14 DAY TRIAL // 
Sometimes we have the opportunity to play games with a different inspiration than shooting aliens, relieving historical moments, executing crazy stunts, or feeding the gasoline addiction of our inner driver. Among the boldest attempts to break free from the boundaries set by the well-established genre were masterpieces like Flower, a videogame that let you experience a beautiful story in which you played the role of the wind or experiments like Tokyo Jungle where you had the chance to build your own animal dynasty.
Metamorphosis is built on the unnerving vision of Franz Kafka, inspired by one of his most well-known short stories in which you will have to solve an existential crisis after being turned into a bug. The game developed by Ovid Works starts similarly as the book upon which is based: Gregor Samsa wakes up after a bender, feeling unwell and rather strange.
Fighting his hangover, he soon realizes that he was turned into a bug. Bent on finding answers and helping his friend accused of a murder he accepts a surreal task to reach The Tower, a mystical place which promises to be the solution to all his problems, and his only chance to return to his human form.
Not just the premises, but also the entire game of Metamorphosis is an unusual one. Just like the work of the famous Czech writer, this adventure game mixes masterfully the mundane and the supernatural. The result is a first-person crawling simulator with occasional puzzles and platforming challenges. There are no dominant gameplay mechanics, and the game feels rather an elaborate excuse to make the player muse on some existential questions.
As such, the game is pushed forward by its story built around interactions with other insects. These encounters are based on well-written dialogues and although at first, they will seem a bit chaotic, soon you will realize that the developers did a good job in bringing to life an elaborate game world. One of the biggest parts of the fun is figuring out and beating the bureaucracy that makes it almost impossible to reach the Tower.
While the story unfolds as a masterfully woven tapestry, the gameplay itself proves to be rather repetitive. Although I referred to it as an adventure game, Metamorphosis is best described as a walking simulator with some adventure elements and some platforming sections. Despite this genre combining, there is not much to do beyond figuring out how to overcome the environment using your bug legs dipped in various sticky substances, and completing one fetch quest after another.
All the interactions needed to forward the story are based on an elaborate quid pro quo hierarchy, in which you have to do different favors to various NPCs. This makes sense taking into consideration the satire to the address of bureaucracy, but it also feels like an uninspired way to extend the length of the game. Even with all the walking around from NPC to NPC, Metamorphosis can be finished in roughly four hours. Although brief, the environments are varied and overall the game is fun, mainly thanks to the fact that it is set two worlds in sharp contrast.
The atmosphere greatly benefits from the switches between the mundane, represented by the human environments, and the surreal of the hidden insect world. And this is the point where the game departs from the novel: it substitutes desperation with a much lighter approach to this unusual identity crisis.
Technically the game is far from a masterpiece. The artistic style itself does a great job of creating an immersive atmosphere, but the graphics themselves are completely outdated. And maybe this is the biggest setback of the game - the surreal scenes could have benefited from a more detailed visual representation that does not feel like a PS3 game.
The audio part is in sharp contrast with the visuals, thanks to the very well put together the soundtrack. Both the effects and the tunes match perfectly the situations unfolding on the screen and together they do a wonderful job to highlight the story and create the surreal atmosphere, which almost makes us forget about the graphics engine.
The Good
- Varied environments
- Brilliant surreal atmosphere
- A very well put together soundtrack
The Bad
- Too short
- Outdated graphics
- Dull gameplay
Conclusion
But it feels more like a quite short interactive experience, rather than a videogame. Metamorphosis lacks variety and cohesive gameplay, focusing too much on the story and the atmosphere. As such even the current price may seem a bit high for this unusual game. It is a surreal experiment which despite its intriguing source material, will never become a classic due to its dull inner workings.
