Mortyr

The Nazis won World War II with technology from the future and now the future is paying for it with deadly electrical storms. You are a renegade mercenary sent back to World War II Germany to stop the weapon being built and therefore save the future.

Released: 1999
Platforms: Windows
Genres: First-person shooter Shooter World War II
Developers: Mirage Media S.C.
Publishers: Interplay Entertainment
Series: Mortyr
Modes: Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action Fantasy Science fiction Historical
Country: Poland
Age ratings: ESRB M PEGI 12
Entry: #1 in Mortyr

About

Mortyr 2093-1944, also known as simply Mortyr, is a first-person shooter computer game published by Interplay and developed by Polish developer Mirage Media and released in 1999. One of the earlier Polish developed first-person shooters for Microsoft Windows, the game follows a son of a scientist transported back in time to World War II to avert the Axis victory and features levels set both in World War II and the future. The game received unfavorable reviews at its launch, with the game garnering some positive coverage from the Polish video game press and widely panned abroad.

A sequel for the game, entitled Mortyr II, was released in 2004, five years after the original game.

Keywords

world war ii - ww2
alternate history
futuristic
digital distribution
year in the title
banned
gamingator

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Story

In 1944, unexpectedly for the Allies, a German winter offensive results in over 80% of European territories falling to German control. No one really knows what Hitler and his generals did to bring forth this course of events, but the fall of London made it clear that the Allies had little chance of winning the war. Soon after, the destruction of Moscow and the taking of Washington D.C. ended the war.

It was hard to believe that it was the German military technique or their leaders' tactical skills. People started to talk about final development of the Wunderwaffe, especially that not many managed to flee from the battlefields to tell what they have seen - their reports were unclear and not explaining anything. Nevertheless, the world was unable to stop the Führer and his Reich.

Development

The game had gone through few conceptual changes before the setting for the time traveling World War II shooter was settled on. It initially started development as Netguard which was to be a science fiction detective story, and soon after it restarted development as a psychological horror game called Insanity before settling on a World War II game. The game was to mostly have the World War II setting with the time travel elements being relegated to the epilogue but the developers ended up extending the concept for future-based levels for the second half of the game. Two separate studios based on two separate cities (Warsaw and Toruń) were involved in developing the game.

Interactive Magic picked up Mortyr in December 1998. The publisher reportedly invested heavily in the launch of Mortyr. According to IGN, it was planned as the company's "largest retail launch since Apache". In April 1999, Interactive Magic announced that its release would be supported by a global shipment of 100,000 copies to stores.

Reception

The game received unfavorable reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. Jim Preston of NextGen said, "Boring, derivative single-player and uninspired multiplayer action consign Mortyr to the bargain heap." Reviewer Klaus Sonstad in Adresseavisen gave the lowest possible score, 1 of 6, among others criticizing the enemies for being badly programmed, acting like "braindead shrimp soldiers".