It is remarkably easy to pigeonhole any game one way or the other. Last year's No Man's Sky debacle highlighted the pressure on indie games and their creators from all conceivable angles, not least from an increasingly vocal, demanding and influential consumer base. Unfortunately, that particular game became a victim of its own hype. 14 guys from Guildford, UK were thrust into the limelight and their ambition made cheques their game simply couldn't cash - at least at launch. One year on, and it's starting to resemble the game that was proclaimed during the years of development. With this galaxy-sized elephant in the room addressed early on, Morphite, from Blowfish Studios and Crescent Moon, comes to the Switch bearing more than a passing resemblance to Hello Games' troubled title, but also has the added pressure of drawing comparisons with the newly resurrected Metroid series. While it is true that Morphite is a first person exploratory affair that will have you trekking across multiple randomly-generated planets, there's just enough to differentiate it from those two titles.
In search of the titular cosmic macguffin, you assume the role of young cadet Myrah as she seeks out various trinkets and meets different friends and foes on her quest to discover the mysteries of the galaxy, aided by a mechanical cat and her ageing mentor, Mr. Mason. While the plentiful voice acting adds personality and boosts the overall production values, it's inconsistent at best, with some awkward banter and sci-fi tropes. In terms of atmosphere, wandering round an eerily quiet planet is more effective than the functional cinematic and boss set pieces. Experiencing Morphite on a big screen (and through headphones) is absorbing, and is perhaps preferable to playing the game in handheld form.
The most immediately striking feature of Morphite is its art style. Bold low-polygon character models, scenery and architecture give the game an old school identity that made us wonder what a 3D Another World might look like. The colour palette varies greatly, with whites and grays on snow covered areas, vibrant yellow architecture and purple seaweed while you explore an underwater tunnel complex. The soundtrack is ambient and synth-based, which is unobtrusive but nicely varied.
You'll spend your time in Morphite hopping across planets where there is native flora and fauna to scan and sell, temples or caves to navigate and supplies to gather. The default controls might need tinkering to suit individual tastes, and scrolling through weapons can be cumbersome the more you get, but a menu can be brought up with L and finding your way through it is mostly pain-free. While crafting upgrades is hardly a necessity, saving up the game's currency - chunks - is probably more useful, as your ship gets damaged and a single tank of space gas won't get you very far; you'll have to stop regularly at space stations to refuel.
Traveling through space and between planets can trigger random encounters, such as conflict with an enemy ship, where you can retreat, bargain or choose to fight. Unfortunately each option is essentially a box of text and is of little consequence in the long run, so ends up being rather anticlimactic. Likewise, entering an asteroid field should test your piloting skills but due to the short draw distance, it feels like pressing the dodge button is just visually more interesting than controlling the ship. Scanning is a slow laborious process, made worse if you're trying to catalogue any moving creatures.
Navigating the cosmos is basic and straightforward, with your path clearly mapped out, but you can deviate whenever you want to explore or even take the odd sneaky shortcut - within reason, of course. Your ship will give you data about a planet's temperature, and you won't be able to survive in a toxic or hazardous environment. Touching down on such deadly worlds requires you to scour for the right resources and a randomly-located conversion pod to upgrade your suit.
Sticking solely to the campaign does have its benefits - as well as some disadvantages. There are a handful of interesting characters to meet, some cool architecture to traverse and bosses to take down. The regularly updated objectives will focus players looking to simply push the story forward, but wandering around the cosmos and taking on side missions adds to the sense of exploration and freedom - these activities are totally optional. However, as the peripheral planets in Morphite are randomly generated, they are sparsely populated in terms of resources and can add flab rather than muscle to your adventure. If you're a completionist or one that like upgrades, then there's that to go through as well.
Overall, Morphite will satisfy rather than thrill. It's unique aesthetic looks especially pleasing on a big screen, and the story is slow to start but does pick up. How long the game will keep interest you really depends on your criteria. Those looking for a 6-ish hour trek will find a solid if unspectacular adventure here, but it's impossible to shake the feeling that this is a largely low-key affair.
Conclusion
Take this game for what it is, not what it is enevitably become compared to and you'll have an engaging story and pleasant exploration-based experience - for the most part. During your travels it's really up to you how much you want to discover, catalogue and upgrade. Morphite isn't a bad little first-person adventure but thrill seekers looking for a stop gap before Metroid Prime 4 could end up feeling short changed; rather than cause your pulse to race this jaunt through the uncharted regions of the universe is quite laid back and curiously lacking in excitement. It ranks as an enjoyable - if sometimes pedestrian - adventure that you will ultimately get as much out of as you are willing to put in, but we fear a great many players will simply lose interest.
