Score
Gameplay:	7
Graphics:	7
Sound:	6
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	7
Overall:	7

Larva Mortus
April 23, 2009 by John Meyer

If you've played the old-school arcade hit, Smash TV, then you will feel right at home with Larva Mortus. That isn't to say Larva Mortus is as brutally hard as Smash TV. In fact, it doesn't come close. But the overall game design certainly echoes Smash TV.

 

Gameplay 

Each level of Larva Mortus is comprised of interconnected rooms filled with various horror-themed monsters such as bats, zombies, and skeletons just to name a few. At the beginning of each level, you are given an objective. These goals can range from being tasked to clear every single room of its resident monsters to destroying ritual sites. What's cool is the level progression. Players pick and choose which levels to go to via a world map and are greeted with the level objective as well as the difficulty level. 

Larva Mortus plays like a top-down shooter. As said before, it's very similar to Smash TV and games of that variety. The gameplay is tried and true but still as addictive as ever. Larva Mortus, however, just doesn't offer the same heart-racing gameplay that Smash TV provides by way of throwing insurmountable odds at you. Part of the reason Smash TV was so fun was because it was extremely difficult, keeping you on your toes. In contrast, Larva Mortus can be easy at times and doesn't get your blood pumping as much. As a result, it gets repetitive and slightly boring after a while. 

One of the game's stand-out features is the leveling system. When you slay an enemy, you will gain points. Get enough points and your character will level up, allowing you to distribute points to a variety of statistics such as defense and health regeneration. For the most part, the system works well and since the game gets progressively harder, you're never really too strong. However it does take a while to get just one level up. The amount of points required to go from one level to the next is ludicrous, which means you may end up doing a fair amount of 'level grinding' in order to beat a particular level. 

The game provides you with an ample amount of weaponry to fend off your foes with. You start off with just a pistol and a broad sword but quickly acquire a machine gun, a shotgun, and more. My biggest problem with the game and the source of quite a bit of frustration comes from the fact that the bullets from your guns are practically invisible. You can see them very faintly if you try, but they're so small it's almost impossible. The game does feature a targeting reticule but I found it's still very hard to hit your enemies when you can't see your bullets. Couple that with the fact that the enemies move extremely erratically and it quickly gets frustrating. 

I also found the game to be slightly buggy at times. On occasion I would get stuck in random objects throughout the levels and sometimes the menus would bug out and become extremely sluggish. Not to mention that players can hit the 'T' key when playing the game in order to spawn a lowly bat enemy. Clearly something that was left in from when the developers were debugging the game. 

Graphics 

As for the graphics, they're passable. The game uses 3D models for the enemies as well as your playable character. It's rather hard to tell that the characters are in fact 3D due to the low resolution of the game. The developers also didn't include a way to change the resolution so those who own large monitors are stuck with a painfully low resolution. The animation also tends to look stiff at times but the game does offer some nice particle and lighting effects. 

Sound 

The music was designed to give the game a spooky vibe and for the most part, it does its job well. However I feel that giving the game a more exciting soundtrack instead of the somber tunes it already features would have helped the pace of the game. 

PlasmaFactor 

Larva Mortus does have a fair bit of replay value if you're the kind of person who's fine with doing the same thing over and over. The game has a finite amount of main story levels to go through, but it does offer infinite opportunities to take on optional quests. There's no reward to be had, but it does offer some value to those who don't mind doing something for nothing. 

Conclusion 

Overall, Larva Mortus is an enjoyable shooter. The leveling up system adds an extra layer of depth and the old-school style gameplay will appeal to fans of Smash TV and other similar games. The game does have its flaws, but overall it's still worth the ten bucks you'll pay for it.