Metamorphosis Review

Metamorphosis is the new and ambitious title from the team at Ovid Works and inspired by Kafka’s curious mind. Franz Kafka, a 20th century short story writer who delved into such topics and themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity and would mix realism with fantasy. ‘Die Verwandlung’ translated to ‘The Metamorphosis’ is the story of choice and portrays the story of how a man waking from a hard night on the juice is suddenly finding out the world is a much bigger place after all.

‘You wake up one morning to find that you are rather inconveniently transforming into a tiny bug, while your friend Joseph is being arrested for reasons unknown. Embark on a journey through a world which has become twisted and unfamiliar to save him and to find the answers you seek.’

4 years in the making, Metamorphosis is a rather large game filled with puzzles and hard to reach obstacles which will keep you guessing on how to move to the next area. Huge environments with obstacles like fans, alarm clocks and wall climbing chests of draws to make it through the level makes for fun experience. Scuttling about between pencils and packets of cigarettes really gives the vibe of being shrunk to the size of a tiny bug, and how you can see your bug like legs in your peripheral, adding the extra element of creepiness. Further through Metamorphosis you start to encounter other bugs and begin helping them with problems of their own, which in turn helps you through the oncoming stages. Climbing your way through mechanical prints and giant gramophones, flying through the air on pieces of printed paper; all these aspects add to the elements of the twisted and unusual.

There are some truly breathtaking moments during Metamorphosis, especially when close to real-sized humans. You can crawl right in front of them and watch as a massive hand reaches for his pipe for a smoke, or when a human eats a piece of toast that you happen to be standing on and get spat out again. Great concepts with some really great ideas but unfortunately the game can suffer from optimization issues. At one part of the game it literally broke with black triangles and lines flashing and rendering the game unplayable. A simple reset fixed this problem and shouldn’t be an issue after another patch. Overall I had a fun time playing Metamorphosis, with great ideas, promising aspects and a little more optimization this will be the perfect title for those players who enjoy a twist or something a bit different to fill the void in between games.

Conclusion

Metamorphosis is a fun, ambitious, twisted and somewhat peculiar title inspired by the works of Kafka and offers something most games don’t – weirdness. Albeit suffering from some optimization issues, once fixed it will offer players a great game with some unbelievable moments to remember.

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.