Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is possibly one of the most discussed novellas in literary history. The surrealist tale, published in 1915, covers the transformation of Gregor Samsa, a salesman who transforms into a giant bug. Despite its unusual story, it deals with some genuine themes, including family responsibility, transformation, and, ultimately, alienation.
Video game developer Ovid Works has transformed Kafka’s story into a video game, Metamorphosis. The game changes some of the details but still manages to leave players with unease, much like the original. In this version of the story, though, Gregor wakes up in his friend’s house after a drunken party and discovers that he is shrinking in size and becoming an insect.
As Gregor traverses his transformed world, he must try to help his friend, Josef, from being arrested, while also finding his way to Tower, a mysterious organization that might help him recover his human form.
As Gregor, you need to navigate a strange new world that’s straight out of surrealist fantasy. It’s full of over-sized books, silverware, desks, and bottles, all of which may be climbed or jumped over. There’s something very Alice in Wonderland about the adventure, especially when you have to come up with amusing, yet often bizarre, ways of completing each of Gregor’s missions. This strange world fits Kafka’s original writing well.
Metamorphosis takes an even more fantastic turn when Gregor starts to meet other insects on his quest to find Tower. These bugs usually have quests for Gregor to fulfill, all of which will lead him toward his final goal. Oddly enough, the bug world is about as frustrating as the human world: Gregor has to get a job, but first, he needs a bug passport, which requires him to visit a human lawyer, which is only open at a specific time. By the time Gregor gets to the lawyer, there’s a long line to get in. It turns out that bureaucracy isn’t solely a human trait. Of course, this all keeps with the tone of Kafka’s story but, at the same time, modernizes it.
Gameplay consists of skittering around (and oh, the disgustingly accurate sound his little legs make!) while attempting to find a path from point A to point B: this sometimes involves an evolved bug-like thinking. At one point, Gregor must climb on someone’s breakfast so that he can get eaten, choke that person, and get coughed up, to get higher up on a cupboard. Yes, it’s gross, but it’s also amusing.
It’s this kind of puzzle thinking that truly makes Metamorphosis a fun game to play. But fun is a relative word here: there is a consistent state of unease about being a bug, a feeling that nothing is as it should be. This is the idea behind the alienation that sometimes comes with transformation, perhaps a concept that we’re all familiar with in 2020.
Metamorphosis releases on PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One on August 12.
I was given a PS4 copy for the purpose of this review.
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