[Review] Morphite

Developer: Blowfish Studios Publisher: Level 77

Release Date: 11.2.17

So, you want to go on a great space adventure. At first glance, Morphite may not look like it can deliver that, but don’t judge it too quickly. The 3D Polygon graphics will instantly bring you back to Starfox, while the depth that this game offers brings you what No Man’s Sky promised.

Our story begins with Myrah being sent off on a mission to a nearby planet within her system. She goes scavenging some minerals and scanning some of the wildlife and fauna before returning to report her findings and being sent off to yet another planet to do even more scavenging. It is on this second planet where Myrah comes up close to the titular rare mineral, Morphite. A mysterious orb that is trapped within a glass container.

That is until Myrah breaks it out and it begins following her. She continues on until she comes across a throne nestled on a small hill. The Morphite ascends to the throne and instantly transforms into ion grenades in from of Myrah’s eyes. As the transformation happens, a group of what appear to be soldiers land on the planet and chase after Myrah. Once again, she returns home to report her findings and is immediately pulled off the rest of the mission due to her strange interaction with the Morphite. Instead of listening, she packs up and heads out, taking the mission on by herself.

With the galaxy spread out before you, filled with procedural-generated planets each with its own distinct animal and plant life, you get to uncover the story of Myrah and her strange connection to the rare mineral. Along with your main mission, each system and its planets are loaded with side missions for you to take on as well.

You get use of Myrah’s ship to travel between systems. The fuel in the game regenerates slowly over time and, unless you upgrade, you’ll only have enough fuel to hop one planet at a time. You can land, spend some time on the surface looking for any available missions and, by the time you return to your ship, you’ll have enough to make the next jump.

Scanning things is your biggest way to make money. With every planet having its own specific plant and animal life, people elsewhere in the galaxy will pay money for these scans, just to know what else is out there. You can also make money off the minerals you collect, but for the most part you’ll want to hold on to these as they are crucial for upgrades to your ship and Myrah’s suit. Myrah’s suit upgrades can be done on just about any of the planets and you can upgrade things like your resistance to severely hot and cold temperatures. This gives you access to even more planets to land on.

One thing I really enjoyed about this game were the random asteroid fields that you have to navigate through. After you choose a planet to land on, you will receive a warning about an incoming asteroid field and then be switched to an out-of-ship perspective to navigate the deadly rocks.

Graphically, this game won’t stand out to impress. It’s built off of 3D Polygons, giving everything a very blocky look. I say this simply to make note of it because even built like this, the game and all it’s planets still look really good. They even manage to give all the humanoid characters (at least the ones not wearing helmets) little noses. It’s such a tiny detail but it helps give everything a little bit more depth and character.

While I wasn’t blown away by Morphite, I wasn’t put off by it either. The vast universe does seem to go on forever and the story does its best to pull you to all corners of all the worlds. So whether you want to follow Myrah’s adventure or take off on your own, Morphite promises plenty of hours to do so. It’s worth noting that every person’s experience with this game may vary from playthrough to playthrough. The procedural generation makes for a good variation, so someone playing the game themselves may not come across the same things I did while playing, or not in the same manner either.