Table of Contents
Jump to video review Jump to my favorite mechanics Jump to tips for new players Jump to closing remarks
General Thoughts
Time to Morp just released into early access on Steam and if you've seen my youtube review on it (it's embedded a little further down below if you haven't) then you know how much I loved my experience playing through it. Every moment from the automation of morps/resources all the way to the variety of cosmetic items, this game has everything I could ever ask for from a casual automation sandbox game.
I know the developers consider it a colony sim but I just love its automation elements so much I have to call it that.
(disclaimer: I got a free review copy of the game but all thoughts and opinions are completely my own)
My first opportunity to try this was a month and a half ago when the demo/introductory version appeared on steam under the name Time to Morp: First Contact. It's still free and always will be for anyone interested in checking out a sample version of the game.
That version has none of the automation elements but even so, I spent my time collecting morps, finding hidden resources, and just enjoying the cozy comfortable atmosphere.
And now with the official launch into early access, we have access to so much more while also maintaining the same vibes of First Contact.
I love problem solving and puzzles in video games. So automation and management games are naturally some of my favorite genres to play. But there aren't too many of them that deliver a casual/cozy atmosphere. And when they do, typically it feels more like a mobil port port of a game or actually just is a mobil port.
I can't count the amount of hours I've sunk into the likes of Satisfactory, Oxygen Not Included, or Dyson Sphere Program just to name a few. All of these as well as most other automation/management games come with forms of conflict layered baked into its reasonings and game design.
Dyson Sphere Program can be a struggle and pain traveling between planets early on and now it also has its alien threat. Oxygen Not Included has you establishing and optimizing your crew and work orders in order to not die. Satisfactory has a massive open world that requires you to ship or transport resources and power across these colossal distances. And while some of them may not be as intense as others, none of them come close to relaxing and calming atmosphere of Time to Morp.
In all 3 of the examples, they have break it or make it scenarios. And while you can recover from almost anything that happens in them, sometimes it can be a hefty game of catchup depending on the problem. Vs Time to Morp where there's not really a concern about anything. You can't die. Your Morps can't die. You can even leave it running for hours walking away from your desk only to return and find that nothing bad happened while you were gone. Even in slime Rancher, there's always a risk of a single slime causing a chain reaction of Tarr ruining portions of your total progress.
Gameplay and Mechanics
All of Time to Morps mechanics are easy to understand and it's complexities come from layering it's mechanics on top of each other.
Some unique aspects (at the time of early access release) that Time to Morp brings to the table are its pipe and pen management. Pipes only have one input and output. so each pipe must connect from where you want something to be picked up and go. This creates some pipe management cases where you might have several pipes running down beside each other all taking different resources to different places.
But what's also nice about that is you can just build your pipes directly across other pipes and it doesn't matter. Even if they cross through each other their contents stay the same. So while you end up with a lot more pipes moving things around, it has a lot of leeway that makes setting them up easier to manage.
Starting the game I found that items traveling one at a time through the pipes to be rather frustrating. But quickly learned while adding more and more pens and resources to the systems, this also allowed for easier management as it's harder to overload your systems. Plus, there are some methods of transporting larger amounts of resources over long distances that are a lot of fun to use and set up.
Also it's filter system is a lot of fun once you start moving more complicated morps and items around. But I'm curious to see how that evolves. there are a lot of extra filter options that as far as I can tell right now, aren't useful or helpful in any way. So I wonder what other kinds of morps will come into play that take advantage of that.
Tips for New Players
If it's your first time playing the game and you are new to automation or colony sim games, just follow and focus on the quests you get. They will take you through the basics of everything you need to know.
My biggest mistake early on was ignoring my Morps. It wasn't until I was over 10 hours into the game that I realized I could level up some of the morps, making them more effective and produce more resource. I would have saved so much time and energy on some of the basic resources if I'd just upgraded the blue morps sooner.
Find where the level fruit is located early. mine was in the center of the map so pumping water to the plants took a long time. I got lucky and thought they might be important so set them up right away and just let it sit. By the time I needed Level Points I had several chests full and went the entire time playing with an excess amount. even when I started using them a lot more.
And finally, early on you can make the gel stuff super easy by placing a sprinkler in the center of a group of them. When your automated water goes to fill up the sprinkler, it splashes on the sprinkler but the pots pick up the water instead of the sprinkler. So you can let that sit and fill up all the pots. Then later when you collect it and make more, just disassemble the sprinkler, emptying it of its water, and then place it back down again and the water will get pumped back to it. If you leave the sprinkler full, water wont get moved there and the pots will remain empty.
Closing Remarks
While games like Satisfactory or Factorio are ones you can easily sink hundreds of hours into, Time to Morp still has a pretty impressive play time. At first appearance it looks rather simple and easy to get through, but there are a lot of crazy things you can do with it that are hiding behind its cozy appearance.
So far this is one of my favorite games I've played this year and if the developers at Team HalfBeard don't add anything else to this game, it will still remain one of my favorite games I played this year.
But now I have an important question for you. I love games like Time to Morp. Automation and colony sim games are usually what I love to go to. So please share any and all recommendations you have of those genres. Also let me know if you've already tried the game or if it's something you'd like to.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this. It means a lot to me that I get to share my love for video games!
I am not affiliate with Time to Morp or Team HalfBeard in any way. But if you're still craving more, here are a few of Team HalfBeard's public links that will take you to more Time to Morp content. Steam Page https://store.steampowered.com/app/977510/Time_to_Morp/ Official Time to Morp Website http://timetomorp.com/ Official Time to Morp Discord Server https://discord.gg/SHHkasUr4Y Official Time to Morp Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/user/PatomkinGames/videos
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