Alterego Games’ psychological horror game, Sanity of Morris makes its way on consoles today. Thanks to the dev team, I got a review copy of Sanity of Morris on the PlayStation 4, where admittedly it looked somewhat promising from the screenshots and trailers. When reviewing horror games, I usually give the benefit of the doubt to the indie developers with their attempt to step into this genre, which has already seen thousands of great titles over the years. Unfortunately for this title, it is anything but an uninspiring and generic horror game marred by wonky controls and weak gameplay that make no sense at times.
When you start up the game, there is no wasting time as you are thrown straight into the story and straight into the action in a matter of few minutes. John Morris, who is the main character you play as in the first-person view, narrates or talks to himself about what is going on. You find yourself in your car, driving on a dark empty road towards a town called Greenlake. John narrates some backstory that he comes from a troubled family, especially his relationship with his father, who surprisingly has asked him to come over to Greenlake.
The dark scene-setting accompanied by the ominous music sets up the mood, where I began to wonder what adventure lies ahead. When I say that the game wastes no time in throwing you into the action, you are suddenly being followed by a white van that hits and causes you to crash off the road. Although there is no harm done to you other than your car is totaled, you quickly understand that the hostile soldiers in the van don’t want you here and will do anything to take you out quickly.
This short encounter is what sets up the mystery of this town, where your father Hank might have contacted you as a plea for help when he asked you to come to the town. When you get control of John, you have to navigate through poorly lit areas to find Hank’s house. The house, which is shrouded in darkness is found to be empty, with the front door sealed by the police. Finding your way inside and interactive with items crafts the story the game is trying to tell the player. From Hank’s audio recordings to items like pictures or objects that act as a clue, but nothing clear of what you are supposed to look for or what item needs to be picked up first.
The controls are pretty simple and straightforward in the first-person view. John can interact with items, crouch, open inventory to analyze clues or listen to his dad’s audio tapes, and use his flashlight, which is the most important thing as this is the only thing allowing you to see and navigate through the dark. As you find a way in and explore the house, there are multiple items you can pick up that are highlighted in red. Some of these items are clues that trigger John’s dialogue, other items are merely there to jump scare you. Those jump scares are far from being anything scary, where if you pick up a mug, it transforms into a weird object, indicating that Jonathan might be losing his sanity here.
What I found most amusing was the failed jump scares that are first spoiled by the sudden transition of music, followed by a strange sound or movement of an object. Most of the time, the jump scare finished before I could even look at it when I turned to look back, leaving me more curious as to what I missed. I did run into a mysterious figure of a child that disappeared into a puff of smoke, but that was only because it spawned right in front of me. Every other time I heard the sound again, I assumed the figure showed up somewhere around me, but by the time I turn to look at it, there will be no trace of it. This I felt so wasted and unnecessary as it killed the suspense and began to teeter on being comical.
Now let’s move on to the threats that you actually have to face, or in simpler terms, the enemies that you will be encountering in this “scary” game. You will occasionally run into Soldiers with batons or aliens, both of which are instant reminders of how fragile our main character is. Both the monsters and soldiers can easily take down John with a few hits and trying to evade their attacks results in death most of the time. The game details about stealth where you have to avoid being detected by enemies, but that was mostly focused on avoiding the beam of searchlights as you navigate through enemies close by and staying out of their line of sight.
Lastly, I want to talk about the story of Sanity of Morris, which is usually the selling point for me, regardless of the bugs and issues an indie title may have. The uninspiring story makes this game no different than any other horror game as it felt too generic. The voice acting of both John and Hank is pretty good but feels disconnected from the game’s setting and scenes. While the idea of the game is good, there is nothing that indicates any originality whether in the story nor the gameplay. This made it feel like a bad mix of many horror titles I have played over the years.
Final Verdict:
Sanity of Morris lacks anything original in terms of both the gameplay and story. Paired with the wonky controls and comical enemy encounters, I’m sadly left with nothing great to talk about. The idea of the story could have been great if there was something original about it, especially if it deviated from the generic psychological horror games we have been seeing over the years recently. However, the execution is pretty poor and could have been done better with a deeper story narrative and unique gameplay mechanics. Having said that, and though this is my opinion on the game, you might find your experience slightly different from mine. In any case, Sanity of Morris is psychological horror that you can play right now on PC or your consoles to give this game a try.
Final Score: 3.0/10
