Riddle of the Sphinx: An Egyptian Adventure

The original version of Riddle of the Sphinx: An Egyptian Adventure well and truly blew my mind. This is a classic point-and-click adventure game and back when it originally came out, I was a console gamer, but I guy I met at university was a hardcore PC gamer and he introduced me to this and I was blown away. It was such an immersive experience and while I had certainly seen this kind of thing before, the Egyptian setting and amazing visuals (thanks to his powerful rig) had my jaw on the floor.

The True Mystery of the Sphinx

I would say that as far as the story of Riddle of the Sphinx: An Egyptian Adventure goes they have gone for the less is more approach here. We play as a young archeologist who needs to head to the ancient pyramids and the Sphinx to try and find our mentor who has gone missing while on an expedition. The game gives you breadcrumbs of the mystery as you progress through it and I found myself completely captivated by what I was experiencing and I always wondered what exactly was going on here, I truly felt like I was in this guy's shoes as things started to become clearer and clearer as I progressed through the game.

Speaking Of “Mystery”

That was a fun little pun there, but before I go any further I do feel the need to tell you that Riddle of the Sphinx: An Egyptian Adventure is made for a very particular kind of gamer. I grew up in awe of the title Myst and its sequel Riven, games like The Witness would take that kind of thing and modernize it a bit. If you are someone who played Myst or another game that was designed with that in mind and did not like it. This is not the game for you as it leans very heavily on the things that made Myst so great. Of course, if you are someone who found Myst to be very captivating, you are the exact person that whom this game has been made for.

The Raiding Of The Tomb

Sorry if I got your hopes up there that Riddle of the Sphinx: An Egyptian Adventure was a Tomb Raider like adventure. However, this puzzle solving adventure is something that once it gets its hooks into you, does not let you. I have referenced Myst about a million times already, but that is exactly what we have going on here with the gameplay. You need to rotate pillars, solve puzzles, navigate mazes figure out what a thing does in order to make another thing whole. The game has some very challenging puzzles and there are certainly moments where you will be lost, but nothing was so cryptic that I ever felt 100 percent lost. I would usually backtrack, look a little closer at everything and I would have an “A-Ha” kind of moment and figure it out. I get that this kind of gameplay is not for everyone, but for those who like it, this is awesome stuff.

Playing With Power

At the time Riddle of the Sphinx: An Egyptian Adventure was originally released which was in the early 00s, this was a true showcase as far as visuals go. The clever use of lighting and the authenticity of the pyramids and the Sphinx were so well done. While there is an Enhanced Edition available. I do feel that the graphics of the original version hold up very well. They do look a bit dated in places as to be expected from a game that is over 20 years old, but they more than get the story across and they are very well detailed and often puzzles will require you to really look closely at the finer details to find the things you need in order to solve them.

Pros:

• I liked the Egyptian setting
• History buffs will love the attention to detail
• The game tells a very engaging and interesting mystery story
• The puzzles are super tricky and fun to solve

Cons:

• If point-and-click adventures and games like Myst do nothing for you, this won’t either
• I do feel that the Enhanced Edition kind of makes the original obsolete