Morningstar: Descent to Dead Rock

I was sort of hoping this would be a horror game, albeit a VN one, so I could quickly push through it and play through at least a pair of horror games for scary games month. Bad news: It's not a horror game. On the other hand, given my expectations for HOGs is rock bottom, the ironic title and fact it isn't horrible I will take as victories. Extra bad news: I forgot I never posted this review. Whoops!

I don't know much about Hidden Object Games, or even Adventure games in general. I consider the genre as sort of the opposite of the various genres lost in the rise of 3d: Adventure games were generally terrible, unenjoyable, and sort of a bad way to enjoy reading. The puzzle concept was largely about trying to figure out whatever nonsense logic the designer was employing, and every adventure game felt weirdly disconnected, poorly plotted out, or you could play leisure suit larry which was supposedly an adult game but as an adult feels more like a juvenile cartoon.

Regardless, much like platformers and pixel graphics, adventure games made a comeback and nowadays "HOGs" are apparently decent sellers for their investment of development time. I don't even really know how I ended up with Morningstar on my account - it might be a groupees bundle or maybe it came from indiegala or who knows - but it showed up and I installed it for whatever reason.

I can't really rate it relative to other adventure games due to this being my first in ten years or something; It is about two hours long, has no gameovers and is a gently paced adventure. The basic plot is your space ship, which appears to be a small cargo runner of a vessel, crashed on some generally off limits planet. One of your three man crew is dead, and your other crew member got a rod through his gut so yeah he isn't doing so great. You basically tromp around the little desert world, searching for mysteries and solving all the clues.

Visually the game looks pretty much like something I'd play on my 486, although obviously the resolution is up to modern snuff. The art is a mixed bag, with some elements looking quite good and others looking quite drab. There are a couple gentle FMVs, but don't expect any pulse pounding action out of this one.

The voice acting is ... It's hard to say? The VAs aren't fantastic, in fact are a little unlikable, but I definitely feel like the secondary character is supposed to be that way and the protagonist probably is at least a little. I like the fact they sound like they're of different races, at the least. You never see their faces since everyone is in space suits,

The story is ... Simple, honestly, and how you personally take it depends a little on your outlook as a person. You're trapped on a relatively hostile alien world, and your protagonist wants off, so while the game hints at a bunch of mysteries, you basically solve all the clues and work to get out of there as soon as possible. He's not an explorer, and while he's curious, it isn't his overriding concern.

I appreciated that, though I do feel like the game could have expanded out its assets a little bit with minimal fuss to give the game a bit more depth. On the other hand if you're the sort of person who wants all the mysteries explained, the game won't really gel with you.