Morphite (Switch eShop) Review

We live in a time between the moon landing, and the first manned mission to Mars. You can see it in our movies, books, stories, of humanity discovering new worlds and expanding our reach beyond Earth. Video games finally have the tech and understanding to explore this idea, with games like No Man’s Sky and Destiny all about exploring new worlds. And Morphite is all about blending that sense of exploration with purpose.

The first thing you’ll notice is the low poly design of the game. I want to get this one out of the way, as we have 4K gaming dominating the discussion in the graphics department — the art style of Morphite serves quite a few purposes. The lower detail means there’s more to explore, as levels and models wouldn’t take up much storage. But it also works to involve your imagination in the process. By making everything represented by abstract shapes, and flat colours, more of the world is left to your interpretation.

And it is a vast game to explore and experience. There are plenty of planets to explore, with puzzles to solve, objects to scan, and resources to collect. The scans are your main way to gain money, which you use to upgrade your ship. Resources help you upgrade your suit and gear, letting you fight tougher enemies and access more extreme conditions on some planets.

Puzzles are found mostly through the story campaign, as a way to get new gear and weapons. Speaking of the story, I’m always excited when a vast exploration game has a narrative, to give you some sense of purpose and clear goals to work towards. The story is fully voice acted and sends you all over the system to get you comfortable with the mechanics of the game.

And while you could bee-line through most of the story, a lot of planets will be quite far away from each other, with multiple jumps needed to get there. I highly recommend stopping at as many planets on the way as you can, to gather more materials to upgrade. Morphite is definitely a game that rewards slower, deliberate gameplay, over any fast-paced action and combat.

There definitely is combat, though, which I find to be one of the more tedious and least enjoyable parts of the game. While the game doesn’t focus on the combat as a core element, the fact it isn’t fun still leaves you feeling like there’s a part of the game you want to avoid, instead of having fun with all of it.

A lot of the missions and goals in the world are fairly short burst things as well, which works well with the handheld aspect of the Switch. I always appreciated the philosophy of handheld game design, focusing on 5-10 minute bursts. Morphite not only nails that, but it also allows for long play sessions while docked.

Morphite is a game that takes its time to get your comfortable with exploring and playing it, as long as you also take the time to slow down and appreciate what you’re given. By no means is Morphite an action-packed adventure, but it is definitely an interesting and worthwhile one.

Rating: 4 /5