Morpheus

1998 Soap Bubble Productions
Designed by Glen Dean, Tammy Drew
Reviewed 1999 October 10

Rating -3 Linearity wide, branching
Reasonability reasonable Connectivity minimal
Difficulty easy Relevance weak
Interface 1st 360 simple Real-time none

You are an arctic explorer in 1952. You are separated from your companions while trying to learn what happened to your father, who was lost in the arctic 24 years earlier. You slip towards unconsciousness and see the ship your father had set out towards before he disappeared. You then explore the ship, learning of its mission. You learn of its passengers, and must solve their mystery in order to learn the fate of your father.

It's a serviceable story for a game, although not exceptional. The characters (the passengers and crew) are simply drawn, but diverse. Unfortunately, the story is not well told. It is just arbitrarily blurted out as you click on hotspots or perform unrelated actions. While most of the challenges are dressed up in the decor of the ship and the dream worlds you visit, they are irrelevant to the story and their locales. They're not quite standalone logic puzzles, but they also don't operate within the principles of their world nor within the story. This dissociation reduces the story's impact.

The challenges mostly involve noticing connections between various aspects of the game worlds and acting upon them. I.e., there's often no noticeable goal to your actions: you do what can be done, and something happens. The something is frequently complete magic, too, not following any physics. The challenges are easy, with obvious clues and simple deductions. A few might require pause, but you'll usually see the solution once you've explored enough to find the clue.

The game presents the standard 360 degree first person view. There's no inventory to speak of, although there are a few places where you carry an object in your hand (as in Myst). I had some minor trouble controlling the fast spin, often resulting in my unintentionally jumping forward after a short spin.

The poor design of the challenges and their lack of believable integration with the story leaves little to recommend. The challenges are uninspired and easy, not worth the time for their own sake. The story is not exciting enough or clever enough to stand on its own, with no support from the game side.


Beware! Here are some spoiler-ridden notes on the game. They're only recommended for people who have played the game and want to see some of my rationale for my evaluations.
David Tanguay's Game Reviews
Here's a description of all the gobbledygook in these reviews. It's also a bit of an essay on the nature of adventure games.