Just finished the game and feeling very disappointed. I mean, why can't a game entitled "Cleopatra" feature Cleopatra as the protagonist? That would be so much more interesting, wouldn't it, to control a bad girl Queen in fighting rival concubines, seducing the Pharaoh to gain his favour and getting rid of political opponents using evil plotting? Or just follow the Elizabeth Taylor movie's plot?

Strangely, the Egypt series has been content to feature minor characters as the protagonists - common peasantry folk with forgettable names that don't have a direct say on the fate or history of eqypt. They are also modest games that don't take place in the palace of the Phraoah but instead feature only a few not so important locations such as quarries, small gardens and anonymous villages.

So far, Cleopatra is the only game in the Egypt series that feature bigger things, such as an important historical character (Cleopatra herself, and Ptolemy and Caesar by mention of name only), legendary locales such as the Library at Alexandria and the Lighthouse. But still, it is no epic game. The game of Cleopatra only covers about five small locations. And a great deal of the puzzles involve mixing ingredients to come up with suitable mixtures, and a bit of conducting chemical tests on ingredients to find out their identities. As a high school Chemistry teacher, I teach Chemical Analysis all the time every year, and find no real life application in figuring out how fictitious flowers, seeds and roots are identified in fictitious chemical tests, which take up a big part of the puzzles in this game. I feel that Egypt 3, the last game in the series, is far, far better than this dismal offering from Kheops Studios.

Just look at the Mummy movies and the Lara Croft 4 - The Last Revelation and even Titan Quest (the Egypt segment). They are all about grandiose, traps, mummies, pyramids, monsters, treasures, intrigue and mystique. Perhaps the next Eqypt game they can make it bigger and more epic. Also, the Egypt series seems more interested in historical plots instead of archeological plots that feature in other games. Perhaps next time, Kheops and Nobilis could consider leaving out the native Egyptians and bring in the tomb raiders.

It is high time that the unambitious developer, Kheops hire a professional writer to write their game plots. Their games are getting repetitive and formulaic. Seriously, how much has Cleopatra evolved, from Echo, Egypt 3 and Secrets of Da Vinci? I think I have seen the same gameplay elements sufficiently, already.

If you are genuinely interested with the character of Cleopatra, go ahead and rent the video for the Elizabeth Taylor movie instead - it will be much, much more rewarding than this trivial offering of a game.

By the way,
The following are adventure games that I have played in the last few months:

Really Liked:
Belief and Betrayal

Liked (flawed "gems"):
Sherlock Holmes Nemesis
Perry Rhodan
Jack Keane
Sherlock Holmes The Awakened
Evil Under The Sun
Egypt 3

Disappointed:
Cleopatra - does not deliver up to its potential; game is too lame considering its great potential
Syberia I and II - Not enough interaction - the games are beautiful but "empty"

Hi, Benedict

Cleo was a nice game...I guess the writers can't make everyone happy

I pretty much agree with you, Benedict - I was rather disappointed when I finished Cleopatra after only 5 hours. I thought the characters were very flat and I still think it's a shame that the Egyptian Queen herself played only such a minor role - ok, that was to be expected since Kheops studios like to name their games after historical persons but asign them only minor roles (see Nostradamus and Secrets of Da Vinci - same concept). The game has it good sides, though. I loved the graphics, they were beautiful to look at; a bit lifeless, perhaps, but beautifully done. And the puzzles were ok. Also, I liked the idea that you can choose between 4 avatars and the 12 signs of the zodiac, thus influencing the game's difficulty level. Still. I think they could have done a lot better with this...
Oh, before I forget it: For those of you who are interested in Cleopatra, I can highly recommend Margaret George's well-researched novel "Memoirs of Cleopatra". A great read but be prepared to read for a looooong time - the novel has almost 1000 pages