Picked up for $15 and well worth it!
While playing as Sphinx you roam around the lands of Uruk searching for adventure. You complete quests, which are quite linear and progress in the game. Along the way you get upgrades to your combat and movement. As the Mummy your story is contained in the Castle of Uruk where you try to discern the mysteries of what is happening. You are not that agile as the Mummy and most of your time is spent solving puzzles. While playing as Sphinx you will come upon canopic vases after completing objectives or they are given to you; you will then be automatically transferred to Mummy to discover the secrets of the Castle of Uruk. There is a plot by Tut's brother to defeat the sun god, Osiris, and cast a shadow over all the lands.
Now to some technical details: The game plays like any RPG, it has a a large free roaming land with large amount puzzles to be solved and enemies to fight. The fighting system is relatively basic you are equipped with sword and basic controls, not too many combinations. You are also armed with a blow gun, to hit far off targets, and capture beetles which allow you to capture the animals throughout the game when they have been stunned. Some of these can be used to set fire to objects and blow things up. There are also several mini-games to play in which you earn medals and money. There a few uses for money (scarabs) in the game other than to buy animals to donate to the museum. You health is 4 bars or ankhs, and this will be upgraded after completing missions or using anks collected from various places.
There is about 20 hours of game play here. After accidentally deleting my first saved game it took around that to beat it. I was excited while playing to realized how many more things I knew had to be completed before I would be done. The controls are simplistic. Attack and jump are set and you can customize the other buttons to suit. The camera can tend to get confused easily and it can be hard to see around you. The white button is supposed to used for reorientation but if often didn’t help.
The graphics are fantastic, with the environments beautifully detailed and very little draw distances. The characters are also well drawn with an abundance of creatures throughout. There is a bit comedy in the game while playing as the Mummy, falling all over, being lit on fire, electrocuted and cut into three pieces. These though are all essential to completing the puzzles. The sound is decent, with effects happening along with the action. One drawback is that there is not voice acting, which really would have added something, instead all the dialogue is voice boxes.
Overall I had a lot of fun playing the game. I haven't had a chance to play many RPGs lately and was pleasantly surprised. They ending is quite open ended so lets hope they go for a sequel
fett