Morkredd is a bizarre co-op puzzle game where players control two shadow people, one male and one female, that have to make their way across an oppressively dark environment full of fleshy architecture and filled with strange creatures. Stepping into the darkness means instant death, and so players have to stick to their light source, which changes throughout the game. At first it's a bright light that players have to follow, and then later it's an orb that the player can move around.

The bulk of Morkredd is spent rolling a bright orb around, coordinating with a partner to push it together as well as solve puzzles that crop up along the way. The gimmick is that, with the orb being a light source itself, it makes the player characters cast shadows that can kill their partner. This forces players to think about environmental traversal in a way that they may not be used to in this kind of game, and while it can be frustrating at times, it's a unique gimmick that helps Morkredd stand out from the sea of similar indie games on the market.

Morkredd is a game clearly built for co-op play in mind, though with no online support, it's good that the developers included an option to play through the game solo. When playing Morkredd solo, the left side of the controller controls one character, whereas the right side of the controller controls the other. It's a bit cumbersome at first, but players will soon be able to control both characters simultaneously with minimal confusion. A quick press of the button allows players to switch which character is controlled with which stick, which is a big help when trying to keep everything in order.

Playing Morkredd solo is still not the ideal way to experience the game, though. Some of the puzzles and timing challenges are more difficult when playing solo versus co-op, and there is some added frustration as a result. It's good that the option exists at all for those who don't have a co-op partner handy, but some entertainment value is definitely lost when playing the game alone.

Morkredd's solo control scheme is reminiscent of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, the first game from Josef Fares. And indeed, it seems as though Morkredd was directly inspired by that game. Besides having very similar control schemes, the games look alike, with similar camera angles and a story told mostly through actions and not words. Some of the puzzles harken back to Brothers as well, and so fans of that game may very well want to give Morkredd a shot.

Luckily, Morkredd is currently available through Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's subscription service that gives players access to hundreds of games. Thanks to this, many players can give Morkredd a try without spending any extra cash. And honestly, that may be the best way to experience the game, as it is only a couple of hours long and does have some rather serious technical issues that keep it from reaching its full potential.

Morkredd crashed numerous times during our play sessions, and game-breaking bugs were encountered on more than one occasion. During a sequence where the characters were rowing a boat, the camera swung behind a structure and stayed there, showing a concrete slab that made it impossible to see where the boat was going, and therefore impossible to proceed to the next part of the story without reloading the checkpoint. In another instance, it wouldn't allow one of the player characters to drop an item, which was necessary to solve a puzzle. Once again, the only fix was resetting the game.

Issues like this are not great to run into any video game, but they are especially problematic in puzzle games. Players may not realize that their game is bugged at first, and so could find themselves beating their head against the wall trying to solve a puzzle that is not technically possible for them to solve without reloading the checkpoint.

Even if Morkredd worked perfectly, though, it would still not be the easiest game to recommend. While it can be a fun local co-op distraction, the experience feels hollow by the end. The story doesn't go anywhere interesting, and by the time they reach the conclusion, many players may feel like they wasted their time with the game. There's a power fantasy moment near the end that could have made it all a little more worthwhile, calling to mind a certain sequence in Inside, but it doesn't quite land like it should due to some wonky controls.

One thing Morkedd does have going for it, though, is variety. While that power fantasy moment at the end of the game sort of flops, it still represents a pretty significant departure from previous gameplay mechanics, and that's something that the game does throughout. Players are always having to keep lighting sources in mind and they're always having to think about where they can move to avoid being killed by shadows, but each area offers new gameplay mechanics that shake this formula up. Yes, Morkredd players spend most of the game rolling a glowing orb around, but the hazards they have to deal with and puzzles they have to solve are completely different from one area to the next.

Each area is visually distinct as well, with one of Morkredd's strong suits being its visual presentation and art style. On paper, it sounds like a game mostly shrouded in darkness would be boring to look at, but even a short time with Morkredd shows that isn't the case. Sometimes players are exploring what appears to be an ancient stone temple of some kind, and other times they are working their way across fleshy bridges that seem to be a part of a much larger creature. Morkredd is both beautiful and grotesque, with some truly striking cinematic shots combined with disgusting imagery, like endlessly growing, massive pimples that repeatedly explode into pus.

While some of what it depicts may make players feel queasy, Morkredd otherwise has great graphics and runs at a crisp frame rate with no hiccups or slowdowns. The game certainly seems to enjoy a boost from Xbox Series X optimization, but it's hard to see why it would run all that worse on last-gen hardware either, as it doesn't appear to be all that demanding of a game.

Morkredd looks great and runs well when it isn't being held back by its technical issues, which are simply too severe to ignore. Those looking for a local co-op game to play on Xbox Game Pass may still want to give it a shot, but otherwise, it may be better to wait for some of the problems to be ironed out first.

Morkredd is out now for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game ZXC reviewed the game on Xbox Series X.