Maybe I'm the only one who played this one because I didn't get the word on what a stinker it was. I can't say much good about it except some of the cut scenes were nice. Even then, the characters moved like stage dummies.

I played the game on a PII 450, 384 MB, still under Win98, DirectX 8.0, nVidia video card, Creative's PCI 128 sound card. It ran fine. No glitches, nada. Maybe it would have been more interesting if something HAD gone wrong.

The game synopsis is that you're in ancient Egypt and your father has been (falsely, of course) accused of participating in a tomb robbery. Your job is to clear his name by investigating.

The movement is mouse-driven, but slide-show style. In each "frame," you have 360 movement and can look up and down. The screens are pretty dark most of the time, unless you are in a well-lit room. There are some nice candle effects and torch action, but hey, "that don't make a game good."

The game is European, so there is a weird mismatch between the speaking voices and the movement of characters' lips that is distracting. The "question trees" don't seem to mean much, cause if you ask one question, the character will answer that one and eventually the others as well.

It is possible to die repeatedly in this game. About the only thing that perked me up was that threat.

(Are you getting the impression that this game was not one of my favorites?

Worse is that you could leave one of the game's environments without completing some vital action, and would unable to RETURN. So, you'd be screwed and wouldn't know it until much later. Then you'd have to go back to an saved game before you left that area, and do it again. That was most aggravating. I'd rather 1) be stuck somewhere, thus wandering around trying to figure out what I haven't done yet and not being allowed to go on, or 2) be allowed to leave and come back later, than 3) to be allowed to go on without something and be blocked from coming back. That is atrocious game design!

Puzzles, which are what we play for, were few and far between. When you came up to one, it was ludicrously easy to solve. "Child's play" comes to mind. On the other hand, there were some pretty abstruse "puzzles" that were essential. For instance, you get this coded message early in the game, and somehow you are supposed to figure out that you need to take this message out of inventory and click it on certain things in order to fill in blanks that you don't know are there. Right! If I hadn't been playing with partners who wised me up to this, who knows how far I would have gone.

And the inventory. Ah, the inventory. Well, how does this sound: if you want to try something in your inventory, you right click to open the inventory screen and take that thing out of your inventory by selecting it. Then you try it. Oh, it doesn't work there? Well, let's walk over to the other side of the room and try it there, OK? uh uh! You have to re-open the inventory, replace the item, then walk (click the mouse) over to the other side of the room, then open the inventory again, re-select the item and try it there. How many times can you go through that nonsense before you are looking up the game credits to see where these sadists LIVE!?

Another nice feature is that you frequently get no "head's up" when you use a piece of inventory correctly. The action you take might be correct and might trigger an appropriate question line with one of the characters later, but without knowing that, you're still wandering around trying to get something going, afraid to leave because you may not be able to get back.

And I'm not done yet. Oh no. At the end of the game (which goes very quickly, I might add), you have a timed sequence. YEAH! I really needed that to help me love this game even more. The best part about this timed sequence is that you have no idea what you are looking for! So, you go running around this maze of columns (the game gives you a so-called map for this area that is useless in my opinion -- after all, when you've played a few games, you know what a "map" looks like), and you keep seeing the Game Over screen explode, and you still haven't got a clue. Definitely time to download a WT.

When I finished this game, I was reminded of an old joke Woody Allen once told about two ladies vacationing at a Catskills resort. Once says, "The food here is just terrible." And her friend says, "Yes, and such small portions, too!" Well, Egypt hit me like that. Disappointing and too short.

My overall rating is not even on the scale of 1 to 10. I 'd say skip it altogether, unless you just have to have every adventure game ever issued. In that case, I'll send you my copy.

Ah come on Reenie - did you like the game or not

I have to agree with alot of what you said - it was rather blah and that timed sequence at the end was the absolute pits to say the least.

I didn't dislike it as much as you did but it isn't one of my favorites.

I didn't dislike it as much as Reenie did either and I'm not sorry that I played it, but I will not be replaying this game. It had a lot of nice graphics of Egypt and two endings (one happy, one sad). Unfortunately, the gameplay problems that Reenie noted take away from the enjoyment of getting through the game without a walkthrough.

Reenie, you definitely hit all the points on this one.

Reenie,

In the brief history of this forum - you have set a new standard....

Hands down - that is the funniest comment I have heard about a game.

I can't say I disliked it as much as you though - as I didn't endure the entire game. I stopped somewhere in the tomb.

What a delightful writing style BTW. I am eager to hear what you say about other games as well, so keep them coming.

Laura *survives choking with laughter after mistakenly taking a swig of coffee before reading Reenie's love fest over Egypt 1*

The best thing about the game was the in-game encyclopedia. Unless you're interested in ancient Egypt and in seeing and reading about the items and people and customs you see in the game, it isn't really worth playing. It is the sort of game that turns people off of historical adventure games. I ended up using a walkthrough most of the time to avoid all the deaths and to avoid missing items.

Yeah, I did get going on a rant there, didn't I? I made much the same verbal criticism to my husband, and when I was finished, he said, "Why don't you tell me what you really thought of the game?"

Seriously, I have played so many games -- bad, mediocre, just OK, good, and superb -- somewhere in the neighborhood of 140-150 games. By now, I can tell a stinker when I play one! I never would have finished Egypt if Bluebonnet and Jasper and I weren't playing as partners. We kept each other going, while casting numerous aspersions at the game and its designers. That made it more fun, as you can imagine. As for the designers, I was really surprised. Dreamcatcher has issued a lot of good games. I loved "Riddle of the Sphynx," to name the most recent Dreamcatcher I played. Don't know what happened with Egypt.

Well, onward to better games...

Laura, I got thru more of the game than you, came out of the tomb, and saw a line of people, than quit. Sold it immediatly, so I wouldn't make the mistake of giving it another shot.

I have played this game and was entertained by parts of it and did not find it too dark. I thought that the maze into the village was cute and easy and the embalming place interesting, I liked those skirts swinging at the funerary procession. I also liked the party and getting ready for it in my adversary's house. All and all it was not a bad game, a little lame, a little so so, I have played better, than again I have played much worth.

or renne...i couldn't agree more!! but niceness won't let me say the words i think about this game...i SO wanted to have a weenie roast with that game...hair all stuck up ..cackling over the fireplace!!! HORRID LITTLE GAME! imho..sicko masochistic makers...i was going to give my game to someone i don't care for down the road but..then i am not that mean! you aught to read the thread on this..it's a blow by blow account of my hair pulling ..ugh,,never mind...

What a review! I have felt that way about a few games, but this wasn't one of them. To me it was a mediocre game that was somewhat interesting, I didn't mind playing it, and I didn't mind wandering in the tomb and looking for hieroglyphics or whatever I was doing. I didn't feel the instant antipathy like I did with "9" or "Fork in the Tale" or (please don't throw stones) the Nancy Drews. But I find it so interesting to see what others love and hate in this huge group of people with different tastes.

I didn't hate the game quite that much; I just thought it was pretty boring. Too much like real life. I like Egypt "Hollywood" style, with fantastic temples, gilded walls, secret passsage ways, and Yul Brynner dripping in jewels.

BTW, I just finished Egypt II, which was a little more interesting, but not much. At least it had a female protagonist and a pretty neat black cat, which kept showing up from time to time.