Mummy / Frankenstein Bundle (Jewel Case)

Rating:
Summary: It won't impress an eight-year-old
Review: My eight-year-old son and I were really into playing this. But we were both a bit disappointed. He was disappointed that there never was an actual mummy.
The gamer becomes the character Michael Cameron, a somewhat whiney city-boy who works for the mining company. A mummy scare runs through the mining camp and a strike is threatened. Cameron arrives in Egypt to find out what's going on and to make sure the miners don't strike. The Cameron character is completely out of his comfort zone, he complains often, and yet, he's supposed to be resourceful enough to figure out what's going on and how to get into the tomb. I didn't want to be around this guy, but I was stuck with him.
Acting was stiff overall, especially once inside the tomb. The dead Pharoh and especially the High Priest who whines at you to read a life-giving incantation. Eventually he wants the scroll from you as well. When you finally give it up, rather than you handing it to him at the bottom of the screen like elsewhere in the game, the scroll is awkwardly thrown at him by someone off screen. Malcolm McDowell, although fairly well acted, was basically the same arrogant jerk character he usually plays. His constant appearance was annoying and seemingly forced in our face every time we exited a hut or turned a corner. (Can you say "BADDD GUYY?)
The game play was stiff as well. We suggest saving before trying any new action or solution. We would die several times before solving a puzzle, not because the solution was hard to figure out, but the clunky interface caused the solution to be difficult to decipher. Often, we had to click on a specific part of something to get a desired result. In the meantime, we'd die. Items in our backpack could only be used for specific times even though, logically several items could be used.
Also, we were corralled into specific actions. For example, when earthquakes shake the mine, logic would assume we can exit up a nearby air shaft. But NOO! We were coralled into racing through the tunnels valiantly, only to die just short of the shaft. After many sickening groans as the screen went black (this was always the experience of our death -- even as we drowned and likely couldn't have groaned) we were illogically expected to exit a different way.
Most of the initial puzzles were enjoyable common sense repairs and utilizing the things at hand, such as repairing wires and printing out computer data.
Some puzzles had solutions that could only be realized by either dumb luck or by dying on several attempts. After a particular water puzzle, the door to the stairway is open. However, you slip on the centuries-old slimy stairs until you discover an Egyptian rug has mysteriously appeared in the middle of the room.
At the end, I try to give the power crystal to McDowell. Each time I tried to open my back pack to get it, McDowell would shoot me. I may have had a bug in the machine but eventually I was able to complete the game.
The end was pretty anticlimactic and predictable. Overall, it's an O.K. game to pass the time but it won't fill you with a sense of fulfillment or accomplishment. And it won't impress an eight-year-old boy.

Rating:
Summary: Dissapointment
Review: The games didn't even work, and it isn't that fun. Don't buy

Rating:
Summary: A mixed bunch
Review: These games are okay if you're really bored, but their really not worth your time. Especially the Mummy game, it's really short and pretty unimaginative. Some aspects of Frankenstein are interesting, but I found it rather hard to get a hang of the game.

Rating:
Summary: Good as a temporary diversion
Review: These games are okay if you're really bored, but their really not worth your time. Especially the Mummy game, it's really short and pretty unimaginative. Some aspects of Frankenstein are interesting, but I found it rather hard to get a hang of the game.