Morpheus

Rating:
Summary: Myst-like
Review: Morpheus is best described as being Myst-like. And if you liked Myst and Riven, then you'll like this game.

The scenery and setting are particularly well-done...you're on a boat frozen in the antartic ice. And the story is an intriguing mystery that you need to unravel. I found the story interesting and compelling, although a little odd. I'm not much of a game player, and was able to solve the game without the aid of any cheat-sheet. So it's not impossibly difficult, just pleasantly enjoyable.

Add in the fact that there is no violence and no vulgarity, and you have a first-class game. And at the discounted price that this software is selling for, if you're a gamer, then this is a must-buy. I liked this much better than the higher-priced "Deus Ex".

Rating:
Summary: A Haunting and Intricate Story
Review: Morpheus offers a haunting and intricate story, elaborate settings, and a significant amount of game play. The dialogue is well-written and I found myself drawn into the characters and story and not wanting the game to end. Puzzles range in difficulty from easy to fairly difficult, but all were fun to solve.

A criticism is that the voice acting is a bit hammy in parts. Also, the interface is a bit slow at times. However, these are minor criticisms, and it is important to note that I didn't experience any bugs or crashes while playing this game, which is an all-too-rare experience with this type of software product, unfortunately.

The thought, imagination and hard work that went into the creation of this game are evident. I recommend Morpheus to gamers who enjoyed games like Myst or Riven, and Morpheus represents a good value for the amount of entertainment and game play it offers.

Rating:
Summary: Can't Go Wrong
Review: Morpheus seems to be a sleeper amoung the adventure games. I played this one a few months ago and loved it. If you like games like Riven and Obsidian, you'll enjoy Morpheus, too.

Rating:
Summary: Morpheus: A World Where Dreams Never Die
Review: Morpheus:A World Where Dreams Never Die by Piranah. Should havebeen: A world where dreams never die because you will be eternallyasleep through most of this game. Oh, except of course, for the many and badly placed disc changes. For example, in one crucial part of the game you have to travel back and forth retrieving an item and between each trip you get to change your CD twice. Making it a total of 10 disk changes for one puzzle. Sound fun yet? It's Clue meets Titanic meets Myst.

If you like real-life cinematics and bad acting to boot, you'll just love this game. Although, I must say the animators did an excellent job. Besides it's beautiful animation and sound it was a tedious and non-challenging. Like most games of this caliber, you usually have an inventory where you carry items around, which, makes the puzzles more difficult to figure out. Instead it's a click and find atmosphere--where the puzzles become so obvious at times, that the game is over in half the time of it's competiors games. And how could I forget to mention my novel--oh uh I mean notepad for the clues. 90 percent of the puzzles require a photographic memory or the use of a notepad, so don't forget to stock up on scratch paper before you buy Morpheus.

Let's talk about the ending too. Did you ever wake up from a bad dream and it was all just an illusion?

Need I say more. END

Rating:
Summary: Not Very Interesting
Review: The graphics of this game were very good. However, this is one of the only strong features about this game. The story line had so much potential, but was enacted in a very lame fasion. The dream sequences good have been a lot better, and if there was a climax, I missed it. The puzzles were not very challenging, and the ending was weak. I would spend my money elsewhere.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, I just wish it had gone on longer
Review: The puzzles are well-integrated into the gameplay -- e.g. when you have to find a number to unlock a combo lock, it's invariably a number that was relevant to the character whose door it is.

The graphics are beautiful and the animations smooth. Granted, this is on a P3 600 with 32M of VRAM, but they were so perfect that I expect they'd be fine on a considerably lower-end system. (I was a touch annoyed that it did not automatically switch resolutions; I had to manually set my res to get it to use the whole screen; it's not hard, it's just that there've been games that could do this automatically for years, so how come not this one? Whatever...)

I liked the story. Sure, you have to suspend disbelief, since it's SF set in the recent past. But considering what a difficult genre that is, I thought they did a really impressive job. (Jules Verne and H.G. Wells would've loved the Herculania.) The ambience is great, helped along by a good mix of bg noises and a well-blended soundtrack. The characters, who at first appear rather flat and archetypal, actually each develop some depth as you learn more about their private passions and neuroses. (Of course, if you're impatient it's quite possible to win the game without ever exploring the nooks and crannies where you'll find this stuff; failing to find a large chunk of the story may have contributed to the low rating one of the other reviewers here gives.)

There's also a pretty decent mix of puzzle types. "Find the combo for the lock" is the most common, but there're a couple "manipulate the switches to the right position", and the odd bit of mathematical tomfoolery and wordplay here and there, something which I always enjoy. One of the lock puzzles even requires some Riven-esque attention to the environment. My only real complaint is that the "endgame" segment could've stood to have another puzzle added, something really tough to round out the sense of achievment. (I thought the colored-bead puzzle at the end of Riven was a great finisher.)

One last comparison to Myst/Riven: The ending is mysterious and leaves you a little confused, but unlike in Cyan's two big hits (which I love, don't get me wrong), you definitely have a _conclusion_. Whatever happenned, it's over, and there was a happy ending.

Regarding the caption: it wasn't a short game -- it spans three CDs, and a great variety of scenery -- I just was having so much fun I was sorry to see it end!

