Mortyr

D shooters--to think it all began in the dungeons below the ominous Castle Wolfenstein in id Software's seminal first-person shooter Wolfenstein 3D. To think that given all the advances the genre has gained in the past ten years that a game like Mortyr could be released. Mortyr is Wolfenstein 3D, and unfortunately, it’s not much more.

First, a little background. The good people at Mirage Media, a Polish development studio, finished Mortyr back in May of last year. The problem was that their distributor Interactive Magic sold their business to Ubisoft (IMagic went into the internet business), but Ubisoft passed on Mortyr because it is a violent shooter, and Ubisoft is best known for the cuddly Rayman character, and similar titles. Mortyr found a home with HD in Europe back in October of '99, but it wasn't picked up stateside until Interplay jumped in. This must have been nerve-wracking for the development team, and I know there was a great deal of fan anticipation here in the states. Well, Mortyr is finally here, but I'm afraid it goose-steps limply into software stores.

The problems are many. It's probably best just to run down the list. For starters, the game is plagued with a few show-stopping crash bugs, its copy protect program causes it to not work with certain CD-ROM drives, and there are many audio quirks. It’s hard to believe, given the delays this title suffered, that a patch isn't ready yet, but neither Mirage Media nor Interplay is talking about one (the Interplay message board is rife with unanswered complaints). These will hopefully be resolved with a patch soon enough; it is the gameplay problems that will remain.
Mortyr plays like a Quake-era shooter in that it ignores most of the advances the genre has seen. Expect to run around shooting bad guys with little care toward logical environment progression. The levels don't make sense, and each room is placed to provide an obstacle to overcome, not to convey a scene. Also expect to find all the tired levels you've played in better games--train yard, space dock, warehouse, castle, etc.--and just when you think to yourself, "Thank God there isn't a sewer level," you'll encounter the sewer level. Worse, you have to find the gold key to open the lock, just like in Doom.

The AI is pretty bad. It consists of Nazi soldiers running around, tumbling like acrobats and shooting with uncanny accuracy. These are mainly tricks to fool you into thinking it's a challenge to beat them, but unlike the AI in Unreal Tournament's bots or Half-Life's grunts, this is mere trickery. Also defying logic, enemies will appear in empty rooms if you pass an invisible point, usually appearing behind you. This is probably the cheapest trick in the book, folks. The only real counter for it is to see when it happens, and then reload after you die, and be ready for it the next time.

The graphics range from sublime (the architecture, the reflective floors, the lighting) to terrible (the enemies, the dogs, and the explosions). It's hard to believe that Mirage Media put in so much work on the reflective floor surfaces and rendered the enemies so poorly. The sound is another oddity. It ranges from bland to boring, and it often loops strangely. I swear, a meowing cat followed me for ten minutes. I think it was in there for ambiance, but it sounded like it was nearby at all times (no, my own cat was sleeping). The music is decent, but the game's atmosphere is better with the music turned off. Mirage could have used a lot of clever German phrasing for the Nazis, but instead simply gave them two or three things to say repeatedly. Overall, the voice acting is terrible throughout the game.

Mortyr does feature all the multiplayer modes that make shooters great, but nothing else, and nothing new. Frankly, deathmatch and capture the flag are the same whether your foe is a Nazi or a space marine. No co-op mode is present either. Still, reviewers like to harp on the absence of multiplayer, so the developers probably felt they had to put it in. Chances are, even if you enjoy Mortyr (unlikely), you won't be playing its multiplayer much.

Mortyr does have a nice range of weapons. From the simple knife to the awesome (but dangerous) flame thrower (which works a lot like it does in Xatrix's Kingpin). You have the ability to zoom in and out at will, and this is very useful when using the deadly Mauser rifle. Machine guns are perfect for close encounters, and when you get to the future, you have a range of lasers at your disposal.

Probably the biggest overall problem Mortyr is saddled with is its story. The concept is decent. General Mortyr, a high-ranking German official in 2093 (the Reich won WWII) is disgusted that the Nazis have poisoned the world's atmosphere. So, he sends his son, Sebastian (you) back in time to 1944 to clean house and destroy the German time machine Einstein was working on. This story is fine. It allows for two time periods of gaming, and a wider variety of weapons and enemies. The problem is that the story doesn't unfold so much as it just happens. You find the time machine and the game shows "loading" in lieu of a cutscene. You never get a sense that there is a world around you--just more Nazis to kill.
Mortyr simply resurrects the seminal Wolfenstein 3D gameplay from 1992 and that just isn't enough anymore, especially at $50. If you catch it in the bargain bin you might have some fun with it, but you'd be better off finding an old copy of Doom.