After running into a strange gravity anomaly, the space vessel Morningstar crash lands into a barren alien world planet of life. With the captain injured and the engineer dead, Powell finds himself the only one capable of repairing the ship and escape back into outer space. But the Morningstar isn't the only ship to crash into this world. A larger military ship crashed a long time ago, and all the crew died from unnatural means. Powell may have to discover the truth behind this incident and the world he's stranded on in order to return home safely.
Morningstar is a free Point and Click Adventure Game, made by Red Herring Labs in 2009 and available here
, on the Armor Games website. It also has a remake available for purchase on Steam, called Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock, which updates the graphics and interface, and provides an extended ending sequence with additional puzzles.
This game provides examples of the following:
- And a Diet Coke: In the original only, when Powell asks the captain if there was anything else he was supposed to bring to the ship (after receiving a long list) Captain Novak orders a lunch with a cheeseburger, large fries, and a diet cola.
- Apocalyptic Log: Multiple of the Armstrong crew carried around logs that detailed some of the last moments of their lives.
- Bridge Logic: Used to cross the gorge.
- Combinatorial Explosion: Powell will helpfully (and sometimes sarcastically) explain why two objects can't be used together, such as "X is too short" or "Y is missing Z."
- Guide Dang It!: Have fun figuring out that you can use buddha statue to bend a pole and make a crowbar. This is one of the few things changed in the remake.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The enemies that attacked the crew of the Armstrong? It turns out to be the Moai-like stone heads that can be found scattered across the world.
- Hint System: Powell can radio Novak for a clue on what to do next.
- Percussive Maintenance: Screwing the panel of the power conduit box back on isn't enough to fix it. You also need to whack it with a wrench.
- Red Herring: You can pick up a literal red herring. Naturally, there's nothing you can do with it.
- Shout-Out: One of the cargo containers is full of fine leather jackets.
- Sleeper Starship: Hibernation chambers are used for space travel.
- Tempting Fate: If Powell examines the first stone head he runs across, he'll comment on how creepy it is and how and how he's glad that it doesn't have eyes. Naturally he runs into stone heads with eyes later.
