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Thursday 17 October 2019

THE MUMMY


You can go one of two routes for a movie tie-in. You could spend time developing a decent game, perhaps sacrificing the release date to make it so (GoldenEye, Alien Resurrection) or you can make any old guffins just to cash in on the brand name (Batman & Robin, Frank Herbert's Dune). Developed by Konami, The Mummy (2000, Universal Interactive Studios) falls somewhere between the two.

When you boot up the game, it's obvious that it was inspired by the phenomenon that was Tomb Raider. It is a third-person action-adventure with some light puzzling thrown in, but your time will mostly be spent hacking, slashing or shooting hoards of the undead. In a way, I'd consider it more of a beat-em-up at times with any exploration or puzzling appearing as something of an afterthought.

If you're stuck, try pushing everything. Chances are a something could trigger a door to open (left)
Changing weapons is done in real-time - best not to do it mid-fight (right)

Throughout the adventure, you'll control Brendan Frasier's Rick O'Connell whose polygonal avatar bears a decent likeness to him. His voice actor is a little off, but I can see what he was going for ("hire me, I'm cheap" maybe?). Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) and Jonathan (John Hannah) are along for the ride, their likeness only, and offer little to the actual gameplay beyond that which required by the story.

You begin in a cavernous area of an Egyptian tomb which acts as the hub-area linking each level. The aim is to collect the broken pieces of an ancient tablet that may ultimately rid you of the supernatural high jinks going on around you. These can be found at the end of each level inside an obviously conspicuous sarcophagus. Sometimes, you may even get another weapon to add to your arsenal as well.

Star Key pieces are needed to release the Star Switches that lead to the next area. 
You can find them mid-level or after defeating a wave of enemies.

You will come across a number of weapons throughout the time in Egypt, including the club-like torch and dual pistols you begin the game with. With a weapon in hand, you will lock on to the nearest enemy making it hard to actually miss a shot. That being said, it takes far longer to down an enemy with the pistols than the melee weapon so I found that there's more time for them to gang up on you using it (better guns will be available later, but it gets evened out with tougher enemies). As such, I used whatever I could swing at them to better effect. For the most part, their recoil animation takes longer than re-swinging your sword nicely placing you in a loop where you're unlikely to get hit. Just make sure there's no one behind you!

Controlling Rick is simple enough, though I did use the alternative mouse-and-keyboard option as it more suits my tastes. You can switch between this and the ancient Arrow and modifier keys on the fly regardless, so if you want to go proper old-school, the option's there. Our tomb raider boasts a move set that's very reminiscent of the gaming legend that is Lara Croft, but he's not quite so acrobatic. His jumps are floaty and unpredictable but you're unlikely to find too many small platforms to make this any more than a short-lived headache. He can grab hold of edges, shimmy across cracks in the wall, roll sideways to get out of harms way among a few others but it doesn't feel as satisfying as his obvious inspiration.

The end of level sarcophagi will bag you some goodies (left)
Naturally, the tombs are filled with traps (right)

Being more linear, you could say this about the level design as well. There is very little to distinguish each level. With re-used assets and basic level progression you won't spend much time exploring. You fight enemies or push levers to hunt down Star Key parts which open the next area. A completed Star Key will allow you to open the sarcophagi at then end, but few levels give you the opportunity to miss any. This formula continues level-to-level although it does all-too-rarely change things up with arcade set pieces. For example, you will need to ride down the rapids of an underground fork of the River Nile in the third level, though this isn't as exciting as it sounds.

If you do want to go for 100% completion, there are quite a few collectables scattered around. Treasures are pretty much everywhere, and if you collect four of them, you'll receive a Magic Amulet - a mystic grenade of sorts that will instantly kill enemies in its range. More interestingly, there are 8 Hieroglyphs to light up in each stage as well. You do this by lighting your torch from a nearby flame and getting near to them. To begin with, fire is everywhere so it won't be much of a hassle but later levels do take some lateral thinking to light them. You only get a limited time before the flame goes out and if you need to crawl or climb, Rick will extinguish it as he puts it away.

All these collectables, along with life and ammo, are logged on the left side of the heads up display. It will disappear after a period, so press TAB to bring it back up if needed. Permanently shown on the screen is the Star Key symbol on the bottom right which gives you the most pertinent information. Taking up half the circumference on the right is your health displayed in green. The blue dots on the left is the health of an enemy. In the centre is the number of Star Keys you've found which will become more useful in the more branching later levels.

Light up all eight Hieroglyphs for a bonus (left)
Underground log surfing down the River Nile (right)

Graphically speaking, The Mummy is pretty decent. Textures have a nice amount of detail and there are some nice effects which add to the overall presentation. The draw distance does suffer, though. The entire game takes place underground, so I don't know if this was a design choice but I do know PCs in 2000 could do better than this. Perhaps this was a purposeful limitation due to it also being released on the original PlayStation. I'd stay away from that version though, it suffers terribly with frame-rate and input issues making it truly a dud for the system. The PC variant is far superior.

