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Riddle of the Sphinx

Riddle of the Sphinx

List Price:
Your Price: $15.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: First-person adventure gamers must-have
Review: The puzzles, environments, and eye candy visuals were great! I highly recommend this one!

This is definitely a keeper. The puzzles were logical and not overwhelmingly hard. The environment was immersive: I found myself rushing to get home and re-enter this world. The number of places to explore and items to add to inventory were incredible--you can spend a good deal of time just enjoying the surroundings while you puzzle through another task. I encourage you to try this one out if you enjoy first-person adventure games like Myst, Riven, the Crystal Key, etc.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not what we hoped
Review: We bought this Dreamcatcher game after having a blast with Faust: Seven Games of the Soul. We enjoy a challenging game, but this game is too non-linear for the number of puzzles it features. The enormity of the game and the complexity of the puzzles led to days of wandering around, wondering if we were finished with areas (and disks!) or if we would soon find ourselves stuck there again.

The scenery and animation were indeed beautiful, and many of the tasks are quite exciting. However, the frustration of deciphering which puzzles are doors to others, compounded by terrible navigation tools, often spoiled the fun. At times, it truly seemed more work than play. And just when you think you've finally gotten somewhere, it's all over.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best adventure games for unbelievable low price
Review: Perfect adventure game! Had no trouble loading or playing this game. Beautiful graphics, multiple fascintating sites to explore. Puzzles totally related to storyline. Retracing steps toward solutions were neither tedious or tiresome. Have played many many adventure games since Myst and would definitly place this game in the top 10 (if not 5) adventure games. Easily worth $40 or $50. Read the praise adventure gamers give this game on intetnet sites such as Game Boomers.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It might be fun, but I never found out.
Review: I read all the reviews and system requirements. It sounded as if it would work well with my Apple G3 (beige) with Mac OS 8.5.

Unfortunately, when it arrived, it didn't work. I had QuickTime 5.0 beta 2 on my system. I installed the game with QuickTime 4 translation. It never worked with QuickTime 5 beta 2, so I uninstalled QuickTime 5 and downgraded to QuickTime 4.1.2. It didn't work then, either! It kept wanting missing game files and QuickTime 3, for some reason.

After I uninstalled and reinstalled the game and QuickTime ten times or more, I decided to send the Dreamcatcher (the game's maker) Tech Support department an e-mail.

All in all, this would have been a fun game if it had worked with my newer software. Just be careful when buying this game and your computer has newer hardware and/or software on it because you may have a hard time getting it to work.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: another dreamcatcher failure
Review: this is another failure by dreamcatcher. the only company worse than them seems to be cryo. i worried when i heard dreamcatcher had taken over this game, since their games are generally poorly designed and executed. however, i decided to give it a shot, since the game was mostly designed before they took over. BIG MISTAKE. the game crashed and reset system settings more than once. the game controls are primitive -- they are similar to games 2-3 years old. the graphics are a joke. check the sky -- heavily banded. there is more wrong, but suffice it to say: don't waste your money.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Riddle of the Sphinx
Review: This is a well developed, 1st person adventure game. Graphics are fantastic and transitions between 'movies' and real-time action are very well done, almost seamless.

The initial video is outstanding and sets the tone well for the opening puzzles of the game.

Be sure to have plenty of note paper and a sharp pencil as I found myself taking many notes to retrace my steps and solve puzzles. From the very beginning (the search for the scroll) the search for the pad lock on the sea chest is a multi step puzzle.

Have fun and enjoy the view.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Beware of Hidden Agenda in This "Egyptian" Adventure Game
Review: I have played lots of these "Myst"-take-offs, and I usually enjoy them, even if most of them are a bit clunky and goofy compared to the original model. This one is a typical knock-off like others in the same vein, the best of which are probably "The Journeyman" series, or "The Longest Journey." Most of these games have a "save the world" message, and some involve aliens, popular mysteries such as Easter Island, the Pyramids, etc. Some have a sense of humor, with funny and self-conscious dialogue, and a main character who is appealing and interesting. This game takes itself very seriously throughout, which is one strategy for building suspense (imitating the "solemnity" of the Myst series, which is fun if you don't take it toooooo seriously). But it also has a hidden agenda which appears at the end, and makes it different, and to my mind, even a little insidious.

