I have to admit I was a little skeptical when I put my order in over a year ago, but I recently finished your impressive “Riddle of The Sphinx” program and it was well worth the wait! What I liked best about ROTS was the realism and plausibility of the game’s structure and content. The excavation tapes were a great idea, especially the ‘artifacts’ one… archaeology is not all adventure, after all! The five-minute long ‘ride of the Cheoptronic’ was wonderful. I don’t think I blinked once as I sat watching that delightfully grainy video feed waiting for the door to loom out of gray void up ahead– it was just like watching the footage of Gatenbrink’s explorations, but only while ‘being there’! The graphics and sounds were superb (the temple and surrounding area is without a doubt my favorite location, not only due to their stark beauty but also as I have never seen anything like them on a game before).
There are only two possible criticisms I could have for ROTS, one would be that most of the art, furniture and artifacts had a “New Kingdom” look to them, which made it hard to believe they were all in an Old Kingdom monument (of course I understand that not much authentic 4th Dynasty material has survived, excepting Queen Hetepheres mysterious “reburial”). At least the material was of undisputable Egyptian origin, and it was a treat to see so many beautifuly rendered copies of original artifacts.
My other possible criticism of ROTS would be the lack of ‘cinematic’ quicktime movies showing the interaction of the excavation’s members. One of the only things I liked better about Interplay’s 1996 game “Mummy: Tomb of The Pharaoh” than ROTS was the whole hour of live action footage it contained. I understand that adding cinematic movies jacks up the production overhead (and hence the retail cost) of the game, so ‘live people’ are something I can learn to count on not seeing too often. Speaking of “Mummy” (which I am almost ashamed to compare to ROTS, the tomb in the former was composed mainly by cutting and pasting scenes scanned *illegaly* from the 1994 Chronicle Books reprint of “The Book of The Dead”), I was wondering if bits in ROTS like having to gas up the generator and the ever-handy gold dagger where an homage to the earlier game?
In short ROTS is a well-designed, well-crafted game and it is obvious that it was created by people whose talents are only equaled by their dedication. The ‘dagger’ shirt is beautiful and I believe that backordering the “Book of The Dead Ends” was actually a good thing. If I had it I would have used it, and then I would not feel the satisfaction of knowing that I solved the Riddle of The Sphinx by myself! Sincerely,
– Chris Burgin
