The title ‘Metamorphosis’ may be a bit confusing, as in fact there are more references to Kafka’s ‘The Trial’. The main character of this video game, created by Ovid Works, is actually named Gregor Samsa, and he indeed wakes up one day to realise he has turned into a cockroach. Gregor does not wake up in his own house, however, but in the Prague apartment of his friend and business partner – Józef K.
His transformation also includes shrinking, meaning he will be sneaking between the gaps in the walls and furniture. Gregor will follow pipes and other passages known only to insects, whilst listening to Józef speak in amazement to the plainclothes policemen who had just woken him up. The plot of The Trial at first glance plays a secondary role – because the voices of the characters are often muffled, coming from behind the walls or planks of the drawer that Gregor has just ended up in, and the gigantic (from the cockroach's perspective) characters are almost always in the background – behind books, matchboxes, lamps, inkwells and other items that we climb. It quickly turns out, however, that Metamorphosis is primarily related to The Trial – Gregor, instead of dealing with his own family, finds himself (just like Józef) in the midst of a complex and absurd bureaucratic intrigue – as the world of insects also functions on the basis of unnecessary and completely incomprehensible documents. Józef tries to prove his innocence and find out what he is actually accused of, and Gregor looks for a mysterious Tower in which officials can supposedly turn him back into a human (you can notice The Castle references here).
Gregor's gloomy story becomes much more colourful then – we have tasks to complete, numerous spectacular locations and a whole lot of cockroaches we can talk to (some of them clearly refer to Kafka, such as Leni – a femme fatale helping us from time to time). This additional plot has its charm, but it does not live up to Kafka's ideas – the more important cockroaches often follow familiar patterns (corrupt official, conceited celebrity, mafia godfather), adding little to them. Presenting the world of cockroaches, the authors focused on humour primarily, which, weakens the seriousness of Józef K.'s situation. The strength of Metamorphosis lies in something else – the play of scale and perspective. The world seen through the eyes of a cockroach makes quite an impression from the very beginning. Leaving a half-open drawer or jumping over the abyss between the chair and the table suddenly becomes a heroic performance. After escaping the gigantic hand of a lawyer reaching for a pipe, we have to calm down for a while, for example by reading (sometimes bit by bit) book titles, documents or labels on the bottles we walk on. This is just a warm-up, because with time there are more and more scenes on the border of dream and reality – for example, an elegant club placed inside a working turntable or huge devices suspended in the void, processing documents the cockroach bureaucracy feeds on. It is these oneiric images that play the leading role in Metamorphosis. Only contrasted with the tiny body of a cockroach and the colossal machines producing documents that make decisions on life and death Metamorphosis reaches Kafka's overwhelming vision. At these moments the game is played with bated breath.
Ovid Works Studio, so far known only from the solid VR game Interkosmos, displayed its true grit in Metamorphosis. Although the overwhelming atmosphere of Kafka's work can only be felt in moments, and there are long and not necessarily interesting puzzles, the story of a cockroach lost on the side lines of The Trial is one of the most interesting Polish independent games this year. You can see a real talent in it – above all, in a great artistic setting and spaces that can efficiently tell stories, use symbols and show the most ordinary objects from a new, unexpected perspective. Ovid Works is another newly appeared Polish studio that is really worth following!