Sometime, the time is just right. In 1984, along with its contemporary Elite, The Lords of Midnight broke completely new ground. To really understand how revolutionary it felt, you have to take yourself back to the computer gaming world of the early 1980s. The video game console market had just crashed. Somewhat affordable computers were slowly making their way into people's homes (hence "home computers"), but gaming-wise, the formulae inherited from the arcades and already imitated by said failed game consoles were still the norm: simplistic twitch gameplay, usually on a single or few screens. The only thing added in home computer context was the occasional puzzle or board game, ported over straight from the physical world. And then, out of nowhere, these new games came along.
For children, the whole world does not have to end or be threatened to get scared. Often a bad dream or a noise in the dark is enough. In the children's vivid imagination, monsters arise from this, hiding under the bed and ambushing the child from there. MetaMorphosis made me feel transported into this bizarre world between sleeping and waking and between hoping and fearing.
From the beginning, the player himself is just an ugly spider-like creature on two insect legs. The levels are populated with completely similar-looking clones and an encounter is always hostile. Then the creatures try to stun each other immediately with a jump on the head or to decimate the valuable life energy with targeted spitting of poison. Such poisonous slime also drips from the ceiling of the caves in various places, which darkly and oppressively seem to swallow the player.