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.

If you get it on a discount, it is worth a few bucks for a few hour long game. I would never imagine someone would make videogame based on Kafka stories. The world of bugs is something fresh and never seen before. Good story about bureaucracy playing as disgusting bug.

It's a nice short little game, nice experience, story was getting very interesting but the ending was very confusing. I haven't read the book so i have no idea if it's faithful to the source.

A unique and strange experience. Not sure if I'd say I liked it but I didn't hate it. Everything was just so strange and different from what i'm used to it just kept me wanting to see more and is what kept me going.
7/10

A neat little game.
I must admit, I'm not familiar with Kafka's works and as such, the experience was a tad odd, yet I'd say the game is nonetheless charming.
I didn't quite get the ending, it felt a little too sudden, but I understood the key narrative points. You can end up skipping a lot of the game's dialogue if you don't interact with the characters (which in many cases, you do not need to), I don't think that's a very good choice.
The puzzles are pretty straight-forward, the game does a very good job guiding to your next objective if you are lost and always offers you the tools needed to progress. The writing is very enjoyable and though it is short, it does a very solid job of establishing its small cast of characters.
The game has quite a few collectibles scattered around, ranging from easy to find to "you'll likely need a guide". They have no effect on gameplay however.
The level-design is good, the controls are responsive, I've had no technical issues with the game. It seems to have a whole other set of bonus levels called the "Gates of Law" but I haven't checked them out.
The game is, however, pretty much a walking simulator, whether that is a bad thing depends on you. I found it relaxing.
I don't think 24,50 euros is the right asking price however, would recommend you grab it on a discount. I wouldn't say it has much replayability to warrant the price either. It's a cool dive into a unique world that ends before it could get stale.
Overall, would recommand. I'd give it a 9/10

I loved it! Very fun, not too hard. Atmosphere not dissimilar to the movie 'Brazil'.

Was I always a bug ?
Anyway, I don't really know what to think about this game... Like the main story is fine but destroying the Tower feels a bit meh. Maybe the game is better when you betray your friend ?
BUT the game felt fine to play so I'd rather upvote it than downvote it.
(First ending in 2.6h)