REVIEW : Mutropolis (PC)
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve enjoyed point and click games. There’s so much to think about, making it somewhat of a mystery adventure. The earliest one I remember in that style was Hugo’s House Of Horrors, and although the player using a keyboard more comparable to Maniac Mansion, it still resembles the style we have today. Mutropolis is one of the latest instances of this grouping of games.
First off, I just have to remark on the visuals of the game. It’s absolutely gorgeous. There are over 50 hand-drawn views, and it gives Mutropolis a soft, tactile feeling. The characters don’t feel out of place or stiff in their movements given the art style either, as they wander across the screen as easily as any cartoon character should. Each area you go to also appears so vibrant, with even the morgue paradoxically charged with life. It helps admittedly when you have a colourful character down there, but it shows a conscious effort to make each environment feel special. This stretches over all three acts, between the dig, the university, and the larger hunt for Mutropolis.
The story is a simple idea that evolves. The first act is very short, but it sets up the plot quite nicely. It’s the year 5000, and you are an archaeologist known as Henry Dijon (yes, that’s his real name). You are on an expedition, just going around seeking to discern the past of Earth given that most everyone left to live on Mars after a catastrophic incident drove humanity away. After wandering around in the cavern hunting for your trowel you’re able to open a gate, and inside the room part of a word is exposed on the wall, seemingly about the mythical city, Mutropolis. Your boss, Total, has been pining to find this Atlantean-esque location, but while digesting what’s in front of you, the lights go out, you’re smacked in the back of the head, and Total is kidnapped. It’s up to you and the rest of the department to protect him and maybe find a forgotten city along the way.
Thankfully the play doesn’t take itself nearly as seriously as this subject matter sounds, with a ton of humorous dialogue mixed with a bunch of pop culture references. The pop-culture references are hilarious both in the context of being found almost 3000 years later and the ones mixed in, like “Dr Johansolo” sitting in a lobby and looking just like our favourite scruffy-looking nerf herder or Al Capone referenced in a historical book being thought to be a popular quiz show host or soap actor. It’s a fun way of using existing things to engage with us and make the game feel a little more personal. This makes its way to the characters, with not only great voice performances present, but enjoyable and interesting interactions with them as well. My favourite character probably has to be Frida, the perky morgue worker who reminds me of Princess Bubblegum from Adventure Time. She’s only present in Act 2, but she makes an impression.
As far as the gameplay is concerned, you are going to be using your left click a whole lot. You can play this game with just your mouse. The only other key that I needed was for my inventory, and that was mapped to the scroll wheel. As you proceed through the game and click stuff, occasionally something will be ready to pick up. You don’t have to do anything manually there, and Henry plucks up everything on his own after seeing it. The style of Mutropolis says it all, you’re going to point AND click on a collection of stuff as you figure out this tale.
That’s where the shortcomings of Mutropolis come in. It’s a lot of joy to find things, talk to people, and solve difficulties with both dialogue and inventory items, but after the midpoint of Act 2, I found myself lost as to what to do. Some of the solutions to the puzzles I had to decide out were out in the left-field, things I truly would never have imagined to do. A good puzzle game challenges you, but quite a few times I was left frustrated as to where I was supposed to go from that moment. It’s never fun to just go to different areas clicking until something occurs, and sometimes you would have to just try clicking several characters with inventory items in hopes something would happen.
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