Developed by We’re Five Games
Published by Crescent Moon Games
Reviewed on PlayStation 4 (also available on Xbox One, Steam, and iOS)
Morphite, an ambitious title from We’re Five Games, is the product of distinctive art style meeting a niche of FPS that is rarely explored: the planet exploring FPS. The first impressions for most people will be that this game is “No Man’s Sky with less textures.” This is definitely a wrong approach. Morphite is as much inspired by old-school Turok titles from the Nintendo 64 generation as it is inspired by Gamecube-era Metroid Prime titles.
Gameplay is structured around visiting small sections of an individual planet. You’ll be exploring and investigating that planet, then flying from your ship to the next destination designed by the plot or via free roam. Planets designated for visit by the plot are more detailed, most likely due to curation, while planets not designated by it feel like they’re generated by a random seed. This gives rise to planets that may require upgrades to your equipment in order to explore adequately. Many planets may feature hostile and friendly alien species, side quests, or ancient temples where you can boldly go where few have survived. Many times in your journey you will encounter in space friendly or hostile ships, asteroid fields, and other events to liven up the experience between landfall on individual planets.
Visually Morphite goes for a recreation of late-PS1, early-PS2 titles lo-fi aesthetic. Big flat textures are used to artistic results, opting to color and detail polygons rather than resort to textures. This choice makes objects appear in high detail from long ranges. This approach also allows Morphite to scale well to different platforms like iOS easier, which means more time is spent developing new planets and adding new features.
As far as sound goes, Morphite appeals for the synth lover with its slow buildup and drawn out chords. Despite none of the characters having distinctive mouths or much of any facial features, they are fully voice acted, allowing for story and squabbles alike to unfold while you concentrate on escaping a giant mosquito or looming dinosaur.
