Moros Protocol

When I saw Moros Protocol, I thought, okay, another roguelike shooter. Let's see if this one manages to impress me. While it isn't exactly game-changing or breaking the mould, I had a lot of fun with Moros Protocol and ultimately enjoyed it quite a bit. It might not do anything particularly innovative, but it has enough to make it enjoyable, especially if you're a fan of fast-paced shooters with a roguelike twist.


Do the protocol… again, and again!

First, the story isn't anything to write home about, but it's a decent setup with a good mystery; it's solid, but it does feel a little unoriginal. You wake up on a ship, everyone is dead, there’s a strange biomass growing around you, and you have to slaughter a bunch of bugs, mutants, and a purple cyborg lady I like to call Mommy ….

There's enough mystery to keep you moving forward, with the gross biomass substance oozing with body-horror vibes and the few interesting side characters you cross paths with. But I wouldn't expect a particularly memorable narrative. What I admired most, however, was the visual style and presentation. I absolutely love the low-poly art style, and the immense body horror elements and gore look fantastic with this aesthetic. Everything looks great, with plenty of variety and surprising refinement despite the deliberately chunky visuals. The world has a wonderfully grotesque quality, and the developers have done a great job making its horrors look suitably nasty.

Something about the combination of the game's monstrous designs and its exaggerated presentation makes it all the more entertaining.

Oh, yeah, and then there's the massive antagonist, who looks wonderful. Those cheeks... dear lord. I did find myself saying, "Oh no, please, mommy," a few times. Don't judge me.

The music is a little underwhelming, but it's perfectly fine for what it is. It does the job without being particularly memorable, although I would have appreciated a little more oomph to complement the carnage unfolding on screen. It’s no DOOM for sure. Thankfully, the visual presentation more than makes up for it, and Moros Protocol has a distinctive identity that helps it stand out in an increasingly crowded genre.


Loop me baby, one more time!

The gameplay loop is simple yet satisfying, reminding me of the classic Neon Abyss, and that's a good thing. A nice mix of combat encounters, secrets to uncover, moving from random room to random room, and plundering well-deserved rewards keeps things entertaining as you work your way through each run.

Exploration is a particularly enjoyable part of the experience, as you're encouraged to investigate your surroundings rather than charge into every room and shoot everything that moves. Rewards to discover, resources to collect, and little surprises tucked away for those willing to take a chance. It adds a welcome variety to the usual shooting, giving you reasons to consider your next move rather than treating every encounter as another obstacle to overcome.

I particularly enjoyed the risk-and-reward element of the random fleshy doors you have to slice open, taking damage in the process to discover whether they lead to a secret room. It's a neat little mechanic that encourages you to weigh up whether the potential reward is worth the health you'll lose. Do you risk a little of your precious health for the possibility of something worthwhile, or do you play it safe and move on? It's a simple idea, but one that fits the game's grotesque aesthetic and gives exploration a little more personality.

I always felt there was a decent balance between action, problem-solving, and treasure hunting, which helped prevent the experience from becoming nothing more than a series of shooting galleries. These brief moments of decision-making are welcome, particularly when you're already juggling limited resources and trying to make the most of each run.

There are even challenge rooms where you must parkour through various VR-style levels, alongside other activities that break up the usual routine. These were a welcome change of pace, although I wish there were more of them, much like in Neon Abyss. These little diversions have plenty of potential, and I'd have loved to see the game lean into them further. They provide a nice change of pace from combat and show there's room for more than just shooting in the game's overall design.

That said, while the room layouts and rewards help keep things interesting, the underlying structure remains largely the same from one run to the next. There's a satisfying rhythm to exploring, fighting, and collecting, but I occasionally wished the game had a few more tricks up its sleeve to shake things up as the hours passed.

The combat is satisfying: crunchy, punchy, and suitably gory. The melee combat is solid, and I enjoyed the collection of weapons on offer, from half-katanas and hatchets to Gordon Freeman's trusty crowbar. Yes, that crowbar. Lovely stuff.

The action has a pleasing weight, and the game does a good job of making its weapons feel enjoyable to use. Whether you're hacking away at an enemy with a melee weapon or tearing through a group with a firearm, the combat has a satisfying sense of impact. The gore only adds to the experience, making encounters feel appropriately messy as you carve your way through the game's assortment of monstrosities.

The gunplay is equally satisfying, thanks to a decent variety of firearms, including standard pistols, machine guns, plasma rifles, shotgun pistols, regular shotguns, RPGs, and more. The variety keeps things interesting, and experimenting with different weapons is a big part of the fun. And then there's dual-wielding weapons. Oh my God, yes! There's something wonderfully silly about unleashing a barrage of firepower while tearing through a room full of grotesque monstrosities, and the game does a good job of making its arsenal enjoyable to experiment with.


All seems a bit familiar….

