This hidden gem is worthy of any action/adventure fan's collection!
User Rating: 8.5 | Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy GC
When a third party, multiplatform action/adventure game is announced by THQ, the makers of WWE wrestling games, and Eurocom, the makers of a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and 007 Nightfire, you probably won’t be jumping out of your seat in excitement. Well, that’s exactly what you should have been doing, as this hidden gem truly is a great game, which will unfortunately get thrown aside as a low quality, generic attempt at Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. However, Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is a very complete package, and includes some surprising gameplay, a good story and a great experience. A great storyline is not something expected from a little gem like this, but in the end the story is actually quite impressive. It flows very well, has a plot twist or two, and keeps you easily entertained. Unfortunately, this game follows in suit with many other games as of late. There is a short, abrupt ending, leading up to an obvious sequel. This is very disappointing, as a good ending on a game nowadays is a difficult find. To go along with a great story, is some truly superb gameplay. The combat isn’t anything glorious, but it’s fairly infrequent. There are decent amounts of baddies in some areas, but they are generally few and far between, and the game revolves largely around puzzle solving. These puzzles are great and varied. There are few puzzles that are even remotely similar to each other throughout the game, and provide a refreshing change from so many games which are strictly hack-and-slash, and puzzle-free. Sphinx, the main character, has to go through many challenges throughout the game. Avoiding fire, electricity and the like at all cost. However, you control two characters, at separate times of course, in Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy, hence the title. You take control of a mummy who has to solve many puzzles through infiltrating a caste. It may sound a little lame, but the levels with the Mummy are easily the best in the game, and the puzzles are surprisingly well thought out and executed. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy is, rather obviously, themed in an Ancient Egyptian style. Egyptian mythology is involved; Ancient Egyptian locations; music from Egypt; even the characters are all rather Egyptian. If you’re a historian on any degree you’ll notice the horrendous historical inaccuracies, but really it doesn’t matter. Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy isn’t trying to be a historical and intellectually acute game. It has almost a storybook atmosphere, where every detail is interestingly woven together, and gives each mission in the game a lot more substance. This adds an incredible amount to the game, and each location has a different atmosphere to behold. Despite these atmospheres, some of the game’s environments can look a little plain. They have several minor details in the sand and on the rock formations, but there are very few colours used, as it is in a desert, and some landscapes between two places look suspiciously similar. However, when inside buildings or dungeons, there are a lot of great details here and there that are very interesting indeed. The character animations in this game look great! Almost all of the characters are looking around, having their own personalities, and lookin’ fine. They have great textures, and really give Prince of Persia a run for its money in this department. However, there are two issues here. One: Sphinx, the main character of the game, has almost no emotion and appears to be a walking statue; and two: the character’s make the backgrounds look very poor in comparison, so it can deteriorate from the atmosphere. Great atmosphere doesn’t come easily in a game; it requires superb graphics, music, and a certain something that makes the game complete and themed. This game has great it all, and most notably music. It adds to the atmosphere even more so than the graphics do, and makes for a very interesting game. The music fits each part: if it’s a sad part there will be slow, steady music; but if there’s a boss fight there will be fast, jumpy music. It’s all very fitting, but unfortunately the sound effects in this game are just plain bad. The monsters all make similar and extremely annoying grunts and moans. As do the actual walking, talking characters, which can get on anybody’s nerves. There’s no voice acting at all, just grunts, groans and even a screech or two. The great gameplay and sheer atmosphere of the game are enough to make this game a recommendation to anybody’s collection. Not to mention the great replay value with tons of side quests, and interesting possibilities. It will not disappoint by any means. In fact, it will probably leave you, like me, begging for a sequel sometime soon.
