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Morpheus. It's not a sequel. It's not a clone.
And you won't need a 3D card to play it. It's a plain and simple
immersive and compelling adventure game we all want to play.
What's the appeal? Great graphics,
absorbing story-line, interesting characters… I could go
on, and I will. Put plain and simply, Morpheus is a massive
game that pulls you into the story, into the dream worlds, and
the feeling accomplished stays with you long after you've taken
the last disk out of the CD drive and placed the box into storage.
The Plot:
The game starts off with a
video of "The Explorer," Matthew Holmes, as he records
a journal entry into his tape recorder. He explains that it's
been days since he's last seen his crew of men-separated in the
blizzard. He then enters a sleep and visions appear in his head.
Visions from other peoples dreams, not of his own. What are they?
Whose dreams are these? He awakes to find that the blizzard has
calmed down, and he sees a shadow cast nearby. What is it? As
he moves closer he sees it's a ship, mounted in the ice of the
Arctic. Could it be the Herculania?
You take control of the explorer
from here. Inch by inch you solve puzzles and dig deeper into
the story. As the game progresses you meet new characters, or
rather the ghosts of their characters, and find the appropriate
3-digit codes to enter their staterooms. Once inside a stateroom
more secrets are revealed and the mystery of Morpheus
is more tangled than before. Don't fret though. In a matter of
time things begin to make sense and the game comes to a satisfying
conclusion. The plot of Morpheus receives an A.
The Graphics:
Morpheus is seen through a 360-degree 3D environment.
You can pan fully from left-to-right or right-to-left and slightly
up or down. The graphics on the ship are quite stunning and are
a pleasure to look at. After I had completed the first puzzle
to move on in the ship, and then rested the power, I spent the
next 15 minutes or so exploring the ship and taking in the scenery.
The artists did a wonderful job.
FMV shots are incorporated
into the environment to show the ghostly characters in a flashback-style
effect. The best way to describe them would be to say they are
much like The 7th Guest and it's sequel The 11th
hour only they seem to me much clearer and smoother in Morpheus.
I must say that these flashbacks are so well done that I can't
remember how many time I've jumped out of the seat when one of
them came on the screen. The video, along with the jumpy music
played with them, is quite an experience.
I rarely came by any pixelation,
but on my slower computer I needed to play in small screen mode
to get panning. I also found that very rarely did the voice overs
match the animation, but that could also be due my slow processor.
At least a Pentium 133 is recommended to play in large screen
mode however the game was still quite thrilling in small screen.
The graphics in Morpheus receive a grade of B+.
Sound, Music, and Voice
Acting:
Eerie music is abound in Morpheus
and often times it fits so well with the situation that you hardly
notice it. That's definitely a good thing. Sound effects are
used when needed and always seem appropriately. I thought overall
that the acting was well done both voice acting and FMV acting.
There was however one annoyance I had which was with the voice
of The Explorers father. To be frank, it stunk. The volume was
not loud enough so I was straining to hear what he was saying,
and the tone of his voice was so dull I felt like grabbing him
and throwing him across the room. Of course I'm not a violent
person so I wouldn't do that… but if I was I would! So watch
out Mr. Holmes! In all seriousness, the majority of the voice
acting were extremely well done, with the exception of the above
example. This category receives a grade of B.
The Puzzles:
If there's one category Morpheus
suffers in, it's not this one. There are a variety of puzzles
in the game and they are all well sorted and designed. You start
off in the game with a puzzle you must solve to get deeper into
the ship. It is a bit difficult, but with a bit of common knowledge
(sign reads break glass with mallet… hmm) any adventurer
be it novice or hardcore, will find Morpheus a joy to
play.
After you've completed a puzzle,
you do actually feel a great sense of completion. Sort of like
when you said "Wow mom, look no hands!" when you learned
to ride your bike with no hands.
In each dreamworld there are
three main puzzles you have to beat, but some of them require
more than one step. You must find three of the item for that
dream (ex a flower, a flame etc.) and you will be sent back to
"reality" and move on to your next dream. After all
of the dreams have been completed (there are 5 of them) well…
I won't say what happens, but let's just say it's worth the puzzles.
And for the record, I came upon no puzzles that I would label
twiddle wear. Thank you! Finally someone listens to us! Don't
mind me, I'm just happy. The puzzles of Morpheus receive
an A+!
Final Grade:
As you can probably see by
now, I love Morpheus, but it was not always that way.
At first sight, I thought it was simply another Myst clone.
But I was very wrong. Morpheus is an experience no adventure
gamer should be without. With a great plot, ravishing graphics
decent voice acting and a load of intelligent puzzles to top
everything off, Morpheus is a definite bullseye.
Final Grade: A |
