Morphite Review – More Polygons Than Pleasure

Morphite

Morphite (Crescent Moon Games)

<p><em>Morphite<&sol;em>&colon; an ancient an elusive <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;crescentmoongames&period;com&sol;wordpress&sol;morphite&sol;">substance<&sol;a>&comma; coveted for its reality-bending properties&&num;8211&semi;namely&comma; the ability to morph into different forms of matter&period; Ancient civilizations worshiped it&comma; enshrining it all over the galaxy&period; And modern civilizations would kill for it&comma; hunting it with military precision&period; And you&comma; one loan scientific researcher&comma; must piece the puzzle together and find the answer before the worst can happen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The lurid tale pulls the player in deeper as she treks across the galaxy&comma; one procedurally-generated planet at a time&comma; gathering scientific data on exotic lifeforms&period; In truth&comma; less-than-exotic lifeforms&period; Partly as an effect of the low polygon count and partly&comma; I assume&comma; a lack of creative diversity on behalf of the developers&comma; many lifeforms will look the same from planet to planet&comma; but may very well register as different organisms&period; Or not&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-137647" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;26102448&sol;morphite-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"337" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>The Graphics Of Morphite<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>The low poly style is certainly unique in an age focused on high-res gaming&comma; but in a game where identifying unique species is tantamount to your objective&comma; the idea that almost everything looks the same is absolutely defeating&period; Really&comma; the only way to know that you’ve already scanned something is to try to scan everything&period; Repeatedly&period; Because it’s really hard to get your bearings&period; Because everything looks the same&period; Exactly&period; The&period; Same&period; Is this tree-thing a Blargon&quest; A Zorg&quest; A Rosencrantz or a Guildenstern&quest; Is it healthy&comma; sickly&comma; coated in powdered sugar&quest; Sigh&period; I don’t know… I guess I should scan it…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Wash&period; Rinse&period; Repeat&period; Until you’ve gathered enough materials to craft the upgrades you need to continue the story progression&period; Of course&comma; you’ll also need to explore the planets to find the Conversion Chambers that allow you to perform your suit upgrades&period; Make note of the more convenient places you find them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Kitcat is amusing&comma; at least&period; He’s your little robot-cat sidekick&period; He’s snarky and sarcastic&comma; like robots should be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>This Unusual Transportation<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>For a reason I have yet to truly identify&comma; you can rent vehicles on some planets&period; Anecdotally speaking&comma; these are beyond useless&comma; as they cost you credits and can’t take you anywhere your adventurous little feet won’t&period; I have found some &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;communities” where you can rent half a dozen vehicles&comma; but the roaming space was so small or geographically varied&comma; that I could accomplish little more than hoover from the foot of one rock to another&comma; maybe a football field away&period; Then there are plenty of vast planet areas where no such transportation can be found&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-137648" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2018&sol;02&sol;26102908&sol;morphite-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"337" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Aside from these &lpar;let’s call them&rpar; shortcomings-by-design&comma; I have also encountered more shortcomings-by-execution than I would expect in a market-ready game&period; Most frequently&comma; I fall straight through the playable area&comma; generally while trying to traverse some mountainous topography&period; The sensation is pleasant enough&&num;8211&semi;once the entire world drops away and it’s just you&comma; a muted sunset&comma; and the endless blue polygon of oblivion&period; I’m given cause to believe they prepared for this&comma; however&comma; because once I reached the edge of the universe I woke up&period; Back in my landing pod&period; Like nothing had happened&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3>Some Glitches Are Okay&comma; Others Not So Much<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p>Infinitely more irksome though was the glitch where the pterodactyl-like boss&comma; the Nargul&comma; got itself stuck on a piece of the map&period; It could not free itself&comma; nor could I damage it&period; I had to restart the game and begin the encounter anew&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On the note of combat&comma; weapons are much better used for their puzzling purposes&semi; what little combat there is doesn’t feel exactly necessary and would have probably been better addressed through the lens of a puzzle&comma; too&period; You are a novice scientific researcher&comma; after all&comma; not Lara Croft&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I don’t think it’s fair to necessarily qualify it as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;redeeming characteristic&comma;” but it’s worth noting that the music is much more interesting than the gameplay&period; If you’re into ambient techno&comma; I might recommend acquiring an <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;carparkrecords&period;com&sol;products&sol;603158-cakd46-evan-gipson-the-music-of-morphite">OST<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In summary&comma; <em>Morphite<&sol;em> presents itself almost like a poor man’s <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;no-mans-sky-review-discover-the-universe-yourself&sol;"><em>No Man’s Sky<&sol;em><&sol;a> &lpar;an unfortunately <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;no-mans-skys-advertising-investigated-misrepresentation&sol;">low bar<&sol;a>&rpar;&period; Exploring is boring&period; Combat is boring&period; The monochrome planets&comma; plants and animals&comma; the characters—all boring&comma; as few polygons in their personalities as are in their universe&period; The soundtrack is groovy&comma; though&period; For Android or iOS users&comma; this game might offer a unique on-the-go experience&comma; but for console gamers&comma; it is an underwhelming expenditure of your hard-won time&comma; energy&comma; and money&period; You can pick up a copy for a steep &dollar;14&period;99 on <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;store&period;steampowered&period;com&sol;app&sol;661740&sol;Morphite&sol;">Steam<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;microsoft&period;com&sol;en-us&sol;store&sol;p&sol;morphite&sol;bp1x6ccp4n49">Xbox<&sol;a>&comma; or <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;playstation&period;com&sol;en-us&sol;games&sol;morphite-ps4&sol;">PS4<&sol;a>&comma; for &dollar;7&period;99 on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;itunes&period;apple&period;com&sol;us&sol;app&sol;morphite&sol;id1125093361&quest;mt&equals;8">iTunes<&sol;a>&comma; or for FREE on <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;play&period;google&period;com&sol;store&sol;apps&sol;details&quest;id&equals;com&period;crescentmoongames&period;morphite&amp&semi;hl&equals;en">Google Play<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em>A copy of Morphite for Xbox One was provided by Crescent Moon Games for the purposes of this review&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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