Morning's Wrath is the first role-playing adventure released by Ethereal Darkness Interactive. Take on the role of a princess thrust into leadership by tragic events affecting her kingdom. Learn about a terrible yet powerful secret involving a hidden well in your castle. Save your kingdom, but beware that you don't become lost in your efforts.

Your parents have not returned from their journey to the Western lands, and so you must host the party that introduces you as heiress to the throne. The Ashidians haven't made any serious threats for many years, but there are rumors of aggressive actions being taken. Combined with the fact that your parents are missing, people are becoming nervous, especially the nobles.

Finally someone arrived, but he turned out to be a messenger from the Ashidians. Your parents have been killed, and the Ashidian army has amassed outside of the gates. The Royal Guard is outnumbered, but you equip some ancient armor from your kingdom's history and prepare for battle. The Ashidians could be held out, but your boyfriend has betrayed you, making a deal that allowed the Ashidians to teleport into the castle.

After a terrible fight, you learn of the mana wellspring, hidden beneath the castle for centuries. It granted one of your ancestors great power, and now that power is needed again. Unfortunately, it is tainted with evil, and it is up to you to cleanse it, defeat your enemies, and save your kingdom.

If you've played action RPGs such as Diablo 2, you should feel right at home with Morning's Wrath. Swinging your sword, casting spells, picking up items, and performing general actions such as opening doors are as simple as clicking and right-clicking. You start out fairly weak and with limited abilities, but as you gain experience and slowly cleanse the man wellspring, you'll find that the enemies become easier to fight.

There are a few opportunities to talk to people, taking on quests and taunting major enemies. Even though the castle is besieged by the Ashidians, you will find that there is a path to a spirit realm beyond the cave with the man well. This spirit realm will contain a number of puzzles, artifacts, and characters to interact with. Sometimes people will give you items, but occasionally you'll find that they have less than friendly intentions.

Fighting is in real-time, but it can be quite annoying. Besides the strange path-finding which requires enemies to go where you were before they adjust and head towards you, you'll find that clicking on enemies is difficult, especially when the camera is following your movement. Also, as you gain experience and increase your skills, the battles go from incredibly challenging to incredibly easy. Even boss battles tend to become trivial encounters, especially as you learn magic.

Magic is handled in a way that you don't see very often these days. You basically match different symbols together to create a spell. As you drop more artifacts in the mana well, you learn new symbols, allowing for more powerful and interesting spells. You can cast spells that throw a wall of flame at your enemies, you can have a ring of plasma spread away from you, or you can have a spell that does both.

Fighting isn't the only important aspect of the game, of course. A significant portion of the game involves solving puzzles. The main goal of these puzzles is to acquire artifacts which you can throw into the mana wellspring to clean just a bit more of the taint. Usually a puzzle can be solved by using one of the many items you find in the correct situation, but you can also observe certain visual clues that should give you an idea about what to do later on. As one example, in the study near the mana well, you will find a book. You'll later find that this book will serve as a means to solve a puzzle involving another book.

You'll find yourself depending upon health and mana potions as you continue on your adventure. While higher experience levels mean that you are less likely to get hit, earlier on and when dealing with particularly tough or numerous enemies, you will get hurt. Once you learn to use powerful magic, you'll need to replenish your mana. Sometimes a battle is really a matter of using items quickly enough to attack an enemy again.

While exploring the world was generally fun, I found the mazes were a source of frustration. If you are behind a wall, it fades so you can see yourself on the other side. In a maze, this feature means you will spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out where to move since there is nothing to really indicate when you are near a wall or when you are not. You end up clicking incessantly until you find your way out again, which has taken me up to 30 minutes. Fortunately, there are only a few mazes in the game.

The game gets easier as you gain experience, and sometimes I thought it seemed too easy. The final boss battle provides a ramped up challenge. Up until this point, your powers can destroy entire armies of Ashidians, but the final battle depends upon your strength, skills, and mouse-clicking speed. The entire game feels a bit on the short side, but the price may be right. Also, sequels or even prequels seem as if they can easily be based upon the world and mythology of Morning's Wrath.

Graphics:
The world is colorful, the lighting effects are cool, and the special effects bring the magic to life. Still, there were points when the transparency effects got in the way, specifically in the mazes. The game offers multiple rendering engines, but you can't really play with the engines that do not provide transparency since you sometimes need to see what is behind a wall, specifically to solve puzzles.

Sound:
The music in the game is beautiful and immersive. The sound effects and death cries can get repetitive, but the music more than makes up for it. In fact, Ethereal Darkness Interactive also provides the music as a standalone product.

Game Play:
The user interface needs some work. Since clicking is your primary means of interfacing with the world, the world should do more to accommodate you. As it stands, you may become frustrated when trying to click on an enemy while moving.

If you manage to click on the appropriate object, however, the fighting and movement is intuitive. There are only a few areas in the game so a map isn't really necessary, but you will still find exploration to be enjoyable. Solving puzzles is also fun, but some are more difficult than others.

I found that I could play the majority of the game using only one powerful spell, so being able to create new spells seemed to be a matter of preference rather than necessity.

Concept:
While the idea of a princess in danger is common, having a princess as the hero is less so. Simultaneously obtaining the power to save your kingdom and going mad because of that power is also interesting, if scary, to see develop.

Value:
It's a quick game, but the price seems right. In the later parts of the game, you may find yourself getting bored with combat since you are so powerful in comparison with your enemies. Luckily the puzzles will occupy your time.

Fun:
I think I would have had more fun if the interface was better. Early on, the sword is your main weapon, and clicking on enemies was harder than it should have been. Later I used magic as my primary weapon simply because it was much easier to attack enemies since I did not have to target them. Movement is also frustrating simply because the path-finding seems to avoid the most direct path. Clicking on a door sometimes results in no movement at all, even though clicking on the floor in front of the door does make Morning move. Even then, she moves in such a frustrating path that it is sometimes faster to click closer to minimize the useless movement.

Overall:
If you are a fan of games such as Diablo 2, you may want to give Morning's Wrath a try. The story is compelling, and the puzzles are fun to solve. While some interface problems can get in the way, you may find that they are minor enough to ignore, especially if you set your resolution lower in the settings to give yourself bigger targets. You may find that the game seems a bit short, but perhaps it simply indicates that you enjoy playing it.