Review: Meritous

At a Glance

ESRB Rating: NR - Not Rated
My Rating: Ages 6 and up
Genre: Dungeon Crawler
License: Open Source
Fun-O-Meter:
Release Year: 2007
Review Published On: August 27th, 2016
Played on: Martha & Thaddeus

Available on:

Windows
Linux

Available from:

Meritous Homepage

Linux users can find this game in their distro's repository.

Areas of Concern:
  • Fantasy themes


How to Save and Pause:

While you can only save your game at designated save points, you can pause the game by bringing up the in-game menu. To do this, press ESC at any time. This menu is really only used to quit the game, so simply choose No to resume playing.

Time needed per session:

This isnt a short game, as youll need to do a lot of exploring in order to find everything. Plan on playing for at least half an hour.

Does this game pose issues for Christian players?

No - this is a great game for Christians
Although this game is themed after psychic powers and magical things, it really doesnt feel like either are actually involved. As there isnt anything else to worry about, this makes the game rather clean.

Screenshots

[view screenshot]
Compass tiles point to your next destination

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Clearing a heavily infected area

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An artifact resting on its altar



Game Overview

Meritous is a simple game, and this is one of its biggest strengths. By keeping things very simple, theres no need to worry about the fuss that commonly plagues games in its genre. Theres no inventory, nor equipment to manage. You simply either have the items or you dont. But, like other dungeon crawlers, the games map is randomly created, so every time you play the game youll have a different temple to navigate.

Another way this game differs from what youd expect is the way combat is handled. Instead of having to swing a sword or pick from a selection of magical spells, you have exactly one attack. With the exception of the final boss, all of the monsters youll be facing were born out of corrupted magical essence. In order to reduce them back into the raw PSI crystals they were originally, you charge up a PSI circuit, and once enough energy has built up, you release it in a wave of pure PSI energy.

As you probably guessed by now, the main goal of the game is to cleanse the contaminated Orcus Dome by dispelling the monsters and restoring the flow of magical energy. To help you along the way, there are special tiles that display arrows pointing to your next objective or the next artifact for you to collect. Gathering most of the artifacts is optional, but Id strongly recommend it as they greatly increase your abilities.

This is a great game for fans of dungeon crawlers, and its also a reasonable introduction to the genre if youre not familiar with it.

Points of Interest

Areas change color depending on the amount of shadow present

A really cool effect is that the color of world changes from a calm blue to a vibrant red depending on the number of shadow monsters in the room. This effect is particularly noticeable in the arenas that appear around the map. These rooms are so heavily contaminated that monsters will continually spawn until youve cleared them all out, and as you slowly decontaminate the room, the background will shift from red to blue.

Lightweight but fully featured

Meritous doesnt require a lot of horsepower to run, yet it has a lot of visual effects as there are frequently scores of monsters and projectiles on screen at any one time. The screen only gets busier as the game progresses.

Monsters eventually come after you

Many monsters remain in the same room they start in, but quite a few will start chasing the player if they notice you. Its not just possible, but expected, to return to previous areas and find new monsters roaming around in what were empty rooms. Additionally, towards the end of the game monsters even start to actively hunt you down!

Easy mode for beginners

Called wuss mode, this makes things a little easier by speeding up your attacks, slowing down the monsters and giving you an infinite number of lives. It also means that after you beat the final boss you wont see the ending. Instead youll just be called a wuss and be told to try again on normal difficulty.

Most of your time is spent grinding

Grinding is by far the main way you progress in this game. Going from room to room, killing shadows and collecting the crystals they dissolve into is fun, but not everybody likes the idea of spending hours doing this. On the other hand, the monsters get harder as you get stronger, so its very well balanced and doesnt feel like youre doing the same thing over and over again.

Fixed resolution

One problem with the game is that its stuck at a 640x480 resolution. There are no options to make the window larger, which might be a problem if you cant read the in-game text. This is largely a drawback of the toolkit that the developer used; it doesnt provide a way to resize its virtual screen.

Concerns and Issues

Players that take it easy will be mocked

As mentioned above, the easy mode taunts the player for taking the easy route.

Swearing

The final boss has a few words for the player character, some of which are a little inappropriate for the kiddies. If youre playing on wuss mode, the game will tell you to play the game again on normal difficulty using an impolite term.

Psychic powers

PSI is just a different type of magic. Its basically just the ability to zap bad guys with a special device, and therefore little more than a game mechanic, but some parents may object to any references to magical powers.