Egypt 3

Walk like an Egyptian, but with little freedom of movement, Sam discovers...

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The adventure game was one of the very first genres to assert itself during the dawn of gaming. Throughout the eighties and early nineties it enjoyed a healthy critical and commercial life as the text-based adventure evolved into the point-and click and a world of gamers were transported to a plethora of fantastical worlds. Then along came a certain Lara Croft. Her 3D adventure gaming was quickly emulated by many developers, and the traditional story-based adventure game started to wither and die.

Developers The Adventure Company apparently feel there's still enough interest in this sub-genre to keep pumping out adventure games, most of which pass right by the mainstream consciousness. So now they have released the third in their Egypt series. Egypt 3 - or the Egyptian Prophecy: The Fate of Ramses, depending on which territory you live in - takes the player back to the time of the pharaohs. The great Ramses II is dying of old age, an event that is feared will bring about the demise of the glory of Egypt. The Sun-God Amon-Ra has promised to extend his life in return for the construction of the most splendid of temples. Unfortunately the building site has been plagued by a series of mysterious and troubling incidents. Taking the role of the young priestess Maia the player must uncover what is behind the delays in the temple's construction, thereby ensuring the continued reign of Ramses II. Her journey will bring her into contact with many of the myths and stories of ancient Egypt and take her to some of ancient Egypt's most famous sites, such as Karnak and Memphis, (the home of Egyptian country music).

Now I must admit to having never sampled either of the two earlier efforts, and judging by the roughness of the edges on this release I wouldn't have been overly impressed. Although the graphics and general presentation of Egypt 3 cannot be fairly described as antique there is no harshness in calling them tired. This game wouldn't have troubled a PC from before the millennium with the minimum specs being a 600MHz P3 with a 32 meg graphics card. Judging from my experience this recommended spec should more than be up to the job. I imagine most of the The Adventure Company customers don't own massive gaming rigs, so this makes perfect sense, unless you like a little polish with your spit.

If you have played Myst or any of its myriad of derivative clones you will know pretty much what to expect. If you haven't then you will be unfamiliar with the pseudo-3D world that play takes place in. Each location can be spun and rotated from the viewpoint of Maia's eye-level, giving a goldfish bowl perspective. An arrow will appear under the context sensitive pointer if you can travel through a door or corridor to another location, with the next scene fading into view. There's no freedom of movement, and as many seemingly viable locations are inaccessible the sense of immersion in the gameworld is severely hampered. While the backgrounds themselves are reasonably pleasing to the eye, the characters themselves are pixallated and rather ugly, looking like refugees from an FMV sequence in the mid-nineties. The sound effects are equally hum-drum, although the voice acting is rather good. Egypt 3 is not the kind of game to show off your new PC with, although conversely its gentle nature makes it a far more peaceful gaming experience than is the norm these days.

One of the biggest issues that adventure games used to have was the difficulty players would have in picking out the interactive objects from the background graphics. Egypt 3 takes us back to the time before these problems were solved, with play often involving giving the inside of the monitor a good wipe-down with the cursor as you search for an elusive pressure block or cartouche. Not the way to do things in 2004. Saying that, the game will often stick your face right into any important object; not a pleasing affair when that object is a nice pile of donkey droppings. Quite why someone would want to scoop up said droppings and carry it around in hope that it becomes useful is another issue that I have with the game's design. You see, Egypt 3 relies on the old pick-it-all-up-and-hope-it-fits-somewhere puzzling mechanic. Fortunately the number of items in the game is fairly limited so things never get too cluttered, but even with some environmental puzzles the amount of adventuring in this game is limited. This isn't helped by the lack of population in the locations. It's almost as if a terrible plague has struck the upper Nile, as you are likely to collect more objects than you will see characters.

Initially I found playing Egypt 3 a reasonably enjoyable experience. Flitting around from one recognisable ancient location to another, collecting trinkets for old men and gods, I was amused in a kind of soporific way. The unchallenging nature of most of the puzzles coupled with relative simplicity of the control system would make this a fairly good game for the young 'uns, but if you are after a highly cerebral challenge I suggest you look elsewhere. The same rings true if you like engaging storylines as although this one is awash in myth, magic, gods and the supernatural, the plot itself is not what I would describe as riveting.

Egypt 3 left me feeling empty. Given a modern engine, some production values and a better story then I would have little difficulty in recommending it to anyone with a passing interest in the genre. As things stand, unless you go rabid for Egypt or tired old adventure games then I would advise you pass up on this time travelling opportunity.

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By Sam Gibson