I’m not sure that “Plastomorphosis” is actually a real word, you know.
Whatever, from VidyGames and Samustai, Plastomorphosis is a survival game firmly rooted in the past – think Resident Evil the first time around and you won’t be very far off the mark.
The question that needs to be asked though is whether or not a retro styled survival horror game can successfully evoke the feelings of the 90’s, when these games were all new and shiny. Or are the graphics and controls of that bygone age going to drive us up the wall?
We’ll kick things off in this review by examining those retro style graphics, and here the news is pretty good. Think back to playing games in the 90’s, maybe on the new exciting PlayStation you’ve just unwrapped. If you were anything like me, you wanted to get the latest and greatest games – I even played Biohazard, the Japanese version of Resident Evil when it first launched, which was a challenge, especially the understanding of Japanese.
Anyway, what Plastomorphosis looks to evoke are those early survival horror games almost exactly, and then just to really hammer the point home, the whole game is overlaid with a static like effect – like watching an old VHS video when the tracking was off. As a result, the game looks like it is being run on an old skool CRT display, and this works very well.
What works less well is some of the animation, especially when you ask your character to run. You can choose between a male and female character in this game, and the female character in particular runs like she has just had an embarrassing accident. As the game is third person, this is sadly very distracting.
Other than this, the atmosphere that is created is undeniably spooky, and it draws you in closer and closer, making the inevitable jump scare all the more shocking! The rest of the experience is very retro, right down to the fixed camera angles, which rarely show you what you want to see. Further to that, the sound is equally chilling; scuttling noises can be heard, the music is atmospheric, and the sounds of the world all add to the feeling of impending doom. Other than the animation, the presentation nails it.
The story of Plastomorphosis is the traditional kind of broad brush strokes when you begin, before finding more details as you explore, uncovering lore in the world. We are a nameless character, evacuating from somewhere and going to Modern City – an imaginative name if ever I’ve heard one – and we have to be checked for dark energy from the Re Sus. As we arrive in Modern City, it appears that the traditional doomsday scenario has unfolded and the place seems deserted – apart from some creepy mannequins dotted about. As we follow the crumbs left for us by a previous survivor, more and more details will come to light, and the story and the way it is drip fed is very satisfying indeed.
So, gameplay then, and first I’ll address the controls. You see, it’s here where you have a choice of control systems in Plastomorphosis, and these are so called “Modern” or “Tank” controls. Let me give you a word of advice – the Tank controls make the game almost unpayable, as it is so counterintuitive to how the modern gamer’s brain is wired. I remember playing this style back in the day, and never do I remember how hard they it was to get used to and that means sticking to the modern controls is my strong recommendation. With that out of the way, let’s have a look at the rest of the game.
Exploration is very much the order of the day, and here there are a few issues to report. Some of the camera angles (and remember they are fixed, and so you cannot change them) make it very hard to see where you should be going. As an example from early in the game, when you find your way to a corridor, there are two ways to go – but the camera would swear blind that there is only one. Add to this our character’s unfortunate tendency to get hung up on the scenery and it is all too easy to dismiss a viable path as blocked off. You literally have to almost run into every wall at times to find out where you should be going, and this does get wearing after a while.
Finding weapons and key items to enable you to make progress is the way forward, and everything is kind of logical, in the way that these games are – find the components of a magnet to get a metal key from behind a grille, for instance. But whilst I’m on that, the puzzles are worth a mention as they are different each time you play, ensuring that there are no shortcuts to be found. Need a code? You best go and find it – there is no walkthrough that can help.
This element alone ensures Plastomorphosis should be seen as a worthy successor to the games of the past, and with the atmosphere that it creates as well, it is one to recommend should you have a hankering for the old days.
Or even if you want to see how we used to play games, back in the day!
