While everyone was chasing the next Balatro or hyping AAA releases, a Finnish solo developer quietly dropped one of 2024’s best tactical roguelikes. Mortal Glory 2 launched in March 2024 from Redbeak Games (actually just one person, Tuomas Auronen), and it’s currently sitting at 50% off on Steam with overwhelmingly positive reviews. If you love turn-based tactics, roguelike progression, and managing teams of fantasy gladiators, this game should already be in your library.
The pitch is simple but addictive: recruit a team of wandering gladiators, equip them with powerful weapons and relics, then guide them through a brutal tournament where every decision matters. Roll explosive barrels at enemies, knock opponents into pits, or discover absurdly powerful item combinations that turn your fighters into unstoppable demons. The combat is easy to learn but surprisingly deep, with environmental tactics and smart AI that will punish sloppy play.
What Makes Mortal Glory 2 Special
Mortal Glory 2 occupies a sweet spot between accessibility and depth that most tactics games struggle to achieve. The basic combat rules are straightforward – move your units, use abilities, attack enemies. No convoluted systems to memorize before you can start having fun. But underneath that simplicity lies genuine tactical complexity driven by environmental interactions, character synergies, and brutal enemy AI.
Each arena battle plays out on procedurally generated maps with destructible barrels, deadly pits, elevation differences, and interactive terrain. You might start a fight thinking it’s a standard slugfest, only to realize you can end it instantly by shoving two enemies into each other and knocking them off a cliff. Environmental kills aren’t gimmicks – they’re often the difference between victory and watching your entire team get wiped.
The roguelike structure keeps you coming back. Each tournament run follows a randomized path through fights, events, shops, and story encounters. Lose your entire team twice in one run and it’s game over, but you’ll unlock new character races, items, and strategic possibilities for your next attempt. The meta-progression feels meaningful without trivializing the challenge.
Diverse Fantasy Roster
One of Mortal Glory 2’s biggest strengths is its ridiculous variety of fantasy races to recruit. Wizards, vampires, trolls, minotaurs, halflings, dwarfs, dryads – all kinds of weird fantasy creatures become available as you progress deeper into campaigns. Each race brings unique racial traits that fundamentally alter how they fight.
A vampire might drain health from enemies with every attack. A troll regenerates damage each turn, becoming an unkillable tank if you build around it. Halflings move quickly and dodge attacks but die fast if caught. These aren’t cosmetic differences – your team composition creates the foundation for your overall strategy.
You can reroll starting stats at the beginning of each run to get stat distributions that match your preferred playstyle. Want a tanky dwarf with extra health? Keep rolling until you get favorable stats. Prefer a glass cannon wizard with maximum spell power? You can optimize for that too. This customization layer adds replay value without overwhelming new players.
Item Combos and Build Crafting
Where Mortal Glory 2 truly shines is in its item and ability system. Each character has four equipment slots – weapon, armor, and two accessory slots. Fill those slots with synergistic gear and suddenly your mediocre fighter becomes a killing machine with abilities that chain together in devastating ways.
The game features spells like Detonate Blood, which does exactly what it sounds like and is metal as hell. You might find a relic that causes bleeding damage on every hit, then equip a weapon that gets bonus damage against bleeding enemies. Stack that with an ability that spreads debuffs to adjacent targets and you’ve got an AoE death machine.
These combos emerge naturally through experimentation rather than requiring wiki research. The shop system presents limited random options each time, forcing you to adapt your strategy based on what’s available rather than following a predetermined optimal build. Sometimes you’ll stumble into broken combinations that make you feel like a genius. Other times you’ll realize too late that your items have anti-synergy and watch your team collapse.
AI That Actually Challenges
Props to Redbeak Games for implementing enemy AI that genuinely knows how to fight. The computer opponents aren’t just throwing units at you mindlessly. They position intelligently, focus fire your weakest units, use environmental hazards against you, and generally play to win.
The game offers multiple difficulty settings to accommodate different skill levels, but the highest difficulties will absolutely destroy you if you’re not thinking several moves ahead. The AI is brutally talented at exploiting mistakes, which makes victories feel earned rather than handed to you.
This smart opposition creates compelling risk-reward decisions throughout runs. Do you push into a difficult fight because the reward is worth it, or take an easier path and miss potential upgrades? Save money for a guaranteed shop encounter or gamble on finding better deals later? These decisions matter because the game respects your intelligence enough to punish bad calls.
One Developer’s Journey
Tuomas Auronen is the solo developer behind Redbeak Games, working out of Finland to create games that scratch his personal tactical itch. Mortal Glory 2 represents years of iterative design, taking feedback from the original Mortal Glory (released in 2020) and addressing nearly every criticism while expanding the core formula.
The first Mortal Glory was well-received but more limited in scope. Mortal Glory 2 dramatically expands content with more character races, abilities, items, arena types, and strategic possibilities. The map system between fights is entirely new. The meta-progression unlocks provide long-term goals. It’s essentially what Auronen always wanted the first game to be but couldn’t achieve with his initial resources and experience.
In interviews, Auronen has been refreshingly honest about the hardest part of solo development: financial uncertainty. Creating games alone means you’re also handling business operations, marketing, community management, and everything else typically spread across a team. The success of Mortal Glory 2 provides some stability, but indie development remains a precarious career path even for talented developers with proven track records.
Console Ports Coming
Good news for non-PC players: Mortal Glory 2 is launching on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch in August 2025. The turn-based combat and quick session structure should translate beautifully to console controllers, making this perfect for gaming on the couch or Switch portability.
