modes of all the Tide games. The only even remotely redeeming quality is you can farm barrel kills for the penance lol. And have infinite ammo on a flamer and burn everything.
I know FS said it wasn’t going to be a copy of Chaos Wastes (I am not a fan of reused assets/ideas but I would have loved that), but I think myself and many others were still expecting something similar.
List of Issues:
Difficulty is low. I’ve done 17/50 for the penance and only 1 time failed or even came close to failing, and that was because a silly heretic pushed a poxburster into the team and sent us to space.
There are two static maps you play on. We thought normal map selection was lacking…
The objectives/enemies rarely change, mainly because there are only like 2 different objectives. You get a DH, a Captain or the Twins. The only real variety is which waves of specials and elites spawn that game.
The perks are extremely stale and boring.
Player agency is almost entirely removed relative to Chaos Wastes. There you voted on which path to take to avoid or get certain modifiers and buffs. This lead to a lot more variety and choice in a playthrough. In Mortis Trials, you pick 1 of 6 initial buff types and a few minor ones as you progress. The rest are just given to you. ZZZ…
True to form for Darktide, the cosmetic rewards suck lol.
Like I mentioned before, I am not a fan of reusing old content from previous games/events/ideas etc. However, the saying “don’t fix what isn’t broken” comes to mind. Chaos Wastes was a perfect framework to build off, instead it was gutted and stripped down to a sorry excuse of a poor replacement. Even calling it a roguelike game mode does a disservice to the entire concept of the genre.
My two friends think the exact opposite. They think the small arena, different upgrades, and round system was very fun. They think its the best mode.
Look I am 100% with you on your critique. I think this game mode can be improved, but! I think for a casual experience it is fun.
This mode reminds us of CoD Zombies. FS failed to capture the essence of that mode. They have had flashes showing they are trying to figure it out, such as barracading walls from V2.
I think this game mode has the bones to survive. FS just needs to pour more dev time into it. They indroduced the mode with noting to grind, nothing to gain. It was Free btw… which was a decision. This means they should be able to grow the mode into something more.
My biggest ask for Mortis is to give us random weapons with wacky upgrades. This way players can learn the attack patterns without having to be punished. They can experiment without having to be rank 40 in havoc. This is what zombies did in CoD, it let you practice headshots with every weapon (without the stress of PvP) and see if you like the pattern, while introducing wacky meta defining weapons (Ray Gun) for the mode.
FS, find what is stressing players out and remove it from Mortis, its my Key to success for the mode.
Incredibly boring game mode to be introduced at this junction in the game. No incentives to do anything for a majority of the time playing, only having to move from one spot during objective and then you go back to standing still and stunlocking or oneshotting everything.
I did play it over 50 Times by now on Damnation (to get the Insignia) and i think :
Difficulty to inconsistent - sometimes you have Matches where in all 12 Waves you fight like 1-2 Bosses; in others it throws multiple Bosses at you each Wave. Some Waves it spawns like a handful of Specials and few Horde Enemies and thats it; other times even in earlier Waves throws all sorts of Stuff at you.
Only two Maps is really boring and repetitive.
Not really that much Indulgences; after a few Matches you’ve seen it all / tried them all out and it really rapidly becomes boring then especially in addition to Point 1 and 2 alongside.
A Copy+Paste Chaos Wastes would have been better. Could have still be themed around Sefoni, being in her Mind and called Mortis Trials but just so that you go through multiple Areas / Instances of her Mind (like multiple smaller Maps) and inbetween get to choose Paths, Blessings and upgrade your Weapons with some Perks/Blessings. And like in VT where you can go one Path or the other then yields different Rewards and has different Modifier on them.
Alongside Point 1 to easy 99% of the time. Highest difficulty being Damnation and the Indulgences really make you a ton more powerful so you just breeze through it a lot of times and you even get a Med+Ammo Pack+Grenades every third Wave and fight next to a Med Station whole time too.
