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Cameron Files 2 -Great Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 17, 2007
Author: Amazon User

After playing the first Cameron Files I was looking forward to the second in the series. I really liked this game. I am a great fan of point and click mouse driven adventure games and I was not disappointed with this one. Story line was interesting,graphics were great and the different locations and puzzles made for a great adventure. There were some timed puzzles (that I'm not usually too fond of) but I actually enjoyed the intrigue and there was enough time to complete and save options. I really would recommend this game.

Another (NON)Adventure Company disaster

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The people at Adventure Company seem to believe that game-players are morons - "oh, let's just make them search for the key, they'll think it's a big deal!"

A game that has your character stalled indefinitely simply because you forgot to drop something - without even telling you that you forgot this - this is merely a sadistic assault on my precoius time. In my case, I forgot to have the character put his suitcase on the bed. The game's almost totally first person, with not even your hands in sight, so I didn't even know I had it anymore. And in a better game - one where the story mattered, putting this on the bed could be assumed; or the character would stick at the bedroom door and remark "I think I should leave the suitcase on the bed; or it might flash a sign "Hey, dummy, the suitcase!"; or the suitcase might just disappear, never to return.

To make the whole chain of narrative events hinge on a mere detail having nothing to do with the story -

Of course I can hear the fan response: "Oh, but you wouldn't want to walk around town with a suitcase in your hand."

I"m sorry, but I payed money to play a game, not get a lesson in the etiquette of suitcase handling. And a fan who would say the above is not playing a computer game, he/she just thinks it's cool to stare at the monitor.

Could somebody alert these people to the obvious fact that an adventure story game is supposed to be about the adventure story?Stop trying to trick players and let them play out the adventure story, for gawd's sakes!

Buyer beware!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: March 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I could not even get this game to install. After about an hour perusing The Adventure Company website, and doing everything they recommended, I called their tech support. They gave me about 5 minutes of their time, asking questions, saying "Try this, try that..." before giving up. They recommended I contact the seller for a refund. They were not willing to do anything further until I sent them the disc for "testing" -- to Canada, at my own expense. If you do buy this game, SAVE YOUR RECEIPT! There is a good chance you will need to return it.

So linear it should be a ruler

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: May 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I didn't care for the first Cameron Files, so I didn't expect much from this, the second one -- and I was right. It is so linear that it's boring and illogical (you can't leave the hotel without first finding certain items in your own room -- what sense does THAT make?)

Plus, the movement is tedious and repetitive. You end up going around in circles trying to figure out what the game wants you to do next (not what makes any sense).

I managed about one hour's game time before I uninstalled it. Well, that's an hour of my life I'll never get back!

On the plus side, it installed -- and uninstalled -- without a glitch. Big deal.

Pharaoh's Curse Fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: November 23, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I enjoyed the game. The indoor and outdoor scenery was excellent. I also enjoyed the music and the characters. I felt however, the game was too short and was disappointed when it ended.

Whats the big deal? It's a good game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I dont know what the fuss is all about. I played this game in 2003 and loved it! I liked how as Cameron the main charachter you got alot of different backrounds and places to go to such as Cameron's hotel, the musseum, a boat, and the dessert. In other games you only have one or two major places too go.It was just my pace but maybe a little slow or fast for others. I recomend buying this game and not traiding it in like another reviewer said.
There are plenty of puzzels and you can die without a second chance so when you think theres danger I reccomend you save your game. Or you'll have to go too your last saved game and do everything over again.

DreamCatcher Rocks again!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: November 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Cameron Files II has proved to be the best Adventure game since Syberia!
I love this game, graphics, playability and suspense is what kept me interested.

Cameron Files 2:Pharaoh's Curse

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 15
Date: January 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

It is a very good detective type game. It keeps you going back for more. I love it.

What went wrong?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I thoroughly enjoyed the first 'Cameron Files' game. It was atmospheric, the characters were quirky, and interesting, and the story line was reasonably consistent. It wasn't the best Adventure game I've ever played, but it gave me a few evenings of harmless amusement.
As for the sequel......
It seems incomplete. The story line has gaps, there are characters who appear, contribute nothing to the plot, then disappear (What was the telepathic Russian countess all about, for heaven's sake?). There are puzzles which lead nowhere - like the 'coded' message found on an Enigma machine, which turned out to be a depressingly simple cipher and which wasn't used later in the game. The settings were bland and uninteresting; the designers could have learned something from Riddle of the Sphinx.
I can't help suspecting that it was rushed out in time for Christmas?
Was it the worst Adventure game I've played? No. I reserve that honour for 'Jekyll and Hyde'. It was a close second, though.

