Egypt 1156 B.C. - Tomb of the Pharaoh

                  A review by Julia Munday

Publisher:    Cryo Interactive
Formats:      CD-Rom PC & Mac, DVD-Rom, Sony Playstation
              (allegedly)
Format Used:  DVD
Price:        œ30 (PC World)

The better half found this game whilst trying to find me in PC
World, where I had hidden to avoid another trip round the
wallpaper section in B&Q. Sure enough it was sufficient to make me
break cover, and I bought it, partly because I hadn't got a game
on DVD, but mostly because I am a sucker for anything with "Egypt"
and "B.C." on the same cover. Anyway it was a reward in
anticipation of being good and looking at wallpaper without
whinging.


On getting it home, disaster struck, although the game installed
easily, the sound was OK, and the DVD bonus video showing how the
game was designed played nicely, the picture was like looking
through frosted glass. I diagnosed graphic card trouble and had to
e-mail Cryo for help. To be fair, they replied very quickly and
attached a patch to cure problems with Voodoo 3, which, once
installed, did do the trick.

The game involves a young man named Ramose (controlled by the
player), whose father has been condemned to death for tomb
robbing. Ramose has been given a few days by the Vizier to make
enquiries to prove his father's innocence and discover the real
perpetrators. He is given help along the way from various
characters, although the chief of the necropolis police is
predictably sceptical!

The game play is terrible by modern standards, it consists of a
point & click interface that makes Monkey Island 1 look
sophisticated, it is difficult to work out exactly which items you
are supposed to interface with and which not, and sometimes, when
you use an item in an apparently correct manner you are left
wondering whether it was a good idea. Talking to other characters
brings up the same list of responses again and again; it doesn't
delete an item from the list once you have used it, which is
annoying. The story is very linear and doesn't give much scope for
exploration. It also has its own weird system of logic, requiring
almost psychic feats of lateral thinking (or uncharitably, utter
guesswork) on the part of the player. Luckily Cryo post
walkthroughs of all their games on their website: www.cryo-
interactive.com (probably because they get fed up with abusive
phone calls), which is OK to get you past the strange bits,
although it seems lose out in translation from French.

Having dealt with the bad things, on the plus side it is a
beautiful looking game, very historically accurate, which you
would expect with the French National Museum Service being
involved. It is perhaps better to think of it as an educational
interactive multimedia experience rather than a game. It is worth
the money to have a 3D virtual reality tomb of Seti I to look
round. All the wall paintings are there, the big pit to fall down,
the zodiac ceiling, everything, with some bits to click on for
more information. The designers have chosen to reproduce what is
there now, damage and all, rather than fill in the gaps to try and
make it look as it was, which is brave. The game is broken up by
some nice video sequences that are educational in their own right,
giving good insights into ancient Egyptian customs and daily life
as well as providing further clues to the game. You can also look
round the various locations independently of the game and there is
a comprehensive "encyclopaedia" of all things Ancient Egyptian.

In your correspondent's humble opinion, a good œ30 worth if you
are into Ancient Egypt or have a school project coming up and have
internet access, but better given a miss if you want to play a
game.  There are other similar games in this series by the same
team, one about the palace of Versailles and another set in the
Forbidden City of the Chinese emperors.



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