The Mummy

Exploring dark tombs? Check. Finding valuable ancient relics? Check. Resurrecting an ancient evil Egyptian priest and setting it free to cause chaos and misery? Double check. The Mummy adapts the events of the classic Brendan Fraser film, this time with an interactive twist.

The story follows the one from the movie almost beat by beat. Or at least that's what your run-of-the-mill movie tie-in game would say. Luckily, The Mummy isn't like other movie tie-ins. The game introduces unique locations and tombs to explore, resulting in an adventure that feels more like Tomb Raider for video game fans. Is this game worth picking up, or should you rather bury it under a pyramid? Let's find out!

Ghosts of the Past

As I mentioned before, the game sticks as best as it can to the film's plot. However, it takes some "creative liberties" to make the story more engaging and mysterious. Most of the game takes place in tombs, as you try to bring Imhotep back to the land of the dead where he belongs.

The Mummy follows the same formula as many other survival horror games of the time. What that means is that there's an emphasis on puzzle-solving over actual combat. You'll still come across enemies, mind you, only you'll be more busy trying to solve room puzzles than managing your inventory, Resident Evil style.

Shambling Corpses

As much as I wanted to love the game, there was one thing that always broke any semblance of immersion I could have: the controls. They're responsive enough most of the time, but occasionally, they appear to act on their own, your character obeying some sort of command from beyond the grave. That's the fancy way of saying the controls in The Mummy are obnoxiously clunky.

Pair the awkward controls and the unruly camera with the limited field of view, and you get the perfect recipe for labyrinthian levels that are a chore to explore. Still, the ominous pitch-black darkness beyond a few feet from your character does add an extra sense of anticipation to the experience. It's kind of like Nightmare Creatures with mummies.

Tombs and Riddles

You'll spend most of the game solving riddles and puzzles scattered through the dark rooms of the ancient city of Hamunaptra. Don't expect riddles on the same level as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, though. Most of the difficulty here comes from figuring out what to do, instead of how to do it.

Still, The Mummy does an apt job of guiding the player through the levels. Each of the fifteen stages (plus a secret one) is riddled with challenges and puzzles for the player to discover. Though limited thanks to its lackluster visuals, The Mummy does an exceptional job capturing the movie's ambiance.

Certainly not a game for everyone, The Mummy harkens back to a simpler time for adventure games. If you're not opposed to clunky controls and rusty visuals, The Mummy is a hidden gem of a survival horror title that's waiting to be revived.

Pros

• Gloomy levels that invite the player to explore
• Follows the film's plot (more or less)
• Most puzzles are easy to understand

Cons

• Confusing level design made worse by the limited view distance
• Clunky, unresponsive controls
• Lackluster visuals, even for the time

It might be because I'm from the Young Ones generation, but I can't take a hero called Rick seriously. Then again, I can't take Brendan Fraser seriously either, so it works out quite nicely. It was inevitable that the Hollywood bubble gum flick The Mummy would inspire something approximating a game, probably involving the words 'romp' and 'action-packed' in the marketing. And here it is, sticking to Universal's licence like toilet paper to the shoes of the unwary. There's no need to go into the story in any depth, because it's exactly like the movie. You play the all-American hero Rick O'Connell, who has to complete various quests centring around Hamunaptra, the Lost City Of The Dead, in order to defeat the awakened Mummy No 1, Imhotep. From the outset it looks a bit like Lara Croft Does Egypt, but unfortunately the game has none of the enduring qualities of the Tomb Raider games like engaging gameplay, exploration or any kind of interesting action.

The characters are awkward and chunky, and Rick's speech has obviously been dug up from some ancient voice archive marked "manly and heroic". It has a similar look to Arabian Nights and features your average set of actions, plus a few fun weapons like a sword and throwing amulet. The monster AI is pretty, although zombies have never been renowned for their intelligence, and enemies sometimes get stuck behind a wall or on some mysterious glitch on the floor. The best part of this average game is the sound, which is taken straight from the movie and is worked into the game in an incredibly atmospheric way, the Mummy's screams in particular are guaranteed to come back to haunt you on dark nights. It's a pity there aren't more adventure elements to this game, because the story has quite a lot of potential. As it is, however, it's an attractively packaged, but ultimately empty hack 'n' slash. So pretty much like the film really.

Born of Konami's relationship with Universal is this game version of the Brendan Fraser movie, under development by Rebellion, of Aliens vs. Predator (PC) fame. Gameplay is Tomb Raider-esque, broken up by arcade-style challenges like a side-scrolling Donkey Kong level where you have to jump over barrels and avoid flames that shoot up from the ground. All of the game's 12 levels take place during the last 20 minutes of the movie. Each level is made up of six to eight "zones," and will take you through familiar locations in the movie. They all take place inside, but there are hidden levels to find, one of which is outdoors. As an added bonus, the trailer for the second movie, which hits theaters in 2001, is included on the disc.