Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is a surreal walking sim as a bug with some parkour and puzzles.
Made by Polish indie developers, this short game tried to make a story inspired by Kafka but to debatable success.
Despite being called Metamorphosis after Franz Kafka's novel of the same name (my personal Kafka favorite), this game instead combines two of his books into one story.
The superficial bug's life simulator is wrongfully credited to "Metamorphosis (1915)" but the human story playing out in the background is taken straight from "The Trial (1914)".
The stories may be similar at first but each targets a different topic. This can be felt here were the original story of Metamorphosis is utterly lost and consumed by the bureaucratic story of The Trial...
Having to play from a bug's perspective is cool but nothing we haven't seen before in games such as Pikmin, Tinykin, Smalland or Grounded. The parkour is parkour or jumping puzzles if they can even be called that, are easy and primitive. The "wall crawling" mechanic opened up a whole new dimension to us but sadly that function was limited and underused most of the game. Wish we could get wings.
What I want to say is, the game has huge potential to be a funny bug game with collectibles and puzzles, instead it doesn't know what it wants to be.
The story and gameplay feel separated. The puzzles and jumping are so easy that they can't even be considered that. The game just turns into a walking simulator at this point. The story is primitive and not fleshed out at all. If you don't know the original two Kafka stories, then it will fly over your head, and even if you do then it has no value other than just feel like easter eggs. The world feels sterile, despite the sleeping potential, it feels like a work worse than a student project made in Unity over a few weekends
It got boring real quick.
What didn't help it was that a lot wasn't explained and you are left guessing what to do. I was told to sabotage a document, I ripped it apart in every way possible and submitted it and it still was accepted as if not sabotaged at all and I got the bad ending. Either make it clear or give options to test it out! I am not going to replay a whole chapter and follow YT instructions when the devs could have done a better job.
The extra missions in "Gates of Law" provide some more gameplay and parkour puzzles, which are a bit challenging but still are horribly designed and require constant trial & error instead of figuring out a solution. It doesn't help that the physics and mechanics of the game can let you down, even IF you solve the puzzle. I appreciate this addition but I dropped it because I didn't want to deal with this.
The surreal experience alone is what carries this game. The animations and world building were decent as well.
As I said it got boring real quick, but thankfully the game is very short (3 hours).
It made me want to go back and play Grounded or Smalland.
It also made me appreciate the original Metamorphosis story much more, because this one was a downer.
These positive sounding things are actually bad points for the game.
Either way, on sale and if you have nothing better to do, it is interesting to check out to know for yourself.
It's not THAT bad. I give middle score.

Short but entertaining first person adventure game, where you turn into a bug and try to get your body back while trying to help a friend. The puzzles are pretty easy as far as adventure games go, so most people wont have problems with them. The game ran pretty good and the graphics hold up since they are stylized and not that photorealistic. If you like chill adventure games or games with a surreal twist you should give it a try!

What a bizarre premise for a video game.

Lets take the 1915 Frank Kafka novel The Metamorphosis and turn it into a video game! said no one ever.

Well except for the Ovid Works devs.

I’ll admit the only reason I tried this game was because I found it for cheap in a bundle.

I was curious to see how they adapted the novel I read back in high school to a game and spoiler alert it only takes the overall premise and characters and doesn’t follow the book that closely.

The graphics and world building were well done. The levels are gorgeous and I was impressed with the design and aesthetic of the gameworld. You can tell a lot of effort was put into this.

It’s essentially a walking simulator with slight platforming and exploration thrown in. There are puzzles but they aren’t difficult at all, it’s more of looking around and talking to NPCs until you find the correct solution.

The story is non-sensical and extremely Kafkaesque to the point where it wore out its welcome rather quickly due to the absurdity.

I ended up rage quitting after 2 hours because I couldn’t take any more of the obtuse & oppressive bugworld bureaucracy.

But upon reflection that makes the game successful in translating the major themes Kafka was trying to convey.

I came back to the game after putting it aside for a while and discovered I was only 30 minutes away from beating it. It’s a short game only slightly over 3 hours to complete.

There are multiple endings too but I only could bring myself to achieve a single ending.

In the end, I’m not certain who this game is for.

I do recommend it since it was a unique experience. I’m glad I played it but finishing it was a relief.

I started this game as a normal human being.
A few minutes later, I was an insect.
Things did not improve from there.
*Metamorphosis* is one of those games where you spend most of your time asking questions like: "Why am I a bug?", "Why is this happening?", and "Why am I actually enjoying this?" The answer is apparently: Kafka.
The world is strange, the story is strange, the characters are strange, and somehow it all works. Crawling across walls and ceilings turns everyday objects into giant obstacle courses, which is both creative and a great way to develop an irrational fear of office furniture.
The puzzles are enjoyable, the atmosphere is unique, and the entire experience feels like someone turned a fever dream into a video game and somehow got away with it.
Would I recommend it?
Yes.
Do I fully understand what happened?
Absolutely not.

I love a good tiny big world and this is a great example of it. Exploring the environment as a tiny bug in this strange dreamlike world is an incredible experience. Beautiful art with a bunch of fun side stories as well

Surreal and charming game. It's obviously not a direct adaptation of the Franz Kafka story, but it's got a lot of the same satire and wit behind it, mocking bureaucracy and procedure while still giving players a lot of mostly-empty space to simply explore and roam around in. It's a pretty short experience (about 3-4 hours) but a very amusing one, well worth the price of admission just for the sheer weirdness of it if you ask me!

very short platformer that feels like it ends abruptly, the actual platforming is fine but nothing to write home about. The setting feels like Pixar's A Bug's Life, with miniature worlds from a bugs perspective, which is the games greatest draw but again it's short length leads me wanting more.