You may know Mörk Borg as a cult classic pen-and-paper role-playing game. Now, with Heresy Supreme, there’s also a digital single-player version.
Mörk Borg emerges when you open up the very old Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks and crank up some Swedish doom metal. The pen-and-paper RPG is merciless, dark, has a ton of style, and has gathered a devoted fan community around it.
The Steam version, Mörk Borg Heresy Supreme, has now launched in Early Access. Is it only worth it for fans, or is it also a good entry point?
What is Mörk Borg: Heresy Supreme?
Grimdark is the motto of Mörk Borg. There are no shining heroes or glorious deeds in this fantasy post-apocalypse; instead, in this dungeon crawler, death reaches out for you at every turn—in many forms. Your characters have quirks and weaknesses, and you shouldn’t get too attached to them, because they’ll bite the dust faster than you can shout “Watch out, trapdoor!”
Magic is treacherous; every spell can also harm you. Overpowered creatures lie in wait for you, and once you go down, you can’t even hope for a saving throw. Only for a better next life.
But that’s exactly what makes Mörk Borg so appealing: facing a merciless world and wringing small victories from it through sweat, blood, luck, and cunning ideas feels incredibly rewarding.
However, you play alone, and of course, a video game offers fewer actions and less freedom than a classic pen-and-paper game, where the game master responds to all your ideas. On the other hand, you get a fitting metal soundtrack included right away.Most importantly, be prepared for a lot of failure—that’s part of the game concept here.
What do the reviews say?
Mörk Borg is a niche game, so it’s no surprise thaton Steamas an insider tip, which is hardly surprising given its release. There are just under 50 user reviews so far, but a respectable 77 percent of them are positive.
The hand-drawn graphics and the dark, sinister atmosphere are receiving particular praise. However, there appear to betechnical issues on the Steam Deck(according to the developer, lowering the quality to 25 percent should help), and the implementation of the rules doesn’t seem perfectly balanced, as there is more fighting in the video game than in the source material.
There is hope for improvement, however, as the developers plan to tweak the game over the next six to twelve months based on community feedback. So far, about 40 percent of the planned content is in the game. The next update is set to introduce a fourth class, the specifics of which will be decided via a fan vote.
Have you tried Mörk Borg yet? The GlobalESportNews editorial team has already played a few rounds together after Mörk Borg expert and video editor Paul Aeils got us excited about it. Steffi immediately rolled a character with a single hit point—and survived with it until the end of the adventure!
