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Riddle of the Sphinx | List Price: $19.99
Discount Price: $18.88
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Platform: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 95
Brand: Dreamcatcher
Binding: CD-ROM
Release Date: 2000-12-20
ESRB Age Rating: Everyone
Features: - Windows 98/95, Pentium 133 MHz or greater, 32 MB (or more-optimal)
- SVGA monitor (640 x480 with thousands of colors), 8x Speed CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive
- 16-bit Sound Blaster sound card (or compatible)
- DreamCatcher
- PC
Just Ok [Posted on 2005-06-11]
I purchased the jewel case version for $9.99, but wouldn't pay more for it. Maybe because I had just finished a Nancy Drew game that I found this game to be somewhat tedious and boring. There were lots of rooms to look through & items to pick up that all looked the same after a while. And the ending was so blah, blah, blah with all it's preachiness about religion. A few of the puzzles were challenging. Like I said, it's just an OK game.
Indiana Jones fathers child on Myst [Posted on 2006-08-19]
So here's how it is. I loved the environments, old graphics and all. I loved the statues of the gods dotting the landscape, silent and ubiquitous -- I spent a lot of the first part of the game unwilling to pass them, partcularly since the game usually would not let me turn to look at them directly. I don't like passing ancient Egyptian gods with blinkers on. This game can zap you at a moment's notice.
I loved the immersion in Egyptology and the amazing rooms, though I'd have thought a lot less wicker, wood, and cloth would have survived three thousand years of dusty emptiness.
The puzzles were fine, but unreasonably finicky. I had to consult walkthroughs several times when I had already figured out answers, to discover that tiny mouse adjustments mattered, which was not helped by the often squirrely interface. I used to have a car that drove like that -- not memories I want to revisit.
What really gets my craw is the ending, however. I mean -- good grief! An Atrus clone leaping out of nowhere to subject you to a historically nonsensical and virtually inaudible monologue in a very bad approximation of an English accent about sacred lost objects that shine at you for a moment (and you don't even get to see creepy spirits that melt your head) and that's the END??? I know there's a sequel. I know that All Ancient Cultures Who Built Pyramids Must Have Been Seeded By Aliens. I even know that lost objects turn up in strange places. But -- that object would have had to travel in time quite a bit to end up where it did. Or maybe I got that wrong because I had difficulty understanding a words Atru-- ah -- Sir Gil was saying.
As many of other reviewers have said, this game is fun but flawed. It seems to want to mix the gritty tedium of actual archeology (oh, the many trips to that sand dispenser) with the wildest fantasies of Steven Spielberg, and it ends up with the worst of both worlds. Be warned.
But I did love the lost temple of Ra -- crazy beautiful a fantasy as it was . . .
Boring game, but a nice concept [Posted on 2006-09-08]
After installing the game and seeing the intro clip I was very excited to play. The clip was well written, visually attractive, and informative of the history of the sphinx and the great pyramid. Unfortunately, that was the peak of my experience with this game.
ROTS is a game I wish I could return for a refund. It is boring and clunky and slow. I've got a 2.1 ghz laptop--that's 2 generations newer than when the game came out--and it was still slow. (This is because the author went a really cheap route and used quicktime for the graphics... and 'quick'time isn't at all.)
Beyond that, the first few puzzles are simple annoyances, then obscure without warning, and then ridiculously obscure. After a few fairly simple puzzles, you're stuck in this small boring clunky world, pending the solution to a very obscure puzzle. You have to enter a code somewhere before ANYTHING else happens in the game. I cheated to get that code, just to see if I was missing anything interesting later on. The code was ridiculously obscure, and I would have felt very cheated if I had spent dozens of hours trying to guess it. After that, a whole new exciting layer of chambers opened up. Except they were just a boring labrynth, and it was too nonsensical (huge labrynth in the middle of the pyramid?) to be exciting. The puzzles appeared to revert back to trivially simple (i.e. move the mouse around and see if the cursors changes, and click on it if it does). Virtually nothing happens in the game. No interaction with other characters at all. No depth at all. BORING.
On the bright side, I really appreciate the original concept of the game. If done properly (and a little less unbelievably), it could be really fun and informative and even thought-provoking. The visuals are decent, and they did a nice job on some details inside the pyramid, but other things are totally phony and cheesy. I think the idea was good, but as another reviewer mentioned, there were only two people working on it. That's why I gave it 3 stars overall. If this had been a big team, I'd give it one star.
Breathtaking but Hard! [Posted on 2007-12-31]
I drooled (not literally) over this game for years before I finally purchased it. It was worth the money, but there were a few serious flaws that may discourage gamers. Here is my review.
Graphics-Perfect! This is one of those games that sucks you in just by the realistic environment. Getting to explore ancient Egyptian sites was almost as fun as playing the game itself! The backdrops were really beautiful.
Puzzles-Hard! The puzzles ranged from easy to so hard it made my head spin. Needless to say, I resorted to using a walk through. If you are really good at the type of puzzles in this game, this may or may not be an issue for you.
General Game Play-Good! This is definitely a point-and-clicker (just to let you know). There is a warp option that will let you skip certain areas that you have already explored which can be really nice.
Content-Fine. I think a heard a swear word or two in this game, but they were muttered under the breath, and I am not even positive that what I thought I heard was what they really said!
Music-I don't usually even address music in my reviews, but the music in this game was breathtaking to say the least. I wish there was a soundtrack!
Overall-This was a really good game, I took off one star for the difficulty, but don't let me discourage you from trying your hand at it!
nice interiors.clunky movement.boring.proselytizing. [Posted on 2008-07-10]
Imaginary interior of pyramid beautifully rendered....Mysterious flaming torches everywhere!.
(I have XP but got and tried this older version.DO NOT OBEY WHEN IT SAYS TO CHANGE RESOLUTION. Works OK on regular.)
Movement frustrating! Every click brings another wheezing whirr until that bit has loaded itself.
Gantenbrick's tunnel was approx 12 minutes long.
It does NOT bring Ancient Egypt "to life"....boring plod through beautiful but rather pointless scenes.
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