Written By: Tyler Selig
Rating: 9.5/10
Verdict: Sluggish Morss: Ad Infinitum is the
best game Jack King-Spooner has ever released. It’s everything he’s done rolled into one, with odd visuals and effective
but non-linear narrative devices. The only criticism I can lay on it is the
lack of gameplay, but read the review for my explanation on that.
I can’t remember how many of Jack King-Spooner’s games I’ve talked
about since I started this blog, and I can’t remember what I’ve said even when
I did, but I feel the need to repeat certain things when it comes to him and
other like-minded developers such as other favourites like Jake Clover – who is
even name dropped at the end of this game -- and cactus… this is weird, and is
only sorta kinda a “game.” I believe it was King-Spooner himself who once
tweeted about basically abandoning your limitations on what a game could be
(though I could be wrong). It’s important to know coming in that this game,
along with the other games I’ve played of his, are a mixture of surrealism,
social commentary and pretty basic gameplay. The latter of those could be seen
as a big criticism for an art form that serves the primary purpose of providing
interactive entertainment. But if you give yourself into what Mr. King-Spooner
is trying to accomplish, then there is a lot to love in his first ever
commercial game, which can be downloaded by clicking this link
here. Or Here, here, here HERE OR HERE!
I feel like I’m sucking up a lot of time that I discuss his games, but
I relate a lot to his artistic vision because I’m from the school of disjointed
and strange narrative, admiring directors like Harmony Korine, indie developers
like the three I mentioned above, other game developers like Suda51, who is
known for weird as well, and Hideo Kojima, who takes more straight forward
ideas and puts an interesting spin on it.
Let’s get the worst out of the way, because this is going to be
extremely important to some gamers. The game is not conventionally fun to play.
Like a lot of his work, you basically walk from point A to point B, doing very
little besides occasionally clicking the spacebar to talk to someone, or being
teleported to a place to collect coins. There aren’t really any puzzles, and as
far as I know there are no ways to die. You don’t fight and you don’t platform.
Every time a game like this is released I mention this, but I do actually
believe that games should have interesting gameplay before anything else, which
I know is something that King-Spooner himself may not agree with. However, to
his credit the game rises above my own personal bias and expectations and ends
up being a near flawless game. It is masterful storytelling, but I sometimes
wish he would make his own Hotline Miami and make a game that includes all the
things that have made him so incredible, mixed in with some great gameplay. He
could shit out 10s if he’d do that, but most of the time he’s just making short
freeware games any way so it’s understandable. I’m more than willing to give
out 9.5s, but 10s are a little more rare.
If you’ve decided that you don’t care how basic the gameplay is, then
you’re in for a treat. The Sluggish Morss trilogy has been a wild ride that
runs the gauntlet talking about different issues that society faces, and this one
is no different. I won’t pretend to understand everything, or even how/if this
all truly ties together, as I have a bad memory, but it’s a joy to interact
with everything and see what everyone says. I will say that I think that this
is his best though, because I’m often intrigued by what the numerous characters
are saying and doing, but this is the first one that reached down into my cold
heart and warmed it. These are subtle, but extremely effective. For example,
and this isn’t a direct quote, but there was a scene where they’re talking
about religion and it ends with, “they dreamed up after worlds so they can be
together again. Can you blame them?” The line before was condemning of
religion, but then it’s treated with a degree of understanding. There was also
a scene where someone talked about love and it was small but depressing, as the
person eventually said, “I hope we can be friends. Friends who love each
other.” Anybody who has had their heart broken can attest that this is pretty
accurate. With that said, it’s still difficult to actually follow the “plot.”
It’s important to note that it’s not conventionally about the plot, in the
sense that there’s a linear narrative to follow, as it is the individual
stories that are told. So I feel
King-Spooner has really outdone himself with Sluggish Morss 3.
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| Even video games hate me :( |
The music is also memorable because sometimes it’s disorienting and
hard to listen to, kind of like Noise-lite (if you haven’t heard the genre
Noise, it’s basically concentrated noise… thank you Tyler for pointing that
out). But some of it is extremely beautiful, such as the final walk near the
end of the game. Hell, the game even ends with some pretty menacing music. I’m
a big fan of the soundtrack, and I listen to it as I write this. It also comes
with the game when you purchase it.
Another fascinating element in Sluggish Morss: Ad Infinitum is the
visuals. He has a very distinct style as he often uses a clay style and mixes
other things in. The screen is constantly very busy as you play because he’s
flooding you with images and as I write this, putting it the way I did, it all
makes even more sense. The screen is always “glitching,” with things quickly
flashing on the screen. He blends all these different styles and effects
seamlessly and it makes yet another memorable visual orgy. It also warns
against seizures and that should be respected because I can see it being hard
on people who suffer from that.
Sluggish Morss: Ad Infinitum is the strongest entry in the trilogy. It
doesn’t really do anything different than the other two, but it hits an
emotional level for me that the others did not. I was expecting a little more
length, a little more gameplay, since this is actually a commercial game – but Jack
King-Spooner has his thing and he does it well. If you’re looking for an insane collage of social commentary, politics, space, coins and flashy images (among other things), then check it out.
