Myriavora [Demo] is a third-person shooter about searching for civilization following the near-death of humanity (from spiders!)
Adult Content?
(F) nudity.
Censorship?
No. Woot! Woot!
Hours of Gameplay?
One or two hours.
Patch Available?
No, not necessary.
Foreword
I wrote this article during “Early Access”.
Gameplay: overview (3/5★)
Shoot everything at moves in highspeed action! The goal of the game is to survive wave after wave of assorted spiders. At your disposal are a variety of “skills”, assorted perks that offer special abilities or score multipliers. Skills cost “skill points”, which are obtained at the end of every wave. Skills are a limited resource, but health more-so — death carries a heavy penalty, and heals are expensive and ineffective. There’s no need to aim since all of your attacks are automatic! You only need to focus on keeping enemies on-screen and evading their attacks. Throughout the battlefield are assorted “turrets”, which are activated when you enter their proximity. It’s tempting to cling onto them, but sometimes you need to leave their boundaries to effectively engage and evade the oncoming horde!
Sexual Content: overview (3/5★)
I’m not one say “no” to gratuitous nudity, but I feel as though the bare tiddies of Myriavora are little out of place. To be clear, I strongly approve of “anatomic accuracy”, but I’m not sure if it’s appropriate. I understand Myriavora is not a sexual game, but nudity is best accompanied with cosmetic functionality. It’s great having three-dimensional pussies and jiggling tits, but they’re kind of pointless when you can’t see them up-close or “enjoy” them. Jürgen Hoffmann might as well cover them up and increase public appeal of the game.
Story: overview (2/5★)
In response to the technological innovation of mankind, spiders have evolved into “a far superior species”. Despite having adjusted “climate, oceans” and “entire landmasses”, humans are now close to extinction. A million years of technological innovation wasn’t enough to fight back a million years of “evolutionary pressure”. I know it’s just a story, but the effects of evolution don’t occur overnight — if we’re too stupid to annihilate spiders before they acquire the necessary traits to commit genocide, we probably deserve to be replaced. Jürgen Hoffmann, do you know how absurdly big the ocean and “entire landmasses” are? It’s taken mankind as a collective centuries to produce the effects of “global climate change”. The spiders of this game have no good reason to overtake a species with planetary terraforming. Maybe I’m overthinking things, but it’s not that hard to whip-up a fantastical reason; maybe spiders have harbored an abyssal colony beyond the reaches of mankind, striking during some sort of international, technological catastrophe?
Sound: overview (NA/5★)
I played this game muted — I won’t be judging it by audio quality.
Visuals: overview (4/5★)
The titlescreen is visually interesting, but the artwork and interface aren’t very well aligned. The black bars on the top and bottom aren’t symmetrical, and it kills me inside. From “Options”, you may adjust a wide variety of audio, display, graphical and gameplay preferences. The “Options” screen is surprisingly robust, not unlike a “AAA” game. The user-interface is overwhelming, but it’s not difficult to navigate once you learn gameplay mechanics. I think it’d benefit from a tutorial system. Visually, Myriavora is below average. The “visual style” is what Jürgen Hoffmann may call “minimalistic”, but it needs more refinement before I’d call them “good”.
Verdict: is okay, worth keeping an eye on (3/5★)
Myriavora didn’t keep me interested long enough to keep playing, but I think it’s an okay game. To, be honest, the only reason I bothered downloading this game was because I wanted to see if there actually was “anatomical accuracy” (or nudity). When I saw Myriavora does in fact offer bare boobies, I decided to play a few rounds and write about my experience. The controls are slippery and gameplay could use more variety, but I think Myriavora is a promising indie game. It definitely needs a little more visual work, but the “minimalistic” assets offer a nice stylistic consistency. Time will tell whether or not Jürgen Hoffmann follows through planned updates. The addition of new maps, skills and customization options will certainly improve the replay value of the game. I’d like to see more obtainable items in the game (preferably useful items). Going by the story, humanity is nearly extinct — why shouldn’t we be allowed to reap the ruins of past civilization? To be honest, I don’t think I’ll be buying the game when it releases (but it’s definitely worth a try!)