I played this with a walk-through because the puzzles, which mostly involve wandering from room to similar room picking up similar objects and dragging them around (by the time you "solve" the ultimate mystery, your bag must weigh about 200 lbs!) are mostly alike. I didn't have the patience or energy to solve them. Other reviewers have commented on the game's tendency to crash (it does freeze a fair amount), but if you save frequently, this is not such a problem. The game uses a tremendous amount of computer resources, and you have to be careful to close all applications which might be running in the background. You can do this during game-play by hitting Ctl-Alt-Del, and closing various applications as you go.

But it's the ultimate conclusion of the game which is problematic for me. All adventure games give you a "reward" when you solve them-lights come on, music plays, and all the mysteries come together in a big, satisfying, "bang." Usually, you are smiling at the end, pleased as your computer takes off into never-never-land. Unfortunately, the ending of this game veers off into a grey area of religious doctrine which I think many gamers might find offensive-I did.

Without giving away the "mystery" for those who still want to play "Riddle of the Sphinx," suffice it to say that the creators of the game suggest (without much subtlety, and with little if any humor) that there is a literal biblical basis for much of the world's history, and that non-biblical cultures around the world are "cursed" for meddling with the "true" (i.e. biblical) plan of the world. While I respect the beliefs of those who wrote this game, I think this kind of suggestion is inappropriate in any product not sold as "religious."

I think that what this game's creators have suggested at the end of their game does cross a line which most gamers will not appreciate. Most gamers play computer adventure games to be carried into a self-contained fantasy world. Whatever "preaching" goes on in these games should be ecumenical and in the spirit of fun-otherwise there is a different, and to my mind at least, inappropriate agenda. The game's creators might want to consider revising their game, or advertising it differently.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: HUH?
Review: I grant you, I have this silly obsession of wanting to know WHY I've gone through how many tombs (all in the Great Pyramid), and for what purpose? All to find out something I saw Indiana Jones do to the Nazi's?

Game is kind of interesting in the Egyptian stuff, but nothing other than blind determination - given that I'd paid full price for it, really kept me going. I bought it, and by God I'm going to PLAY it. This should NOT be why one plays a game.

Game starts real slow (sound on my copy kept cutting out, but rebooting helped). Collect a lot of stuff along the way.

Still, to be fair, I see there is a sequel. Dare I hope. Too many loose ends (Atlantis? Mayans? Bermuda? Stonehenge?)

Go ahead and buy it, but there are other "Egyptian theme" stuff out there.

Game played well, no small thing - all things considered. I do like to think that I've earned doing stuff right so I should get a "freebe" on that one - no cut scenes. I'm picky, and it's MY money.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enjoyed it.
Review: Riddle of the Sphinx does an excellent job of capturing the imagination with its interpretation of ancient Egypt and the Indiana Jones school of archeology. The visuals are evocative and are complimented fairly well by the soundtrack. I was also pleasantly surprised by the attention to detail shown by the designers in their inclusion of Egyptian mythology. Many subtle elements had symbolic connections to various Egyptian deities such as music to the goddess Hathor.

The actual gameplay is interesting; however, puzzles are often drawn out and too linear. As opposed to many adventure games, most objects will not be re-used or combined to solve scenarios. Although this prevents "leap of logic" puzzles (i.e. climbing a cliff with a fork and a rope), it also reduces the challenge of the game. There were also several occasions where pieces of a puzzle were impossible to find on the screen unless a lucky mouse click revealed them.

The game was very glitchy upon the initial install and it required the patch and an extensive use of the troubleshooting guide before it would work at all, despite having beyond the maximum specs for the game.

I have read several other reviews which complained about the "Christian" ending of the game. I am rather surprised by this assertion, as I found this game much more influenced by the pseudo-history of Graham Hancock of "Fingerprints of the Gods". Any "Christian" influence is at most superficial and forced - which is an accurate assessment of the game's ending. This, and the sequel The Omega Stone, do not reflect a Biblical perspective of history. Atlantis, El Dorado, or the Pyramids for that matter appear nowhere in the Bible. Like many other games of its ilk, most noticeably those containing Atlantis references, this game requires a substantial suspension of disbelief in the archeology/history it presents. That being said, the game is quite enjoyable in its depiction of that history though I did find the conclusion rather silly.

All in all, this is an interesting game with enough elements to fire the imagination, but I would have appreciated more difficult puzzles.


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