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Simply loved it!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 59 / 63
Date: March 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Fun, fun, fun! I just finished Riddle of the Sphinx (ROTS) and it was one of the best Adventure/Puzzle Games I have ever played.

The storyline is familiar, yet intriguing: You will have to find the ancient secret of the sphinx. An archeologist friend of yours has disappeared after he solved the riddle, and now it is up to you to discover what he found out before his disappearance. The main objective in this game is to solve puzzles, interpret clues and look in each and every corner for each and every detail to help you solve this ancient secret.

I cannot begin to say how much I enjoyed the rich, superb graphics and detail of the different locations. I still can't believe all this was more or less crammed onto only 3 CDs. Compared to the game I played just before this one (Gabriel Knight 3 - bad!), the ROTS graphics were pure art. Many times it felt as if I was right there, for example on the beach with the golden pyramid. Adding to this feeling of reality was the soothing music which also helped to "spiritually" send me to the shores of the Nile...

The puzzles tie in well with the story, I never got the feeling that what I was doing had nothing to do with the purpose of my search. However, I admit that some of the puzzles were quite difficult to solve, I especially remember a particular one (the one where I had to press certain stones in a certain order to open a gate) where I would have been completely lost without a walkthru I found on the web.

On a more fundamental level I would like to commend Dreamcatcher for continuing to make non-violent games like this one. There was a time when I thought this genre had disappeared for good. I am delighted to report that although you can die in ROTS (on very few occasions, by making a wrong choice), it is not bloody or gory at all. No fights, no weapons, no violence. Add to this the more than reasonable price for this game, and you have a true winner!

I would have given this game 5 stars in a heartbeat. The only reason for why I didn't is that at times the screen was awfully dark and it was extremely hard to see where I had to go. I had to literally block out all light in my computer room to be able to see something. But this seems to be a problem that I have noticed in other games, too. ROTS is no worse than any of the others. It just bugs me that I have to click around blindly in order to find the one hole in the otherwise black and solid wall through which I need to go next...

Other than that only one more thing: I hope Dreamcatcher will come out with a sequel! Soon!!

Almost a Success

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 39 / 40
Date: March 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Riddle of the Sphinx is a classic puzzle game that draws its theme from many of the New Age, Atlantean and alien invasion versions of human history. Sort of a blend of Indiana Jones and the X Files. It is set at the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx in contemporary Egypt. As indicated this is, like many Dreamcatcher games, a puzzle game, not a true adventure. As such the action is limited to running back and forth in order to find clues and complete puzzles.

It is a difficult game to evaluate fairly. It is the product of a small team (two to be exact) that literally worked out of their house. As such it represents a remarkable effort. Unfortunately, like many games from Dreamcatcher, there is little cause for excitement. When compared to a game developed by a full team - such as Ultima IX or The Longest Journey, these efforts come off very badly.

One has to keep in mind that Dreamcatcher sells these games for considerably less than its bigger brothers. The truth is that ROTS is almost a very good game. It does have several flaws. First of all, it is not clear what your real object is until the end of the game. It turns out that this is intentional, but it leaves you feeling a bit at a loss when you are trying to make sense of the clues. Another problem is the somewhat unorthodox user interface. I was perpetually hitting the wrong key. This will take a bit of getting used to.

The scenery is very pseudo-Egyptian, but doesn't really ring true. It is the source of several of the irritating inconsistencies in the game as well. Finally, there is a hint book for sale. It seems that every time game designers market a hint book as well as the game, they view this as a license to create puzzles that are hard to virtually impossible (It sells hint books, after all). This turns a reasonable priced game into a purchase of questionable value.

This is really a 3.5 star game, but I cannot in all conscience give it the benefit of the doubt and round up to a four. Even so, the designers display a good bit of talent. Hopefully future efforts will benefit from there initial experiences.

Just Good and Okay, but not Excellent

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 34 / 36
Date: January 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed playing this immersive adventure to Egypt--I am always fond of adventure games that incorporates mysticism and ancient artifacts.

The puzzles presented in the game are indeed logical and can be accomplished without consulting a walkthrough. I loved the puzzles and walking around the Giza and the Cheops pyramids.

My dissatisfactory comments goes to the graphics--something Dreamcatcher is notorious for. The sky graphics are inadequately designed with bands and the helicopter needs work to display the the realistic texture. The immersive experience of "Riddle of the Spinx" is 3 from a scale of 1 to 5. "3" because of the helicopter and the skies strips the immersive factors away from the game.

If you can't wait for Myst 3: Exile, purchase this title to alleviate your impatience for Myst 3. I am certain that Myst 3 is what we adventure fanatics have been waiting for since Riven came out in 1997.

