Available today, February 17th from Phoenix Online Publishing and Red Herring Labs comes Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock.
Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock is a single player graphical adventure game similar to Myst, released back in 1993. Nowadays, there aren’t too many games released in this genre. In Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock, there’s no animation to speak of, just static graphics that change when you manipulate or use objects from your inventory. All the screens are static, meaning there’s no 3D engine at work, and no character to move around your screen, such as the age-old Kings Quest series released back in 1984-1998. But it shares similar qualities of manipulating objects you find to achieve your goals thus moving further in the game.
Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock is a fairly straightforward adventure and puzzle solving game where you find, join, and use objects to repair your crashed spaceship. Some puzzles are straight forward while a couple others had me perplexed for a while. The game does have a built-in hint system for when you get stuck.
This games user interface (UI) gives you visual indicators on which objects you can click on or interact with once you move the cursor over them. This way you’re not constantly searching around for these objects, as in other games. The inventory UI works well and it’s fairly straight-forward on how to combine items you find, as you can’t succeed without doing this.
Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock is a short game, which you can complete in several hours, depending if you get stuck or not. The games sound effects are nice and atmospheric, but the voice-acting is stale and robotic. The price point of this game makes sense for the length of time you’ll spend playing it. I found the graphics to be average. I’ve seen better and I’ve seen worse, but since they are pre-rendered, they definitely could have used more detail and polish.
Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock is decent enough for those who like the genre and enjoy similar games, but may not appeal to today’s gamers looking for fast 1st person action, or fully animated 3D environments.
[soliloquy id=”2416″]All photos are the courtesy and property of POStudios.
Watch the trailer here: http://youtu.be/Hm9NPnkKClo
Per the Phoenix Online Publishing press release: “Crash-landed on a desolate, alien planet, what should have been a routine work-for-hire job for Powell has become a deadly mission to save the merchant vessel Morningstar and her crew. With one man dead and the captain gravely injured, Powell is on his own to repair the ship and find a way to escape the strange gravity well of the empty planet they’ve landed on. If the situation weren’t dire enough, the only signs of life on the planet are the remains of a much larger and better equipped ship and her crew, all dead, and not by natural means. What—or who—brought down these ships and is killing their crews? Why? And can Powell find a way off-planet before he shares the same fate?”
Key Features Include the following:
- Experience an immersive sci-fi adventure, packed with gorgeous HD graphics, brand-new puzzles and scenes, and an all-new, streamlined interface.
- Newly re-mastered cinematics display the haunting landscapes in beautiful high definition.
- Uncover the mystery of Deadrock through new and optimized puzzles and an extended storyline.
- The alien planet of Deadrock comes alive with full voice acting and engrossing sound effects.
- Includes an atmospheric remastered soundtrack with over 30 minutes of original music.
“Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock will be available for PC and Mac for $9.99 via Steam, the Humble Store, the Phoenix Online Store and other major online retailers.”
