Riddle of the Sphinx Review

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            Riddle of the Sphinx: An Egyptian Adventure

Review by EnigmaFebruary 2002

What is the eternal allure of those mysterious, beautiful, decaying objects, hidden chambers in crumbling tombs, hieroglyphics, statues, and mummies of ancient Egypt? Whatever it is, you’ll feel it as you make your way through the Great Pyramid of Cheops in this highly intriguing game. Riddle of the Sphinx plunges you into all of it and pushes it to the max. Yes, yes, I know. Adventure games use ancient Egypt as a setting far too often.

In Riddle of the Sphinx you’ll remember why.

It’s real adventure, and it’s great stuff. And to think that the whole thing was made almost entirely by only two people, Jeff and Karen Tobler, a husband and wife team! The game does have some weaknesses—you’ll be taking too many notes and screenshots, you can’t drop unnecessary items from the inventory, you’ll notice that Jeff Tobler can’t act—but the awesome graphics, constantly changing, elaborate environments and intriguing puzzles easily overcome those frustrations. The word I kept hearing myself saying was “amazing.”

The Story

You are a friend of the prominent Egyptologist Sir Gil Blythe Geoffreys, and he’s summoned you to his archeological dig at Giza.  During the 1990s, the Sphinx and the Great Pyramid have been plagued with violent sandstorms and are essentially deserted. Gil himself has disappeared, but he has left tapes with cryptic clues for you in the hope that you’ll be able to decipher them where Gil’s rivals cannot. You’ll easily find a tunnel into the Sphinx, but it’s blocked by a solid iron door. The riddle lies in what’s behind that door, but you can’t get past it. So, you’ll turn your attention to the Great Pyramid of Cheops, and there you’ll search for the items that will get you into the Sphinx. Once you solve the usual “get in and turn on the lights” puzzles and find your first secret chamber—and these are no mean tasks—you’ll be faced with a long series of fascinating places to explore and things to do. The game gets more interesting all the time. Eventually, after long and immersive gameplay, you’ll solve that pesky riddle, too.

Gameplay

You’ll find abundant, exquisite, fascinating areas to explore within the Great Pyramid and beyond it, and the gameplay doesn’t have to be entirely linear.

Although you’ll need to solve puzzles to open new areas or to find objects for use in later puzzles, some puzzles can be done in any order. Once you’ve been somewhere, you’re free to wander back there at will. Despite the fantastic premise of the game, everything works to promote an air of realism. You’ll explore in first-person point and click, opening doors and boxes and picking up strange objects as you go.

Yet even with the wonderful areas to explore, my favorite aspect of Riddle of the Sphinx has to be the interesting puzzles.  As you explore, you’ll find ancient papyrus scrolls. On these scrolls are clues, real clues, to almost all of the puzzles. If you keep your eyes open you’ll find more clues scattered about.  Many of the puzzles are multilayered and pretty tough, but with those clues they’re also mostly logical and fair to the player, although that won’t prevent you from getting stuck from time to time. Even when I resorted to a walkthrough just to get past a tough spot, I didn’t often find myself wondering how I was supposed to read the Toblers’ minds. Instead, I said, “Well, of course.  Why didn’t I see that?”

However, there are quite a few red herrings in the game. Taking notes is essential, as is some reading, although most of that is confined to the first part of the game. Yet I found that I didn’t need about 90 percent of the notes and screenshots I took, and I really didn’t need to read the books I found in Sir Gil’s tent. Puzzles range from inventory-based to mechanical and some are quite complex, so be sure to explore everywhere and watch for those clues.

The cursor changes over hot spots, so the essential stuff isn’t hard to find. In fact, the cursor changes so much, it’ll take you a little while to get used to it. You move from node to node, but often you’ll change into “VR Mode,” which allows you to scan an entire area, often just out of interest but sometimes to find hot spots. There’s also a nifty zoom cursor, as in the Myst games, that allows you to cover ground you’ve already traveled, and that comes in handy especially toward the end of the game.

The inventory system works quickly, although you can’t drop anything you don’t need once you’ve got it. That limitation got in my way when I grabbed about 20 arrows from the arrow-dispensing jar, not knowing why I might need them. As it turned out I only needed a few but was stuck with the rest forever. Another time I found interesting stars that I knew I’d need, but only after I’d picked up plenty did I realize that they weren’t all the same, and I only needed one kind. Fortunately I’d just saved my game, or I would have been stuck with all those stars too.

You can die in Riddle of the Sphinx, but you’ll see warning clues for those few areas. Always you can revert to a saved game, and you can save as many games as you like. You don’t have to do it constantly, but I found that a save after solving a major puzzle or breaking into a new area kept me from any unnecessary backtracking.

Lights, Camera, Action

When you find the first secret chamber and gaze upon all that gold, you might wonder what can top it. Yet you’ll forget it as you find ever more chambers positively littered with even more objects, and more and more. It had me gasping all the way through the game. What work went into these graphics! All of it looks authentic, too, and while it’s constantly Egyptian, it’s varied enough to hold your interest. The number of rooms and passages and pools and rivers seems never-ending. Whenever I thought I must be reaching the end of the game, I’d break into yet another new environment with something new to do.

Throughout you’ll find flaming torches to light your way. While I wondered if they’d been burning for millennia, I sure liked looking at them. I was surprised to encounter a bit of underwater swimming with unusual graphic effects that made it seem real.  You can see some beautifully rendered submerged stones in the Nile, with lovely lighting effects that shimmer off the river.  Inside, light gleams off gold and polished marble floors, while other areas are covered with rubble and the dust of ages. In and near outdoor areas sand has drifted into crevices and corners, lending realism to the storyline.

If Jeff Tobler, as he does the voice of Sir Gil, has no idea what an English accent sounds like, and if his tapes go on far too long, I forgive him. Everything else he and his wife Karen did shines.

Bugs

None encountered, with the exception of a tiny breakup in the sound during the very last scene. Otherwise the game ran perfectly on my 500 MHz iMac. It comes on three discs, but the first is just for loading. Gameplay takes place entirely on CDs two and three, with minimal disc swapping required.

My Verdict

If you like ancient Egypt, challenging puzzles with actual clues, and first-person exploration of fascinating environments, Riddle of the Sphinx is for you. Although I experienced some major stucknesses during the game, once I’d broken free of those I was rewarded with ever more immersive gameplay. It’s a thinking person’s game, and everything you do leads you toward your goal. You solve puzzles that allow you to move ever deeper into the pyramid and beyond, collecting objects all the way. Just as the first puzzle in Gil’s tent has many layers, the entire game peels off layer upon layer until at last everything results in the objects and clues you need to open that iron door in the Sphinx. Nothing is wasted. Everything fits together.

That’s adventure! In my humble opinion, that makes Riddle of the Sphinx mega-supreme! The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Omni Creative Publisher: Dreamcatcher Release Date: December 2000

Available for: Macintosh Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

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System Requirements

PC: Windows 95/98/ME Pentium 166 MHz 32 MB available RAM 8X CD-ROM drive

Macintosh: 80 MHz Power PC System 7.5 or greater 32 MB available RAM 8X CD-ROM drive

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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