Morphite (PC) Review

This doesn't start in the most promising of ways, with lots of bugs and crashes, a great difficulty in correctly mapping the controls for the keyboard, as well as a general lack of polish in menus. Blowfish Studios hasn't really evolved its craft from the days of the disappointing Gunscape, as, instead of an indie game that actually challenges the "big ones" this feels more like the freeware titles of old, something that, unfortunately, doesn't stop on the title screen.

Morphite tells the story of Myrah Kale, and her adventures revolving around the coveted and titular rare substance; a substance so rare, that in about three hours you will already found three pieces of it. Yes, this doesn't know how to keep things interesting, and, even worse, it's presentation has a very pre-alpha feel, due to the lifeless voice-acting (where's the volume knob?), as well as the laughably simplistic dialogue sequences and cut-scenes.

Sadly, the subpar plot is actually a major part of the game. Why? Well, there isn't much else to do, to be honest. This is supposed to be an FPS with a heavy emphasis on planetary exploration, in order to gather items to strengthen Myrah, and help her with her main mission. Apart from the few hand-crafted planets that can be visited, and which are tied to the storyline, she can visit almost any planet she wants to; planets which are procedurally generated, thus, theoretically infinite forms.

…And here comes the main problem. First of all, every gamer worth his/her salt is probably ready for the worse, due to the words "procedurally generated." Good titles have come forth from this intriguing concept, but, more often than not, this is a recipe for destruction, as levels born out of an algorithm are rarely a match for those who are carefully crafted, which is why gems like Doom, and Super Metroid, amongst others, have stood the test of time.

Even worse, the algorithm at hand is unable to provide even one fun planet to brave, as most levels are simply deserts with a couple of plants to scan, enemies to shoot, and minerals to gather. As for the low-poly art style, this is something that can do wonders if done right, but here it feels as if the developer simply wanted to use the least amount of effort. As a result, planets are simple palette swaps of each other, with few details or weather/lighting effects to spice things up - come to think of it, even hand-crafted levels look kind of lame.

The real problem, though, is the beyond-imagination boring gameplay, with "environmental puzzles" that are as complex as pushing a button to open a door, exploration that needs no effort on your part as almost everything is in plain sight, and gunfights that feel the same no matter what, as, apart from a different amount of hit points, whether you fight a purple T-Rex, a walking mushroom, a bear/lizard hybrid, or whatever, all they can do is "run" towards Myrah. As for the weaponry at hand… Doom this ain't.

Morphite is a sleep-inducing chore. Land on a planet, spend a few minutes to gather stuff, visit a space station to do some selling, buying, and upgrading, and, once in a while, try out one of the few main missions available. Throughout all these, nothing will ever threat you, challenge you, surprise you, or excite you, and nothing will feel as it's actually part of a complete product.

Long story short: the author of this article expected a decent, story-heavy fusion of pure FPS fun and exploration, in a near infinite world whose only flaw would be the common lifelessness that seems to go hand to hand with titles that rely too much of procedural generation. Unfortunately, what was experienced was a piece of software whose problems went beyond that…