Rating:
Summary: That's What I Like!
Review: The year is 1957. You are an Arctic explorer, intent on solving the mystery of his father's disappearance some thirty years before. Unfortunately, you've become lost and it looks as though you're going to go the same way as dear old dad. You keep having these strange dreams. Coming out of one (or have you?), you suddenly find the icebound hulk of a cruise ship. When you climb on board to find shelter, you discover that the ship is the Herculania, the very vessel that your father was investigating when he was lost.

_Morpheus_ is a great example of a breed of adventure that pretty much started with MYST and is now, unfortunately for people like me, beginning to wane a bit in prominence: first person, point and click, atmospheric. You might call it "Amber on Ice;" like _Amber_ it involves somewhat supernatural phenomena and getting into the minds and dreams of others. The story that is revealed as you wander about the ship--presented in QT movies--is a kind of Phantom of the Opera with a gruesome twist. Unlike the stories in some other games, it is quite well-developed and realised, making for intriguing clues and puzzles integral to the story. The characters are, well, mental cases, but they are believable people and (with one exception) you end up feeling sympathy for them.

The graphics are really quite nice, with a 360-degree view. (My one complaint here was that though you could look around you to all sides, you could not look either up or down). The paths that you could travel were somewhat limited, however. In some rooms, you could, for example, only go into the corner by the desk. There were also a lot of things I would have liked to have been able to examine more closely. On the other hand, there were a few things that didn't seem to have any purpose. On the whole, the look trod the edge between sparse and lush, with backgrounds beautifully rendered but not too many objects.

As in MYST, the puzzles are largely mechanical. You need to make the ship work so you can figure out what's going on; you need to gain access to locked staterooms and so on. Later on there are some puzzles that involve acquiring inventory, but there is essentially no inventory you carry around; you use each item pretty much where you find it. There are no conversations and no interactions. For me, this was great; I prefer "true" puzzles to task accomplishment and mechanics to inventory. Others might find it tedious or difficult.

I ran this game on a brand new AMD 2800 with XP and the only real problem I had was that the mouse cursor was so extraordinarily sensitive that until I learned fine motor control I was all over the place. Fortunately, this didn't take long. I also had some problems with the movies: green screens and the like. I have heard there is a patch for this, but I couldn't find it.

_Morpheus_ took me about 25 hours to play. The start was slow and I wasn't sure I liked it at first. When things started to go together, I liked it a great deal. I was sorry to see it end, and the ending was quite abrupt!

Overall, this is the kind of adventure game that I like. If you're a fan of MYST an MYST-like games, you'll like this, too.

Rating:
Summary: That's What I Like!
Review: The year is 1957. You are an Arctic explorer, intent on solving the mystery of his father's disappearance some thirty years before. Unfortunately, you've become lost and it looks as though you're going to go the same way as dear old dad. You keep having these strange dreams. Coming out of one (or have you?), you suddenly find the icebound hulk of a cruise ship. When you climb on board to find shelter, you discover that the ship is the Herculania, the very vessel that your father was investigating when he was lost.

_Morpheus_ is a great example of a breed of adventure that pretty much started with MYST and is now, unfortunately for people like me, beginning to wane a bit in prominence: first person, point and click, atmospheric. You might call it "Amber on Ice;" like _Amber_ it involves somewhat supernatural phenomena and getting into the minds and dreams of others. The story that is revealed as you wander about the ship--presented in QT movies--is a kind of Phantom of the Opera with a gruesome twist. Unlike the stories in some other games, it is quite well-developed and realised, making for intriguing clues and puzzles integral to the story. The characters are, well, mental cases, but they are believable people and (with one exception) you end up feeling sympathy for them.

The graphics are really quite nice, with a 360-degree view. (My one complaint here was that though you could look around you to all sides, you could not look either up or down). The paths that you could travel were somewhat limited, however. In some rooms, you could, for example, only go into the corner by the desk. There were also a lot of things I would have liked to have been able to examine more closely. On the other hand, there were a few things that didn't seem to have any purpose. On the whole, the look trod the edge between sparse and lush, with backgrounds beautifully rendered but not too many objects.

As in MYST, the puzzles are largely mechanical. You need to make the ship work so you can figure out what's going on; you need to gain access to locked staterooms and so on. Later on there are some puzzles that involve acquiring inventory, but there is essentially no inventory you carry around; you use each item pretty much where you find it. There are no conversations and no interactions. For me, this was great; I prefer "true" puzzles to task accomplishment and mechanics to inventory. Others might find it tedious or difficult.

I ran this game on a brand new AMD 2800 with XP and the only real problem I had was that the mouse cursor was so extraordinarily sensitive that until I learned fine motor control I was all over the place. Fortunately, this didn't take long. I also had some problems with the movies: green screens and the like. I have heard there is a patch for this, but I couldn't find it.

_Morpheus_ took me about 25 hours to play. The start was slow and I wasn't sure I liked it at first. When things started to go together, I liked it a great deal. I was sorry to see it end, and the ending was quite abrupt!

Overall, this is the kind of adventure game that I like. If you're a fan of MYST an MYST-like games, you'll like this, too.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This game will take you on a trip trough the past into the future. It triggered my fantasy with it's wonderful graphics and intriguing story line. Puzzles were difficult but fun. You need not buy a hint book to enjoy this game which has a lovely surprise ending.

Rating:
Summary: a nice trip for sci-fi lovers
Review: This game will take you on a trip trough the past into the future. It triggered my fantasy with it's wonderful graphics and intriguing story line. Puzzles were difficult but fun. You need not buy a hint book to enjoy this game which has a lovely surprise ending.