Ratings and Reviews by dvs
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Strong theme, yet somewhat unsatisfying, September 30, 2022I remember loving this game when I played it back in the 80s.
The theme is strong - the find-the-pyramid start to the game has lots of flavor and excitement as we establish our character to be a selfish jerk. Once we get into the pyramid there are florid descriptions of paintings and a wonderful sense of place as we explore deeper underground.
I loved Indiana Jones movies so all of the traps that lead to instant death are fun and thematic.
The hieroglyphs ... well, they add to the setting, but they don't make much sense. Why are they there? It's like a D+D dungeon with signs on the walls telling you how to avoid the traps or what to do to kill the dragon and get the gold.
I remember the gripping ending from my youth. It's both satisfying and unsatisfying.
I appreciate how this game broke some of the Infocom conventions of the time but I wouldn't recommend it for a modern gamer.
There is a great short story in this game. The author creatively captures the emptiness and cottony lack of motivation in depression. "The clock on the wall ticks the seconds away into the air." However, I'd much rather read this as a short story than play it as an interactive fiction game -- there are too many problems in the gameplay which distracts and confuses from the poignancy of the writing. I found myself doing the minimum to move the story along.
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