Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock Game Review: Diverting Enough but Distinctly Underwhelming

This was just OK. I purchased this in the hopes of finding a spacey adventure game with an intense atmosphere like that of The Dig (both involve mostly solitary exploration of strange, desolate alien environments), but was left distinctly underwhelmed by the game in general.

Morningstar is diverting enough, with sufficient mileage to absorb somewhat for a few hours, but the plot and characters are basic and lacklustre. There's also no true climax/resolution to the game – while there's a confrontation, it's expected and occurs as a cut scene that is over quite quickly, so there's no real sense of being in actual danger at any point or discovery of anything truly shocking. The voice acting is rather poor, with some lines read as though the actor doesn't fully understand their context (although, while fluent, I suspect they aren't native speakers, so they deserve some slack).

I discovered after playing that this was originally an in-browser game that was remade for PC – given this context, the slightly lacking production values make a lot more sense.

On the plus side, the environments are pleasant to look at, with effective use of light and detail (although largely static – the only other character in the game doesn't move). Additionally, the puzzles are generally logical and don't require very large leaps of logic, presenting some challenges, although they're not particularly sophisticated or imaginative, either.

Verdict: Overall, an easygoing, but ultimately forgettable, few hours to help scratch that point-and-click game itch.

Score: ★★☆☆☆

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