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According to The American Heritage
Dictionary, Morpheus is "the god of dreams and of
the forms dreaming sleepers see, now existing in popular literary
allusion as the god of sleep, or sleep itself." To quote
the bard of "adventure" literature, "To sleep,
perchance to dream", but you may not want to dream after
playing Piranha and Soap Bubble's latest release, Morpheus.
If you are a fan of Amber, Lighthouse, Myst
and their ilk then Morpheus is the concoction needed to
warm your intellectual soul on a dark, dreary evening. This is
not a hunt-the-pixel, add another item to your bulging inventory
game. Nor is it an animated romp with Disneyesque graphics. Rather,
Morpheus is a game of discovery, logic and observation.
You must immerse yourself into the moody atmosphere and the ambient
sounds of the game. You must mentally transmogrify yourself to
think and behave as each individual in the game would or you
will forever wander hopelessly in their dreamworld.
The Plot:
Your adventure begins as you
find yourself aboard an icebound ship in the Arctic. You are
known only as "The Explorer" and you are in search
of the truth behind the disappearance of your father some twenty-five
years ago. As the Arctic wind whistles about and you squint your
eyes to prevent snow blindness you spot a ghostly apparition
- the first clue that this ship may be the Herculania (think
Titanic), a famous ship that disappeared during it's maiden voyage.
Your first task is to figure out how to restore power to the
frozen vessel and once this feat has been accomplished your destiny
beckons as you attempt to solve the dual mysteries of your missing
progenitor and the surprising discovery that there were special
guests aboard the Herculania. As you will discover early in the
game, these special guests were unknowingly part of a dangerous
experiment conducted by a Dr. Malherbe and now you must enter
their long dormant dreamworlds and attempt to finish what was
interrupted many years ago. If you have played Amber (one
of my all-time favorite games) then this part of the plot will
be familiar. But, whereas in Amber you had to don a special
helmet to enter the dreamworlds of the apparitions, Morpheus
incorporates a machine called the Neurographicon. As you find
the serum that belongs to each character you then enter a machine
that resembles an Iron Maiden to begin your phantasmagoric journey.
One of the more impressive aspects of the depth of the plot is
the characterization of each ship passenger. You must become
familiar with their individual interests and peccadilloes if
you hope to advance the storyline. This familiarity with these
character's lifestyles and dreams adds a rich complexity not
found in many of today's games. All is not doom and gloom though,
there are some nice subtle touches of humor in the game (a marred
Honus Wagner baseball card in Billy Mexler's stateroom) and some
not so subtle humor (the bidet scene is classic). The Plot
receives a grade of A.
The Graphics:
Morpheus' graphics are for the most part what
have been come to be known as "Myst-Like" graphics.
There is full 360 degree panning and seamless animation. Movement
is accomplished via the traditional left mouse click on an arrow
on the screen. While the graphics for the most part are crystal
clear, I did experience some pixelation during some transitions
(I played on a 200MMX Pentium with a Voodoo 1 card and 96mb memory).
Many scenes have a surreal, almost dreamlike quality to them
(this would of course be in keeping with the nature of the plot).
There was only one occasion where I encountered insufficient
graphic quality that caused a problem and that was in a grotto
cave in one of the dreamworlds. Of course part of the problem
was also caused by my well-documented frustration with mazes
(For fellow maze haters, the grotto cave maze is very, very short).
What really stands out though is the quality of the video during
the flashback sequences. They have an eerie feature to them that
make you feel as though you are really eavesdropping upon a conversation
among spirits. If you have played the 7th Guest or the
11th Hour then you are already familiar with this effect.
Morpheus seems to have specific hot spots on the screen
that trigger these sequences and most of them can and must be
viewed many times in order to catch the audio and visual clues
that are supplied. The Graphics for Morpheus receive
a grade of A-.
Sound, Music, Voice Acting:
As Morpheus begins,
you are standing on the deck of a frozen ship and as you turn
and look at the blanket of snow that envelopes the landscape
before you the eerie sound of the whistling, almost whispering
wind sets the tone for the sound effects in the game. They are
without par. At times they are probably too realistic. Do we
really need to hear another realistic vomit effect? The music
also is never intrusive. It always seems to set the tone for
the scene. The music is light and airy when it needs to be and
deep and melodramatic at all of the appropriate places. The voice
acting though is the clincher. Never did I find it to be overly
melodramatic. Even the voice over of your character, the Explorer,
has a questioning aspect to it just as we would if placed in
the same situation. The Sound, Music and Voice Acting for
Morpheus all receive a grade of A.
The Puzzles:
As any true adventure gamer
knows, the most integral component of any game of this genre
is the adventure and the puzzle solving. Morpheus has
enough puzzles for two games. Morpheus has puzzles within
puzzles. Morpheus has too many difficult puzzles! The
puzzles are always fair and they always make sense after you
have solved them, but the non-linearity of the game once you
have activated the ship and the immense amount of information
and clues that is available for digestion via exploration and
flashbacks makes for a mountain of information. Perseverance,
note-taking and repeat viewings of the flashbacks all become
vital to complete the game. The complexity of some of the puzzles,
even early in the game when you need to figure out the 3-digit
codes to the passenger's staterooms, can leave you frustrated.
But, this is also one of those games that will invade your thoughts
while you are not playing as you suddenly realize that innocuous
objects are clues when placed in context with their owner. While
the flashback sequences are not interactive, they are integral
to the plot and also provide essential verbal and visual clues
to further the puzzles along. Unlike the video clips from the
7th Guest, 11th Hour which were nothing more than
a movie cut into small parts, the clips in Morpheus almost
always provide a clue to the storyline. The puzzles in Morpheus
receive a grade of B.
Final Grade:
Is Morpheus for everyone?
No. It is one of those games that the major gaming magazines
will scornfully review as being too obtuse or as committing that
unpardonable sin of having "gasp" full-motion-video.
It is also not for beginners. There are some minor problems with
the gameplay. Occasional disk swapping between the 3 hybrid cds
mar the suspense in some scenes and it would have been great
to have a map to click on to take you instantly to a room that
you had already visited. Instead you must constantly walk around
looking for the elevator or pair of steps to take you to the
next floor. This became frustrating at times when I would remember
something I saw on the other side of the ship and had to go through
endless clicking to return to that spot.
What Morpheus is though
is a solid adventure game experience wherein the sum of the parts
add up to an engrossing, challenging whole. The conclusion wraps
up the game nicely and makes it all seem worthwhile. It is really
a feeling of satisfaction to complete this game. It does not
jump on the new action/adventure bandwagon that seems to be prevalent
in almost every adventure game coming out this fall/winter. Morpheus
is an adventure experience for those gamers crying out for a
return to pure adventure.
Final Grade: A-
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