Reader reviews for Mutropolis

Mutropolis, what a pleasant, adorable adventure. Made by just TWO people from Madrid. Incredible! Somehow I kept thinking of Broken Age while playing it due to similar art style, although I would add it is everything Broken Age COULD’VE been if Tim Schafer did it his way instead of listening to his fans and backers. Mutropolis, on the other hand, stays true to the genre roots while also adding many fresh ideas and inventive puzzles along the way.

The story is about a team of archaeologists from a far-away future who research the 20-21th centuries, same as we are researching ancient times. This adds a lot of fun to an already wacky futuristic world which, unlike some other recent sci-fi adventures, DOES in fact feel like a properly developed universe, with each screen containing references to both past and present. Digging into Egyptian mythology also feels appropriate as this way we are introduced to one of the most charming and funny companion characters, while the protagonist acts a lot like modern Guybrush Threepwood WITH BRAINS.

The game oozes with that “easy to get into and lots to discover” atmosphere of LucasArts games. There are only 3 chapters, with the first basically consisting of one screen and the other two - maybe of dozen screens each, and yet the game never gets claustrophobic or tedious. In fact it feels very OPEN-WORLD, there is so much to do and discover, no task is forced or illogical, even when we are exploring a huge map for the fifth time. There was this traditional “collect 3 items” puzzle, for example, which involved a smaller multi-step puzzle which, in turn, consisted of an even smaller multi-step puzzles, and yet I was never lost, nothing felt out of the “scientific” context.

The game is very pretty as long as you accept this art style (I needed some time to be honest, but it quickly grew on me), the work with light and colours is truly outstanding. Voiceovers are also of high quality. There’s really little to dislike about this intelligent little game. Maybe the developers got a bit carried away during the last - and longest - chapter which takes place in the jungle and plays more like Indiana Jones rather than The Dig. But at the end of the day they’re all about ARCHEOLOGY, a topic which should be more presented in adventures since it works so damn well.

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Time Played: 10-20 hours
Difficulty: Just Right