After crash-landing on a strange new planet with my wife, we started to get our bearings in Time to Morp. Bright, colorful environments filled our eyes while unfamiliar noises surrounded us. Localized fauna and flora slowly began filling our pockets, as small creatures that looked suspiciously like oversized bao buns with faces surrounded us. This was our first experience with the titular Morps, adorable creatures that made our day-to-day lives that much easier. While its Early Access woes haven’t completely gone away, Time to Morp is one of the cutest automation simulators on the market.
‘Time to Morp’ Makes Automation Easy, Like Baby’s First ‘Satisfactory’
Time to Morp is a lovely little experience — and one that’s better with a friend. While exploring the lands solo, I still was having a great time, but I would strongly suggest getting a friend to come along for the ride. For those hoping to engage in some cooperative fun, there are a few things that Time to Morp does better than even the biggest in the business. While individual items aren’t shared, building upgrades and player upgrades are. That means if one player upgrades their backpack? Everybody gets a backpack upgrade. It makes the grind much more manageable for longer play sessions.
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But, depending on the number of players you have in your party, moving the story along can be a bit cumbersome. Both players need to be near an NPC if they have a Main Story quest available, which did get a little annoying after some time. Katie loves to go off and explore, and while I wanted to keep pushing the story along, I would need to wait for her to come back to the base camp so we could talk to the NPC together. But even then, it would remind me to stop and smell the flowers, rather than try to get them all moving at once.
Once we unlocked automation, however? Things became much more interesting. Time to Morp is a bit of a slow burn, and the first few hours are going to be a lot of unlocks and exploration. But once Automation became a thing, we could start planning bigger, better, and more elaborate builds. Our bases became non-stop production plants, and our Morps became better alongside our capabilities.
Every Morp Has a Purpose in ‘Time to Morp’; It’s Just up to You To Discover It
As Katie and I explored the world further, we discovered more adorable Morps than we could have originally imagined. There are typical Morps, that just kind of vibe around and co-exist with you. Blue Morps can be used to farm for Protons, one of the most valuable resources in the game. Experimentation is the name of the game here, as we quickly learned. Katie took a white Morp and tossed it into the water to see what would happen. Much like the movie Gremlins, it spits out an angry Yellow Morp. This one could be used to chomp on trees, providing even more resources to us.
After unlocking the Resource Pump and the Tubes, it all started to slowly connect. We could gather up multiple Morps at once, put them into fenced-off areas, and let them go to town on resource collection, all while Katie and I could go explore the world together. Rather than having to spend every waking moment searching for resources, we could use the adorable little Morps to do it for us. That made the exploration and relaxation efforts so much more exciting in the long run.
Plus, Time to Morp is just begging to be played cozily. It’s not meant to be a game that you quickly power through. Playing slowly is going to be the best way to enjoy everything it has to offer. Seeing the world unfold before you is a great feeling. And unlocking all of the additional buildings and building a city of our own? It was a great feeling.
The Morps Will Take Care of the BusyWork for You in ‘Time to Morp’, so Enjoy Your Time Here
A game like this can last forever, and after quite a few hours spent together, it’s easy to see what the team behind Time to Morp was aiming for. It’s a cozy, cute, and easy-to-understand automation game with plenty to experience. The more time we spent in the game, the more we wanted to keep on playing. It takes a little bit to get cooking properly, but once it starts, it just doesn’t stop.
A colorful cast of eclectic side characters, a fun world to explore, and plenty of discoveries make Time to Morp an excellent addition to the growing cozy-game genre. Everything has been simplified without making it feel dumbed down. There are plenty of things that players of all skill levels can do together here. While I do hope they continue refining the co-op experience further, it’s in a much better place than many other games in the same genre.
Time to Morp is adorable in every facet of the word. It controls well, runs great, and has plenty to do and see. You shouldn’t get tired of what this world has to offer quickly. And since the development team is continuously updating the game, there’s always something new to experience. I do hope to see some additional customization options come down the line, but otherwise? Time to Morp is a great experience by yourself or with friends, but friends are the way to go here.
Verdict: Recommended
Time to Morp is available now on PC. A code was provided by the publisher for the sake of review. Reviewed on PC.
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