Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock

The game is short but has an interesting and enjoyable story. The puzzles are simple, but if you get stuck you can get a hint from the radio. I enjoyed playing the game, but I suggest you get the game when its on sale because the game is short.

[h2]Cleverly presented, slightly undercooked[/h2] Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock is a point-and-click adventure, but not the traditional sort where you spend half your life watching someone walk from the left side of the screen to the right, realise you forgot something, and send them back again. Instead, most locations are essentially still images - and I rather like that. It gives the game a slight hidden-object-game feel without actually becoming one. There are a few animations, but they don't get in the way. Even if the limited animation was originally a cost-saving decision, it was a [i]good[/i] cost-saving decision. One doesn't get to say that terribly often. The interface helps enormously. Sweeping the mouse across a scene activates a sort of scanner that highlights points of interest, neatly breaking up the usual hidden-object logic of staring suspiciously at every pixel until something admits to being interactive. The first-person perspective also allows Powell to comment on things through little conversations with himself, while the wounded captain serves as an in-world hint system who can point you in the right direction. Better still, the occasional dry verbal nudges between the two give the game some welcome humour. The puzzles are the weaker part. Most are fairly straightforward and rarely require much lateral thinking until the final stretch, and the whole adventure is rather short. There is also some magnificently convenient engineering going on. Apparently human technology can be inserted into broken alien machinery when required. Naturally. I look forward to repairing my next toaster with components from a crashed Klingon battlecruiser. The story likewise stops just when it feels as though it ought to start answering the larger questions it has raised. Perhaps that ambiguity was intentional. Perhaps the resolution simply wasn't part of the minimum viable product (MVP) when someone suddenly announced that it was publishing day. In that case, Morningstar may have achieved the rarer [i]Minimum Marketable Product[/i] (MMP). There isn't quite enough depth here, and the plot could easily have supported considerably more development. Still, the unusual presentation, very effective interface and pleasantly understated exchanges between the protagonists make the journey worthwhile. [b]Thumbs up[/b] - just don't expect Deadrock to surrender all its secrets before the credits do.

way to short

A nice point and click sci-fi adventure game.

it is a sort of graphic novel. with 'find the spot' links to other views, rooms or closer examinations. good, but can be annoying if your 'make the connection, find the dot' muscles are failing or absent.

I [i]want[/i] to say it's a cute little point & click but that'd be a misnomer since the astronaut corpses and inhospitable alien desert don't exactly work with "cute". However, it is certainly charming in its own way and I enjoyed what was there quite a bit. It is not long, not long at all, and the asking price of $10 might be a tad high. I'd certainly recommend getting it on sale, but if you like short sci-fi stories or just want a decent way to spend a couple hours this is certainly worth playing. My biggest gripe, beyond the short length, is probably that the protagonist has such a dull and humourless voice. It's not offensive, it just lacks [i]life[/i] as though he's reading from cue cards. The only other person you speak to is the wounded captain, who I thought for [b]sure[/b] was dead as a doornail but shockingly survives the crash seen in the game's introduction. Unlike Powell, I think that's the player character's name, Novak actually sounds like a guy who is incapacitated and can't believe his only hope of salvation is someone who doesn't care for him. There is not a lot of meat story-wise, and as already said the protagonist is about as dry as toast, but I was genuinely interested to see where it was going. What caused the ship to crash, what happened here, etc. Most of these are answered by the game, but one little thing near the end just sort of.. exists as perhaps an unintentional plot thread left dangling. I couldn't help but feel either there was going to be a sequel or some content was cut for various reasons. The puzzles, if you can call them that, are mostly done via using inventory on each other - such as making a shovel - or on things to interact with. However, towards the end is a fairly neat little segment I don't want to spoil. At first I thought it'd be daunting but like the rest of the game it was just [i]cute[/i] and harmless puzzle. You can radio Novak who will sometimes give you a hint by reminding you to do something you might have forgotten about.

eerie but in a relaxing way