While Cleopatra: A Queen's Destiny looks the part, it falls short in a few significant areas.
You play as Thomas the Chaldean, an astronomer working under Akkad. Akkad and his daughter Iris (Thomas' girlfriend) have disappeared, leaving Thomas to set off in search of them. A few "encoded" pieces of papyrus give clues as to what may have happened to them. While the story is fairly decent, and certainly a bit more involved than many games seem to manage, it's a bit hard to take it seriously when the characters all sound upbeat and cheerful. It all feels just a bit superficial.
Most notable about this particular adventure title is its beautifully rendered graphics. Scenes are detailed without being cluttered, and brought to life in vivid, rich color. Even better, the lighting is perfect. In countless adventure games, I have to boost my monitor's brightness just to see in dark corners, leaving everything a bit washed out and faded. Here, however, there is plenty of light, and everything looks simply amazing. Particularly stunning are the water effects - whether it's shimmering, trickling, steaming or simply sitting in a container, the water is done to perfection. There are a very few rendering errors; while fairly minor, one was in a signficant enough area that I couldn't tell if it was a rendering mistake or something I had achieved.
Unfortunately, while an important ingredient in any adventure game's recipe, beautiful graphics do not a great game make. While it's definitely worth a play for any Egyptophiles or adventure game addicts, it certainly could have done better in a few key areas.
Voice acting, for one, is pretty goofy, and not in a good way. Most of the voices sound like the cheesy, silly, overeager dubbing that is common in Japanese movies. Of course, it doesn't help that much of the dialog is no better - you'll often hear characters, especially the hero of the game, saying things that are just laughably anachronistic, and not intentionally so. It probably wouldn't be so bad if there weren't a few downright long and boring conversations to sit through - luckily, you can read the subtitles and skip past the spoken dialog if you choose.
The sound is pretty decent but not particularly noteworthy. There is plenty of ambient sound, and some key sound effects (such as a stone hatch opening) sound surprisingly realistic. Some achievements are marked by a quick chime, but in general, the sound is a fairly thin feature.
Another key ingredient, the puzzle play, is passable, but hardly challenging. Most puzzles are so straightforward that they feel more like going through the motions than actually achieving something. There are a few somewhat challenging ones, but few are likely to send you to a walkthrough. On the plus side, the puzzles are well integrated into the story, and each one has a pretty clear purpose. Kheops Studios likes to throw a little variety into the mix, and here they achieve this with "good day" and "bad day" play variations. While it won't make any earth shattering differences, playing on a "good day" makes some puzzles a little more straightforward than others. It's a testament to the game's general simplicity that "bad day" gameplay actually seemed to be preferable, as it stretched gameplay out by a smidge. Instances where this variation comes into play are noted by a brief tune and a sparkle or rain effect. (It would appear that this is based on the Zodiac symbol you choose to play under as well as the day you play - on one day, all the puzzles fell under "bad day"; the following day, playing under the same sign, everything met the "good day" conditions).
The puzzles are mainly inventory based, with just a few set piece puzzles thrown in. Inventory can be combined to create new items, but this only happens in relatively few instances. Gameplay is fairly linear, but there are usually a few puzzles to try at once, if you find yourself stuck for ideas. The game's mechanics can be a bit clunky in a few places - turning dials or wheels, for example, can be a bit frustrating with a fixed view. A couple of puzzles should give you pause for a few minutes, but there's nothing brain-bending to do here. Be warned: you'll do a fair amount of schlepping back and forth. While there is an interactive map that allows you to move quickly from one area to the next, it is only available in certain locations(I never did guess what the rule was) and involves somewhat slow transitions; eventually it's just easier to get there manually than to pull up the map and see if it's an option.
All this aside, Cleopatra: A Queen's Destiny was actually a fairly enjoyable game. It's hard to complain about seeing each area over and over again when everything looks so beautiful. While the puzzles may lean a bit too far to the easy side of the scale, they do tend to be enjoyable and fit in with the story. While the voice acting and the over-easiness of the game detract signifcantly from its overall quality, hard core adventure fans and fans of Egypt will likely get a few good hours of enjoyment from this game.