Comments (43)
6 seriously? I think we've been playing different games....😒
id rate this an 8! Its Fantastic game!
Will get this game at some point, but at the moment still got a massive backlog of games, which have been moved aside because of Mario, if it turns up on offer will buy it then
I've read several "bad" reviews of this game... but still I'm very interested in it... If it ever comes to Japan I will probably pick it.
@Tate24 Hmm, an 8. I'm on the fence about this game so interested in what you think the NLife review gets wrong or how has your own experience been different?
This game looks kinda interesting on the surface but the reviews have been pretty off-putting. Maybe I'll grab it if it goes on sale at some point, but I already have plenty to play as it is so I'll give it a pass for now.
I always struggle to find anything that attracts me to that art style.
Love this site but the reviews are whack. So many sub par games get 8's but this gets 6 🤷🏼♂️🤦🏻♂️
Played on my 10yr PC, the game is 8/10 or even 9/10. Go get it, don`t trust the reviewer.
Also, too many new faces here in NL, so not so much trust as before...
I have seen a lot of people say this is what NMS should have been, but it has a lot less content and stuff to do, very weird. If it was the same price as the iOS version then it wouldn’t be a bad purchase.
Reviewer is talking rubbish (must have been drunk while playing the game), as others have said it's worth at least an 8.
Great atmosphere, nice visuals , awesome music, fantastic game.
I found this to be quite a fair review if anyone's looking for a second opinion. Seems to be a bit more positive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnok2f01-vc
I hate getting involved in review score debate but for those moaning that the score of 6/10 is too harsh in this case (6 is "Not bad" on our review scale, I should add) then take note that the Steam average is currently 7/10 and on Metacritic the PS4 version is currently on 6/10.
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/morphite
http://store.steampowered.com/app/661740/Morphite/
Yes, there will be reviews that score the game higher (and indeed lower) than ours, but please don't act like this is a massive exception. The game has clearly gained some varied responses from a wide range of outlets.
I get it....reviews are subjective but damn....the reason I questioned it is a majority of your switch reviews (for some truly iffy games) were given 8s.... so it seemed off this game scored so low.
Its all good👍
It's gotta be tough, being a startup designer in this saturated market of contemptuous consumers. Still, No Man's Sky did not fall victim to hyped-up consumer presumptions the designer never intended. In fact the company can be applauded for constantly repeating what not to expect. What the game did fall victim to, were the actual promises the designer did make that were misleading or downright wrong.
Push Square were even more critical, giving it a 4/10. I had hoped this would turn out well but after watching some gameplay videos, it looks so dull and boring.
I pretty like this game, its atmosphere is perfect for me !
@gurtifus. Me too. Better than most switch eshop games I downloaded. Enjoying it a lot!
@Damo
So, the x/10 system doesn`t work anymore. Graphics, music, controlls and gameplay should be rated individually.
@Damo
Also, PS4 users are used to hyper-super-4k graphics and very linear gameplay, so its not the best comparison.
@premko1 Why should they be rated individually? Surely a game is worth playing, or it isn't? The best graphics in the world don't make a game worth playing if the gameplay sucks.
No Man's Sky is the single biggest let down of a game purchase I have made in the last 10 years. I have heard it was updated a good bit since then... but no, I have plenty of other games to play now, on the system that has completely taken over my free time.
Switch <3
@OorWullie https://youtu.be/9j2YjoVkEFE
He makes it sound fun and a game I want at some point. Worth a watch anyways.
Odd score. This is one of the most ambitious and just fun indie games I've played in a while. $15 is a steal for this much content done right.
The framerate sucks. It looks choppy to me, which deters me from exploring the game much... I expected it to run at 60 due to the very low polygon models for everything...
@Damo and You have Your answer
@Damo
so we would know the game that looks and hears good sucks in gameplay
@Damo morphite graphics 6/10 sound 6/10 gameplay 9/10
I paid for it already. I think the score is accurate. Is not bad but is not great either. I dislike the scan system and the aiming is just weird. Plus there isn't much challenge. I'll still complete it and delete from my console.
It’s a good game on the iPhone, but I’m not sure I’d get the Switch version unless there is a whole lot more content.
Wow. The ratings are all over the place for this. I watched four youtubers video reviews last night a mix of meh and wow.
I’d like to try it as I do enjoy just exploring and pottering about being relaxed at times.
@Tingel haha yea thats one downside not having planets names display so you can easy navigate solar system.
@Folkloner ive really been enjoying it. I mean at time writing we havent really got any shooters or first person adventure that i think of being any good at moment!