Not as inventive as the first Cameron Files

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Our hard-boiled detective, Alan Cameron, goes to Cairo to help his old friend Moira McFarley with an archeological problem. Not surprisingly, Cameron's task involves pyramids, mummies, and pharaohs. Cameron turns in his 30s suit and hat for an Indiana-Jones outdoor outfit, complete with the scarf tied around his neck. You will spend your time tracking the curse of the recently awakened evil pharaoh, and at the same time find Moira and redeem her from the pharaoh's grasp.

An interesting story, admittedly, but unfortunately it is precisely this storyline that was a disappointment for me. What I liked about Secrets at Loch Ness (the first Cameron Files installment) was the 30s film-noir/Peter Gunn feel to it. It is rather difficult to obtain that same feeling with Cameron looking like Indiana Jones and kicking up sand and pharaohs. Perhaps Moira McFarley is not necessary as a motivating factor for Cameron. He is a P.I., after all: should he not have some other cases to solve?

I fear this sequel is attempting to extend the Cameron Files saga while relying on the fairly safe recently-awakened-pharaohs storyline. There are a few stories that explore Scottish myths (Beyond Atlantis is one), so Secrets at Loch Ness is not unique in that regard; but the Egypt/pharaoh story is rather common. And finding a 30s P.I. in a pyramid is just a little too much of a stretch. I put a premium on discovery in the adventure games that I play; there just wasn't much here to surprise me--there'll be hieroglyphics, a few stones, scarab beetles, wending paths in a pyramid, and so forth. While I didn't like Riddle of the Sphinx personally, it deals much better with discovery in a rather overworked setting. If I were to imagine a better case for Cameron, it might be in the Northwest Territory (think Twin Peaks), or Alaska (who's done that?), or even, heaven help us, Nebraska or Montana. No one ever goes there--there are, then, things to discover in those places.

But if Moira McFarley, an old family friend to Cameron, is to be the motivating force behind all that Cameron does, then the ending should be more responsibly developed. As other reviewers have noted, the ending is very short, barely a cut scene, and it really makes little sense. Character and story development are as important to me as the puzzles and the graphics; in this regard Pharaoh's Curse leaves much to be desired.

The puzzles are mostly logical, but as other reviewers have noted, there are timed puzzles, and more than just a few of them. There were timed puzzles in Loch Ness, but not nearly as many. Timed puzzles should really be judiciously used, and in Pharaoh's Curse I don't think they are. Moreover, there are a number of characters that don't have anything to offer--not even particular entertainment value--and, unlike Loch Ness, I found it necessary to get through some particularly and unnecessarily aggravating parts of the game with a walkthrough.

The graphics are good; but again, Pharaoh's Curse seems to have promised more than it delivered. The pre-release trailer was really beautiful, and I was under the impression that the game would sustain this quality of cut-scene; there are some very good ones, but the absence of a meaningful one at the end was pretty disappointing.

And yet, while I grumble, I cannot at all say that I am sorry I played the game. The tongue-in-cheek, self-conscious humor about Indiana Jones is amusing and satisfying, and Cameron still has his great, cynical, worldly attitude. It would have been better for me if Cameron had been a little more self-conscious about the silliness of his plumbing an Egyptian pyramid--he is not Indiana Jones, and thankfully--but he is still a great character. I will absolutely play the third Cameron Files, if there is one, and I would not want to do so without having played this second game. If nothing else, I want to absorb the whole storyline. And, thankfully, the pharaoh-Egyptian story may be out of the way now for a little while.

I give Pharaoh's Curse 3 stars because it is on the whole a fun game to play, as long as you leave some expectations at the door--do not expect it to be as inventive or logical as Secrets at Loch Ness; do not expect a great deal of development of the story in this installment; do not expect a game free of timed puzzles. It's fun to hang out with Cameron for a bit. And perhaps he'll be back soon.

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