Solid adventure game, albeit a bit outdated

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 24 / 24
Date: October 26, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Riddle of the Sphinx is a Mystlike adventure game set in Egypt. You are summoned by your friend, an archaeologist to his newest dig. But when you arrive the camp is deserted, and you must uncover the mysteries of the great pyramids (or at least a couple of them).

Riddle of the Sphinx offers solid game entertainment. The graphics are beautiful, the puzzles logical. Puzzles varied in difficulty, but it is reasonable to expect that most people should be able to solve them if they try hard enough. There are a few which escaped me because I didn't search rooms throughly enough and missed vital clues/items to pick up.

Most of the time you point and click your way around, picking up objects and using them every once in a while, typical adventure game style. The navigation is not as elegant as available in today's 3D rotational viewpoint adventure games (Beyond Atlantis, for instance), but this is forgivable. Inventory management is a little less than graceful (items can go back to where they started out at if you're not careful), but acceptable. A word to the wise: save. There are a few points in the game where you can die. These were not enough to annoy me.

The game suffers a bit from crashes, but overall was much more stable than instable.

Riddle of the Sphinx is not the best adventure game I've played--it could use more personality and the plot failed to involve me--but it definitely ranks high up there. I would buy other games from the same developer.

Riddle of the Sphinx

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 26 / 27
Date: December 29, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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.

One of the best adventure games for unbelievable low price

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 23 / 25
Date: January 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

A Good, first person adventure

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 19
Date: September 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

_Riddle of the Sphinx_ had a lot of what I look for in an Adventure game: believable (or at least internally logical) plot, good graphics, challenging puzzles, and a conclusion that both ended the game and set up a sequel without being too obnoxious about it.

My main problem was that _Sphinx_ crashed for no apparent reason about every 20 minutes, and despite numerous contacts with tech support I never did solve this problem. So watch out for that!

The interface was a bit clumsy. You tended to accumulate a bazillion inventory items which you then had to lug around for the rest of the game, even when they were no longer of use. It would have been nice if some of these disappeared after a while.

The music was a little repetetive. And there was virtually no character interaction, so if that's something you look for, you'll be disappointed. Also, gameplay is only non-linear to a degree; certain things do have to happen in order.

However, this was one of the better games I've played recently!

Not what we hoped

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: January 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Rubbed me the wrong way, I guess.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 19 / 20
Date: April 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After playing "The Longest Journey" (sigh-I loved it) I was getting edgy for something new. I wanted to see if there were any games out there like it. "The Longest Journey" is still my favorite game and I wanted something similar or better (if possible). I read all the reviews of THIS game. Half of the reviews seemed favorable and the other half hated it. What to do...I contacted, via email some of the reviewers to ask them if they think I would like the game. Consensus showed I should get it. Okay so here goes.....The game began with little graphic and exciting scenes of what to expect and then BOOM! The actual game had horrible graphics. I mean real bad. It's so pixilated you can barely make out the Sphinx itself. I proceeded anyway because I was kind of feeling the Indiana Jones hype and went further..to the first and obvious puzzle. It seemed hard at first but I "unlocked" the puzzle in 5 minutes! That's right! 5 minutes. Okay, I gave it one more chance...I tried to find my way to the next step and the 180 degree turns and slow "Myst" click and move steps got me so annoyed and lost it took me an hour just to figure out where I needed to go. I could never get to the spot I needed to, because apparently I needed to download a patch to proceed. I found out after calling some game stores at the local mall that you need a few of these patches to improve the game. It is playable without them, but extraordinarily difficult. I really wanted this game to succeed. I had done my homework, giving it a fair chance and it failed. It really was like an Egyptian "Myst" minus the beautiful graphics, intellectually challenging puzzles and lacking a great plot. I am still remaining open to new ideas from anybody. I have since, returned "The Riddle of the Sphinx" and am looking forward to suggestions from other game reviewers. If anybody has ideas for me please feel free to email. Thank You. And to those of you who were so kind and helpful...I'm truly glad you liked the game..I guess it just wasn't for me.

Hoped it wouldn't end!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 16
Date: October 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I really enjoyed ROTS. Beautiful graphics and interesting puzzles. Some of the scene transitions are slower than I would have expected, but this didn't detract too much from the game. It's a 3 CD set, so if you don't like to switch CD's, be forewarned, but the CD breaks are in obvious places and don't hamper your activity too much. If you enjoy ancient history, especially Egyptology, this game is worth buying. Though it takes some huge liberties, it is fun to play and gives you the feeling that you're really exploring dark and musty tombs. Decent soundtrack. If you're a classic interactive fiction fan of games like Zork and Myst, this is worth the money.

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