Just love exploring going different planets finding unique creatures landscapes etc. Plus you really need to go resource gathering not just go through story section as never have enough materials to level up your guns and suit. Which give you new abiltys. Like being able to go hot or cold planets or having better control over weapons or ability to hover or withstand acid etc.
Some of little touches i really like is being able to throw beacon down in any open environment and seeing my Droppod fly down picking you up. Instead backtracking to find it. Love different weapons such as grapple gun, rocket launcher, or scanner to find new creatures and plant life that you can sell later on. Having random events happening in space like meeting traders, getting attacked by space pirates or having to control your ship fly through storm of meteorites.
Also like upgrading my ship, suit, weapons plus lets not forgot your pug companie who you can summon help you out with his laser mount gun or kitcat wise cracking robot cat.
Ive spokem to developers at blowfish studios on twitter and said that new content will be added which for me is something definitely look forward to.
Just like exploring uncharted environments. Doing sub quests, mini games. Explore different space stations, gather resources to upgrade my weapons, ship, suit. Then continuing with the story. There is voice acting which i thought was nice touch. And i really like art style.
Yes it has its issues but with developer saying they will continue support title it only get better in my opinion.
If your on the fence checkout RTG 85 review on utube or what about the game reviews for morphite. i thought there reviews were good and they made want pick up title.
Am glad i did
You may not like what i like.
But id definitely recommend you checkout few reviews like ones i mentioned make up own mind if think its worth it.
Here some reviews
https://youtu.be/CQRWEQwDZ88
https://youtu.be/9j2YjoVkEFE
https://youtu.be/Bnok2f01-vc
@premko1,
Keep in mind that since there are soooooo many downloads on Switch, they most likely hired a entirely new army of reviewers. its understandable.
@Tate24 couldn't have said it better myself. I think that's part of the problem with reviews. There are too many games and not enough time to thoroughly play them as intended... And most sites want reviews out asap. Not their fault. Just the reality.
Lots of grumblings regarding the review score. I can't say that I know if this game deserves a higher or lower score, but I think I know as to why there is a lot of fuss about the score. Below is my experience only, but something tells me that others may share the same view.
There were a lot of recent reviews on this site giving "8" scores to games. An 8 to me is a solid game. Initially I started buying those games only to find that they were closer to "5"' (nothing good about them, nothing terrible about them. Just blah). After being burned several times I came to the conclusion that anything less than an 8 on this site is "bad" , an 8 means I should check some other site to see other reviews, and anything over 8 is "Good". This view has served me surprisingly well over the last few months.
Then this game comes in with a lower than 8 score despite a decent number of community members holding it in higher regard. It gets compared to a lot of the other recent subpar games that got an 8 score, and there's grumblings. Whether or not this game is actually good or not, I appreciate the 6. Anything to break up the deluge of 8's, or to redefine the scoring system is a welcome change.
Well, this is a weird review. It keeps going on and on about exploration and sub-quests, but it fails to mention anything about the actual main gameplay! As a "first person adventure," does that means the gameplay is that of an FPS like with the Metroid Prime series? Exactly how good are the controls and gameplay? Is it a twin stick shooter, a motion-controlled shooter, some kind of hybrid system, or multiple controller options? What kind of upgrades do you get, and how fun are they to use? How could leave out such important information from this review?!
@Tate24 Alright, I watched the review videos you provided. They were a lot more informative than this lousy review, but they still left one important thing unanswered: What control schemes are available for this game?
@BulbasaurusRex there only one control set up - A - jump, left analogue stick - move, right analogue stick - aim, L bumper opens weapon and gear selection. And right trigger to fire.
Pretty simple you can adjust sensitive and invert controls if necessary.
Just about exploring really. if wanna skip every planet you see and just follow story you can do that but you'll never have enough chunks = money to upgrade anything so i think its valid to explore other planets.
Ive came across number bugs and glitches which have been reporting to developers about.
Thet mentioned update with new content and fixes so hopefully they will be resolved soon.
@Tate24 Drat, that's another game ruined with stupid dual analog controls! We've got these cool Joy-cons now, so why can't more developers start using them?!
@60frames-please mate, you're probably the most valued commenter on this site, I am quite literally obsessed with frames, so your information is insightful, helpful and highly appreciated!
They seem to have improved the frame rate with a patch. You can turn off visual effects and increase performance to 60 fps, which is awesome. Thank you! Also, I don't think it stays at 60. It isn't perfect, but the visual effects don't impress me nearly as much as 60 fps fluidity, so I'm grateful. Also, I haven't played the game extensively, so I don't know how the frame rate is over the course of the whole game. I wish we had digital foundry analysis on every little eShop release!
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