izigame.me

It's the most Kafkaesque parkour platformer ever made, though it's also probably the only one that's ever been made. "Metamorphosis" mostly works as a game, though it's a tad too easy. The real allure is just seeing how Kafka's works are reinterpreted into video game format, and while I would say the results are overall mixed, this is still a pretty good game. It's based off of "The Trial" and "Metamorphosis" as you play as Gregor Samsa in Metamorphosis but witness the events of Josef K in "The Trial." These are two completely separate characters in Kafka's books, but here they are intertwined in a story that should be "Kafkaesque" but ends up being kind of convoluted nonsense. The transition of Gregor Samsa becoming a bug is well done. You never see him as a bug, but when you look down you will see his insect legs as a part of you. In the book he is human-sized, as turning into a bug is a metaphor for adulthood. Here he is literally a tiny insect who goes around Josef K's house as he is investigated by the police for a crime he has no idea he committed, which is the plot to "The Trial." Kafka's metaphors of tragic comedic irony are not very easy to interpret and I don't think the developers really understood that "Metamorphosis" is not really a story about a man turning into a bug, but I digress. As you progress you talk to other insects and climb up furniture and basically try to get a certificate so you can reach a tower to turn back into a human.

The puzzles are fun to solve, but they are also very simplistic. I really like that the dialogue and exposition often occurs in the background while you are playing, such as you running across the desk as the bug while Josef K talks to his lawyer. Occasionally you will do something to break the dialogue like hit a bell or drop a stamp and this will transition well into changing their animation and behavior. There's also a bug city and a level that is like a huge printing press. It's well done but I wish the game was harder. Most of the puzzles just solve themselves. I would've preferred more "Kafkaesque" puzzles like a puzzle in the beginning of the game where you receive a letter stating a key is well hidden when in reality it's in the exact place it was hidden before. Maybe more of that sort of comedy but with more difficulty and confusion.

The game only takes a few hours to complete and 100% completion adds a few hours. There are two endings, but they're anticlimactic and totally nonsensical, especially if you've read the books and know how these stories end. There are also references to other Kafka stories like "The Hunger Artist" but the characters are so different it barely matters. I liked it but I will probably never play it again because it's just too simplistic and easy to really be all that compelling, even though I was mesmerized the first time I made my way through it.