Review by: Bob Mandel
Published: February 14, 2000

I remember well the first time I played Apogee and id Software’s Wolfenstein 3-D. After downloading the seemingly huge 700K demo, I was immediately hooked. Soon after, I sent $50 to Apogee for the whole set of six episodes, and I was in 3D action heaven. While others soon moved on to Doom and Quake, I was probably alone in remaining fiercely loyal to Wolfenstein. I far preferred the prospect of fighting evil Nazis during wartime than satanic demons in some artificial supernatural setting. In preparation for Mortyr, I reinstalled the old id classic, and while its graphics are incredibly primitive and blocky, and the gameplay awfully simple, I can see why it was such a hit in its day.

What we have in Mortyr is pure 3D action with state-of-the-art graphics and sound, but first generation gameplay. Its story is a bit mangled, flipping between the years 1944 and 2093 in such a jumbled way that it loses all credibility. The basic premise is that, for some unknown reason, the Nazis won World War II, and a Nazi World Order organization controls the planet. Then in 2093, there was a massive increase in the number of storms, weather anomalies, and natural disasters. Jurgen Mortyr, a Nazi military officer commanding a scientific program, then discovers that the Nazis had won the war by inventing a time machine to obtain superior weaponry from the future. The decision was made to send Jurgen’s son, Sebastian, back in time to 1944 to prevent the time machine from being used, and more specifically, to kill its inventor while he was sleeping, thus changing history. You play the role of Sebastian, and along the way must pick up the six pieces of the quantum receptor needed to make the time machine run so that you can get back to your era after completing your task. There so many holes and anomalies here that Swiss cheese looks solid by comparison.

Mortyr‘s box claims 21 levels, but the game actually has 30. While this is an acceptable amount of content, the maps are too similar to one another. Even the level names reflect a dull sameness and a lack of originality; who would eagerly anticipate slogging through areas titled “Middle Castle,” “In the Middle of the Castle,” and then later “High Castle?” Or “The Cathedral,” “The Darker Cathedral,” and then “The Castle Cathedral?” While a few levels in the 1944 period deviate from the overall pattern, such as those taking place in a cemetery, a train station, and a U-boat bunker, most fall in line with the citadel-cathedral-castle themes. The last ten missions take place in 2093, and these are generally harder than Mortyr‘s 1944 levels, except for one simple map set in the sewers. The contrast between the old and new areas is rather abrupt and shocking, taking you from feeling like a monk in an ancient monastery to a robot in a high-tech brave new world, with no transition between the two.

There are eight weapons and 11 different enemies in the 1944 setting, and five weapons and five different enemies–including mechanical droids–in the 2093 setting. The 1944 weapons are not at all creative, but are generally realistic. These encompass all the famous German war toys, including the Luger pistol, the Mauser rifle, the Schmeisser machine pistol, and the Panzerfaust rocket launcher, along with hand grenades and flame throwers. The basic problem is that most of Mortyr‘s more powerful arms shoot in spurts, making it quite difficult to conserve ammunition when you are running low. The futuristic weapons are more imaginative, including a laser pistol, a semi-automatic assault rifle, a plasma launcher, and a mind control device. But none of the weapons in either period overwhelm with their power or novelty.

Although Mortyr has a parental lock option, it is far less bloody than most 3D action games. While similar titles delight in spewing guts from the center of a shot body, or allow players to sadistically dismember a target before mercifully killing it, Mortyr reminds me of the early war movies in which Nazi soldiers crumpled to the ground when they were shot, with minimal embellishment of the killing. Even Wolfenstein had more gore.

While Mortyr‘s lighting is gorgeous, many areas are so dark you cannot spot crucial passages and stairways. While dim, torch-lit corridors are nice for awhile and create a tense mood, there comes a point where you want to scream, or alternatively see the eye doctor, when you hit your next poorly lit alley. Fortunately, you carry a lamp that you may turn on to see things clearly, but its light runs out fast, so you must use it sparingly. I discovered more than once that unless I dramatically upped the brightness of my monitor, I would simply not be able to see key items, and would completely miss the passages that led to my next objective. What could have been effective as an occasional way to mask solutions or increase Mortyr‘s atmosphere is so overused it becomes dysfunctional.

Your reaction to Mortyr will be dependent in part on whether you approach it with any biases. If you load it up expecting the great story of Sierra’s Half-Life or the tremendous artificial intelligence Epic’s Unreal Tournament, you will be sorely disappointed. But contrary to what many might think, there is still room for an old-school shooter. Some want a return to the simplicity of shooting Nazis and collecting keys, but with updated graphics and sound. If that is what you crave, then Mortyr will satisfy. This is clearly what its designers had in mind when they created it.