Previous Next

Well, well, what have we here. Could it be another company cashing in on the success of ancient Egyptian games like Entombed and Scarabaeaus?

My philosophy has always been that there's nothing wrong with ripping off other people's ideas as long as you make a good job of it. Not to put too fine a point on it, Pharaoh's Tomb is *the biggest pile of garbage I've seen since the binmen went on strike*.

Here's the story. You are an intrepid explorer taking an afternoon stroll through the Valley Of The Kings when you stumble across hieroglyphics telling you of the evil reign of an ancient wizard. The secret of the wizard's power is the triangle of the Gods, the key to which he has broken into four parts and scattered throughout the pyramid.

What annoys me about this is that it was obviously written on the back of an envelope one lunchtime in the pub. Where's the research? The consistency? Wizards in ancient Egypt, what are they talking about? And everyone knows there are no pyramids in The Valley Of The Kings. Unimportant you may think, but this is what's supposed to be selling you the game and setting the mood.

And so to the game. 'A graphical adventure with many hi-res screens' it says. For which, read a graphical adventure with not that many screens otherwise we would have told you exactly how many. I would say 20 to whack.

It's not so much the number as what's in them. The rooms all look pretty much the same except they have doors in different places. The hieroglyphics on the walls actually don't look too bad. The programmers have decided to throw the best stuff at you first.

When you move into the second chamber, a mummy with trailing bandages lumbers towards you. This is where the first problem arises. The characters have been dseigned on a grid much larger than the space they occupy and when they come anywhere near your man, bits of him disappear as the two 'sprites' overlap. It gives the game a very amateurish appearance. By the way, I said characters, but the other one is a spider. Apart from you, there are the only things that move, not including a rectangular-shaped thing that looks like a mistake.

There are four parts of the key to collect and I managed to get hold of three of them in about ten minutes. I also found an apple and a spade obviously intended for some purpose. I would advise you to steer well clear of Pharaoh's Tomb. It's a pretty shoddy piece of software and I don't think much time or thought has gone into producing it. The only professional looking thing about it is the packaging.