Enemy variety is decent, though encounters can get repetitive, and the enemy types are generally safe- nothing too exotic or interesting like a DOOM roster. I would have liked a bit more variety in how they challenged me, particularly over longer runs. While there's enough here to keep the shooting entertaining, the combat doesn't always evolve in particularly interesting ways, and some encounters begin to feel familiar after a while.

Still, the fundamentals are solid, and I rarely got bored of the carnage. The weapons feel good, the action is suitably bloody, and the arsenal has enough variety to make combat the game's strongest asset.

One thing, however, started to get on my nerves pretty quickly: the stamina bar.

Oh lord, this thing could be a killer. Even though I appreciate that stamina management is part of the game's balancing act, it got old pretty quickly. You can upgrade your stamina as you progress, but even then, it never quite felt right to me. The meter could be unforgiving, and I often felt restricted when I wanted to keep the action flowing.

I understand the need for cooldowns and limitations to stop players from simply steamrolling everything in their path. However, when a game is built around fast-paced combat, constantly worrying about whether you have enough stamina to keep moving, attacking, or getting yourself out of trouble can get frustrating. Even after investing in upgrades, I still found the system more restrictive than enjoyable.

It’s like giving the DOOM Slayer a stamina bar. In theory, it can make sense, but it’s not a good choice.

It's not enough to ruin the experience, thankfully, but it's one of those design choices I wish had been handled a little differently.


Time to upgrade!

Speaking of upgrades, the skill tree is pretty immense, offering over 100 upgrades across stamina, health, ammunition limits, and more. While these upgrades never feel particularly dynamic or game-changing, I found the system surprisingly practical, and I appreciated that immensely.

Unlocks arrive at a steady pace, and you always have something to work toward as you progress through each run. Whether it's increasing your health, improving your stamina, or carrying more ammunition, these upgrades provide real benefits that make subsequent attempts a little more manageable. They're not particularly exciting on their own, but they do their job, and I never felt like I was wasting time chasing rewards that barely made a difference.

This is where Moros Protocol really worked for me. I always felt that I had something to show for each run, whether that meant unlocking another upgrade or making a little more progress towards improving my next attempt. Even when things went wrong, I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time. A steady sense of progression encourages you to jump back in, and I appreciated how rarely the game made me feel like I was grinding for its own sake.

Unlike something like Hades, where progression can occasionally feel like a grind, I never felt that frustration here. I wasn't constantly fighting the game to make meaningful progress, and that made a big difference in how much I enjoyed returning for another run.

However, there's a difference between making each run a little easier and making each run feel meaningfully different, and this is where Moros Protocol begins to fall short.

While the skill tree offers plenty of upgrades, most of them focus on improving existing attributes rather than introducing entirely new ways to play. You'll become stronger, more resilient, and better equipped to face the horrors ahead, but the core experience continues largely unchanged. The upgrades are practical, certainly, but they rarely feel transformative, and I would have liked to see a few more that could meaningfully alter how I approached combat or exploration.

The game has a solid foundation, but it doesn't always do enough to build upon it. Take Neon Abyss, for example, which offers a much broader range of unlockables, including new rooms, modifiers, and playable characters. These additions give you more reasons to keep coming back, introducing new possibilities and helping subsequent runs feel a little different from the last.

By comparison, Moros Protocol feels more restrained. While steadily improving your character is satisfying, I missed more substantial unlockables that could shake up the experience. New mechanics, more meaningful modifiers, or additional content that changes how a run unfolds would have gone a long way toward making the progression feel more exciting in the long term.

Still, I don't want to undersell what's here. The progression system is practical, consistently rewarding, and refreshingly respectful of your time.



Overall?

Ultimately, Moros Protocol is a thoroughly enjoyable roguelike shooter that understands the appeal of crunchy combat, grotesque visuals, and the simple pleasure of blasting your way through rooms full of enemies. It might not reinvent the wheel, but it gets the fundamentals right enough to make its familiar formula work.

The low-poly presentation gives it a distinctive identity, the arsenal is a joy to experiment with, and the balance of combat, exploration, and rewards makes each run entertaining. The stamina system can be frustrating, enemy encounters occasionally become repetitive, and the progression lacks the variety, along with transformative unlockables, that would make repeated runs feel more exciting. Nevertheless, the game does a good job of rewarding your time, and I never felt as though I was fighting an uphill battle to make meaningful progress.

I'd have loved to see the developers push the formula further, introducing more ways to shake up subsequent runs and give players new reasons to return. But even without those additions, there's a lot to enjoy here. Moros Protocol might not be the next big evolution of the roguelike shooter, but it's a bloody good time all the same.

++ Great core gameplay loop
+ Awesome art style and presentation
+ Easy to play and doesn't waste your time
+ Simple, but practical and engaging upgrade system

-- Runs never truly evolve
- More interesting dynamics needed
- The stamina bar is annoying

A PS5 copy of Moros Protocol was kindly provided by the publisher for this review