Morkredd takes a unique genre of gameplay and makes it bland, even with the looming all-knowing Orb.
I was surprised to see another game come out in the vein of Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons. Where you control two characters, each attached to a different thumbstick on the controller.
It’s something unique and a fun interesting take on gameplay mechanics. Although, I do have some issues with the game. The overall theme makes up where it lacks.
Morkredd Video Time Stamps
- 0:00 – The Orb Demands Your Attention
- 6:05 – Further in the Darkness It Is the Orbs Will
- 9:05 – The Orb and the Never-Ending Staircase
- 14:50 – The Orb and the Mysterious Stranger
- 20:12 – A Boat Ride With the Great Orb
- 22:33 – Is Morkredd Amazing?
Morkredd Article Links
Let’s not anger the Orb, stay in the light, and see if Morkredd is amazing.
Morkredd’s Gameplay
Morkredd is simple, don’t anger the Orb and safely solve all puzzles thrown at you during the adventure.
So, you hop in thinking that this is going to be easy, well… your hopes are crushed pretty soon after. It is not going to be easy; it’s going to be a chore.
The core gameplay comes down to controlling the guy (Pirate) and girl (Aztec) with each of the controller’s sticks.
The interesting part is that you can change between the two characters at the touch of a button.
Now, this may seem helpful, but the truth is that having this completely ruins any connection to the two characters.
Now we have to talk about the Orb, the great Orb that the entire game is centered around.
The Orb is the most important aspect of Morkredd.
You live for the Orb, you breathe for the Orb, and you only survive by the Orb’s light via its grace to protect you.
The Orb’s light is the only light source in the entire game and if you step into any darkness then you perish.
At 5:00 we can see some of the puzzle elements which are not anything too crazy, but they all involve the Orb in some fashion.
Between puzzles like this, moving the light around to get through doors, and even taking a boat ride, there is variety within the game. The motivation to do anything comes down to your interest in the overall world.
The biggest issue is that if you run into the darkness you immediately die. The window is so small that you’re fated to face death more than you would like.
There needs to be some forgiveness to this aspect as the game’s puzzle elements can demand pinpoint precision. This can add up to be a hard endeavor when you’re thinking about how shadows work.
To delve deeper into this aspect: when you’ve failed a puzzle that you know how to solve several times it just becomes busywork.
You know how to solve it, you know what you need to do; the puzzle shouldn’t come down to if you can move your hands crazily within a time constraint. Puzzles are puzzles and I think of puzzles to be mainly for the mind, not spamming with your thumbs.
The Story of the Orb and Its Absolute Greatness
Easily one of the best aspects of Morkredd is that the story is told through the environment.
Now, this is a two-way street however, since the story is mainly told through the environment it doesn’t allow for any character development.
At 2:55 of the video, I bring up that I have no idea what is happening within the world of Morkredd.
This is something that doesn’t change until later at 16:55 in the video when we see another person for the first time.
There is a grander story here with the snake, the story mural, and many other various clues, but there is no character to propel what’s happening. Other than the Orb, which honestly has the most character in the game despite it just basically being a flashlight.
To wrap back around to my Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons comparison, the game was able to motivate you simply by gestures and noises. You grew attached to the brothers and felt their ups and downs through the incredible journey.
In Morkredd that is all circumvented in the name of puzzle elements and bland characters who are just a means to an end.
Is Morkredd Amazing?
Morkredd is missing some key aspects that typically make a game style like this so endearing.
But when you look at it as a whole, the style, gameplay and even puzzle elements all work together to make something compelling.
You can’t help but want to know more about the Orb and everything surrounding it.
My real issue is that without any dialog or custom character animations it is hard to become engrossed in the game.
What it all boils down to is just the two shell-like characters on a neverending mission to move the Orb to the next checkpoint.
The fact that you can change the controls on the fly makes the gameplay more confusing, although it does help in the puzzle elements.
In the end, Morkredd is an interesting game with a cool idea. I can say I had fun with it despite some pitfalls that have displeased the Orb!
