Egypt II review

by gatorlaw

Ok guys here it is....
Egypt II: The Heliopolis Prophecy

Although listed as a sequel to the first Egypt game from Cryo-Interactive... I really think that Egypt II is a stand alone game. In other words - it is not necessary to have played one to play the other.

The setting is the ancient capitol of Egypt known as Heliopolis. Known now, only through people's imagination and deciphered hieroglyphs. This was once a city of great beauty, higher learning, and political intrigue.

You are Tifet, a young priestess and student of Sekhmet, the goddess of medicine. Suddenly you receive an important message that will change your life and the city as well. Your adoptive father and a much beloved physician has become stricken by a mysterious malady that bears no name.

Your quest is to discover the truth about the illness and the forces behind the city walls that have imperiled your father and the entire city as well. As you dig into the past and present - your findings will reveal not only that your father's life hangs in the balance - but the entire future of your beloved city is at stake as well.

So begins a great story and adventure. This is a first person game - with ample cutscenes in third person. The character of Tifet is remarkably crafted. She has an engaging personality, as do many of the people that you encounter. For the most part the puzzles are not overly difficult and are logically interwoven with the plot and your mission. There is a drum puzzle that is not good for apparently rhythm challenged folks such as I , but with the patch comes relief. So you will probably not have the keyboard imprints in your forehead as I now bear.

The graphics are some of the best I have seen. From the brightly colored banners waving in the breeze from the temple heights to the brooding depths of an underground shaft... you will be transported to Tifet's world with ease. The music is wonderful and enigmatic. It also has the intended effect of changing your sense of urgency. The music shifts during these moments to a darker more brooding basis and it really was excellent.

The game is not short - but not very long either. I spent (not including drum problems - trust me you don't want to know!) about 25 hours or more into this game. However - I would rate it one of the best I have played so far this year.

Now for some Housekeeping :

Egypt II has minimal requirements of:
PII200 w/MMX or similar graphics card
32 RAM
16X CD Rom
Win 95/98
4 Mb video card
30 Mb to 250 Mb of hard drive space
and your system must be compatible with Direct X 7.a or higher.

On top of that there is a patch out that I urge you to download and install in the Cryo/ Egypt II directory before playing.

The patch downloads quickly from this site.
Egypt II patch

It is for any language. You download it and then follow the instructions in the read me file accompanying the patch exe file.

You can get the game from either Greatest Adventures Vol. 2 Aztec and Egypt 2

This takes you to the first page of Neotogo, but if you scroll down you'll see a box labeled Cryo with bundled deals listed. The price for Aztek and Egypt 2 is about 27.00US plus whatever postage is. NeoTogo is very reliable and shipping time is generally around a week to ten days or from Cryo directly at Cryo.

It is priced about 40.00 from Cryo - which is high, but that is the only place that has the DVD version available. I don't think it makes that much difference to me ... but to those who have to have DVD it's there.

The Neotogo deal is very good if you haven't played Aztec - which I think is the best historical based game out before Egypt II came out.

Dreamcatcher is also going to have Egypt II available - but I think only paired up with Egypt I. Well I say go for the best deal and if you have the other game - now's a great time for a game trade. LOL

Anyway, regardless - I have high regards for this game. I think that this is one game - people should not miss out on and hope they don't.

copyright © 2002 GameBoomers

Review Index