The game’s design philosophy already accommodates short play sessions. Thanks to conveniently paced combat, you can jump in for a quick battle or two during lunch breaks without feeling like you need to commit to marathon gaming sessions. But the addictive one-more-run quality means those quick sessions often turn into hours before you realize it.
Why You Probably Missed It
Despite overwhelmingly positive reviews and a dedicated player base, Mortal Glory 2 flew under the radar for most gamers. The March 2024 release window was crowded with bigger titles. Solo developers lack marketing budgets and media connections that push AAA games into mainstream consciousness. And honestly, turn-based tactical gladiator managers aren’t as immediately flashy as action games or viral sensations like Balatro.
Some players who did try the game initially bounced off comparing it unfavorably to the original Mortal Glory. A handful of reviews complained about simplified management systems – you can’t recruit a full gang and decide who enters each battle individually like in the first game. The shop only appears when the game decides rather than being constantly available. Wages for gladiators were removed entirely.
These changes were deliberate design decisions to streamline the experience and focus on what worked best – the tactical combat itself. Auronen wanted to reduce busywork and speed up the loop between fights. For players who loved the management sim aspects of the original, this feels like a step backward. For everyone else, it removes friction that slowed momentum.
Current State and Updates
Mortal Glory 2 launched in solid condition and has only improved through post-release updates. Auronen actively engages with the community, implementing balance changes and tweaking mechanics based on player feedback. The game isn’t in early access – you’re getting a complete, polished experience right now.
A DLC expansion called Reign of Tyrants is apparently in the works, though details remain scarce. If it follows the base game’s quality standard, expect new character types, additional items and abilities, maybe some new arena hazards, and expanded story content. The base game already offers tremendous value at full price, so a 50% discount makes this an absolute steal.
The Steam reviews sit at overwhelmingly positive with players praising the tactical depth, variety of viable strategies, and satisfying progression. Common criticisms mention repetition setting in after dozens of hours (fair for any roguelike) and occasional balance issues with certain overpowered item combinations (which sounds like a feature, not a bug).
Who Should Play This
If you love turn-based tactics games like Into the Breach, Darkest Dungeon, or XCOM 2, Mortal Glory 2 scratches a similar itch while carving out its own identity. The quick combat encounters and roguelike structure make it perfect for pick-up-and-play sessions without the time commitment those other games demand.
Roguelike fans will appreciate the meta-progression that unlocks new strategic possibilities without making the game trivially easy. Each run feels meaningfully different based on what character races, items, and abilities you encounter. The randomization creates emergent narratives where your scrappy underdog team somehow clutches impossible victories through clever tactics and lucky item drops.
Fantasy gladiator combat is an underserved niche. Most arena fighting games are either hack-and-slash action titles or have you controlling individual warriors rather than managing teams. Mortal Glory 2 fills that gap beautifully, letting you live out manager fantasies while still engaging directly with tactical combat rather than just watching simulations play out.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mortal Glory 2 better than the first game?
Yes, according to most players and critics. Mortal Glory 2 dramatically expands content with more characters, items, abilities, and strategic depth. Some fans prefer the first game’s management systems, but the sequel streamlines and improves nearly everything else.
How long does it take to beat Mortal Glory 2?
A single tournament run takes 1-3 hours depending on how far you get. Seeing all content and unlocking everything requires 20-40 hours. The roguelike structure means you can play indefinitely, chasing higher difficulty challenges and perfect runs.
Do I need to play the first Mortal Glory?
No, Mortal Glory 2 is a standalone sequel that doesn’t require knowledge of the first game. The story is minimal and disconnected between games. Jump straight into the sequel – it’s the better experience.
Is Mortal Glory 2 difficult?
The game offers multiple difficulty settings. Normal mode provides solid challenge without being punishing. Higher difficulties feature brutally smart AI that will demolish you if you make mistakes. Accessibility options accommodate various skill levels.
Can I play Mortal Glory 2 on console?
Console versions for PlayStation 4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch are launching in August 2025. The PC version is available now on Steam, GOG, and other platforms.
How much does Mortal Glory 2 cost?
The regular price is around $15. It’s currently 50% off on Steam as of December 2025. Even at full price, the content-to-dollar ratio is excellent for roguelike fans.
Is there multiplayer in Mortal Glory 2?
No, Mortal Glory 2 is strictly single-player. You’re managing your own gladiator team through the tournament. The asynchronous competition comes from trying to beat your own previous runs and chase higher difficulties.
What are the PC system requirements?
Mortal Glory 2 is extremely lightweight. It runs on modest hardware thanks to stylized 2D graphics. Most laptops from the past five years can handle it easily. Check the Steam page for specific requirements, but performance shouldn’t be an issue.
Support Solo Developers
Here’s the reality of indie game development: talented solo creators like Tuomas Auronen pour years into projects that might get drowned out by marketing budgets and algorithm luck. Mortal Glory 2 is genuinely great – not great for an indie game or great for a solo project, just objectively great at what it does.
At 50% off, you’re paying roughly the cost of a movie ticket for a game that can provide dozens of hours of entertainment. The tactical depth rivals bigger budget titles. The roguelike loop is addictive. The item combinations create those highlight moments where everything clicks and you feel unstoppable.
If you’re even remotely interested in turn-based tactics or roguelike progression, Mortal Glory 2 deserves a spot in your library. This is exactly the kind of creative, polished, focused game design that makes indie development special. No bloat, no live service nonsense, no battle pass – just a complete game built by someone who clearly loves the genre and wanted to make something special.
The arena awaits, manager. Will you guide your gladiators to mortal glory?