Rude awakening

Barely awake from suspended animation, you sense the ship is about to crash. Your other companion isn’t as lucky; you find him slumped down on the floor, lifeless. Inside the cockpit, the pilot, who also happens to be your captain, is skewered to his seat with a long steel rod, unable to move. The console for steering the ship is blown. Still a bit groggy, you work your way to the other console and try to lift the ship – but it will not cooperate. What do you do?

That is how Morningstar begins.

There’s a lot to like in Morningstar that it seems the better question would be “What’s there not to like?” The game’s graphics were very well-made and polished. There’s enough detail in each location for those who like to explore objects. Some details were also put in to keep the game realistic, which is a nice touch. For instance, most of the game is seen from inside the helmet of the remaining functional member of the team, and to this end the artists incorporated barely noticeable scratches on the helmet’s lens, as well as crosshair lines on the sides.

The introductory and ending animation scenes were spectacular. I found myself watching it over and over while I was checking out different places in the game. There is very minimal animation within the game itself, however. Apart from probably a couple of places, most of the game features static images, which is fine, since the protagonist’s goal isn’t here to fight with hordes of unknown aliens. He’s looking to get the hell out.

Most of Morningstar’s puzzles are quite easy, but it helps sometimes to be patient especially as there are instances where one needs to figure out which item can be used with another. For those uninitiated to point-and-click games, Morningstar offers a lot of helpful clues in the form of witty dialogues between you and your captain. Of course, if you find yourself stuck somewhere along the game, the game includes a handy link to a walkthrough. It also allows the player to save and load their game from three available save slots, which can be accessed through a menu in the corner.

The music is solid, and it lends a haunting atmosphere to the game. It helped keep me on edge looking for clues what to do while I was playing the game. The voice parts for both the protagonist and the captain were decent and well-acted, but my thinking was, anything that provides clues to what you need to accomplish next has to be heard and read as well.

So what is there not to like, then? A minor bug: at the time that I played, I reached a point where, to avoid spoilers, I had to get over to another part of the land. Setting up the means to reach that part of the land triggered one of my default response soundbites to the captain to be looped over and over, which was a little irritating. When I reached that part where I needed to go, the soundbite stopped, and the problem never recurred. Still, this is a minor bug, and most likely by the time you have played the game, this might already be fixed.

Overall, Morningstar is one of those Flash games that deserve to be played. It contains most, if not all, the merits of a solid adventure game. If you like a good science fiction adventure with puzzles that are challenging enough, and with great visuals to boot, I suggest heading over to Bubblebox and play this game.

Two of a Kind

One of the things I generally look for in games is how well-meshed the gameplay is with the narrative. Inform author Graham Nelson himself wrote about it in his introduction to his essay The Craft of Adventure, where he refers to adventure games as “a crossword at war with a narrative.”

Fortunately, Ben Chandler’s games Shifter’s Box – Outside In and Heed did not disappoint.

The Color and the Shade

Since I had some available time this week, I went on a lark and visited the AGS forums to see what’s cooking. One link led to another, which led me to their Pick of the Month for May 2009: Fading Shades. The blurb for the POTM also reminded me of another first-person game I’ve always meant to finish – Unbound.

The Silliness of it all

I don’t know what to make of The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge (henceforth referred to as “Desert Bridge”). After playing through nearly all of Kyratzes’s games, with all of their grim and determined stance against war and its effects, here comes Desert Bridge – an amusing, whimsical, colorful, and serious game.

In a sense, it’s a lot more fun.

New Jonas Kyratzes Game Released

Here’s a new title off Jonas Kyratzes’s drawing board: The Strange and Somewhat Sinister Tale of the House at Desert Bridge, released just 2 days ago.

Desert Bridge opening screen

The game features music by composer Helen Trevillion and colorful hand-drawn art by artist Verena Huber. I still haven’t started playing the game yet, but the screenshots on Jonas’s site look pretty promising.