I didn't much like the Mummy movies when I first saw them, but over time I've grown a nostalgic soft spot for them. Similarly, when I first played The Mummy on the PlayStation, I dismissed it as yet another poor movie tie-in. Having now given it a proper chance, I can say that there is a fair amount to enjoy here. I wouldn't call it a classic or a must-play that changes the needle on what a game adaptation could be, but it is a pleasant way to waste some time.


To download the game, follow the link below. This installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber runs natively on Windows. Manual included. Tested on Windows 10.
  21.12.2001 - Added a fix for those experience CD issues. I don't think the files inside are likely to work, but the information
                     in the included text file might. These points are also noted in the Chamber FAQ.

File Size: 423 Mb.  Install Size: 823 Mb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

Download


The Mummy is © Universal Interactive Studios
Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me


Like this? Try These...

https://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/2019/07/montezumas-return.html  http://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/2015/09/azraels-tear.html  http://collectionchamber.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/sandwarriors.html

25 comments:

  1. the link is to blogger?

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  2. The download link is broken. :)

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  3. You are a poet and a scholar. Any chance you can develop and put up a working copy of Shadow President or it's sequel CyberJudas up on your blog? I'll buy you a pint on paypal.

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    Replies
    1. Interesting. I was vaguely aware of Shadow President when I was researching political-themed games a few years back but wasn't aware it had a sequel. Maybe I'll give them a go when the American election heats up next year.

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  4. I noticed on the Zombi page that you were interested in Halloween themes. Inherent Evil springs to mind. Possibly also The Arrival (1997) and Dark Side of the Moon, but you said you have trouble running that one. I don't know if these suggestions are already on your request list. Probably, since I know that list is large.

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    Replies
    1. Inherent Evil wasn't on my list, but I am aware of it even though I've not played it. Same with The Arrival. I guess you know how much of a headache DSotM is being - I've not yet cracked it.

      I am focussing on spooky games this Halloween, though looking at the ones I've chosen not many are out-and-out horrors. Didn't mean it to go that way but they're still suitably Halloweeny. The next one - the last before the monthly 5 - is a traditional adventure so many will be happy with that.

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  5. Sounds intriguing! Halloweeny, but not an out-and-out horror? Hmm, I'll take three guesses. If it's something ancient, it could be the Transylvania series or the Deja Vu series. If it's not that ancient, then it could be DogDay, where you find yourself in a dark world as an anthropomorphic dog. Well, I'll find out soon!

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  6. Nice work. Do you plan on working on PC versions of Enemy Zero or Heart of Darkness?

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    1. I have the big box version of Enemy Zero, but I've not tried it on Windows 10 yet. I have the original PSX version of HoD as well as the digital copy for PS3. It looks like they're no longer selling on PSN so I might consider it at some point. There's just too many games!

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  7. True, there's just too many, especially if one crosses genre boundaries and tries to encompass every type of game. Even major sites like adventure legends would find that task impossible. If, however, one specifies one's main interest more narrowly as, say, adventure games from Windows XP and before, which don't run easily on DOS, then a comprehensive collection can be made. Under those criteria, this admirable collection is almost complete, and indeed better than anywhere else on the web! We should pause and reflect on that.

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  8. I think something went wrong with my download. When ever I try to play the game, it opens normally but when it gets through naming the companies that made it, a notification pops up that says to insert the correct cd.

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    Replies
    1. Try running as admin. Failing that, try running the gave from DxWnd itself - read the FAQ and the installs ChamberNotes for more info.

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  9. DL'd the mega but said archieve was corrupted? Thanks for all your work regardless, great stuff here :)

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    Replies
    1. Just did a test and its working fine. Did you download all three files? Read the FAQ for common issues with the installer.

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    2. Downloaded as zip option, will retry now, might well be I had two others going at the same time.

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    3. Works now, many thanks. Not sure why the issue arose last night.

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    4. Yeah, sometimes it's the most simple of solutions. Enjoy the game!

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  10. i got the problem with the cd check
    even using the dxwnd i can't play cause the cd issue

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've added a fix in the download folder, but I think one of the first 2 points in its readme ("MUM-Notes.txt") are the most likely. These are 1) running the game as admin or 2) making sure you have a CD drive present (empty or otherwise, real or virtual).

      There are notes in the FAQ.

      https://collectionchamber.blogspot.com/p/faq.html#QUESTION10

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  11. I would kindly ask how you changed the controls?

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    Replies
    1. Hi. There's no official way to change the controls. Third party options like Joy2Key are your best bet if you really want to customise them.

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    2. Oh weird, you state in the review that you did and the controls don't match up with the button prompts ingame or in the manual, I think. Maybe I am wrong. Anyway I do appreciate the response so thank you and thank you for all the awesome work!

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    3. I've played it a little more now, and there is a WASD and mouse control scheme baked into the game as well as the old Arrow Keys and Ctrl/Shift/Space. I think when writing this review I may have mis-remembered this alternative control scheme as a re-mapped one instead of a concurrent official one. It would've been similar to how I would've made it anyhow.

      I'll update the review to make it clearer.

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    4. Very nice! yeah i played around with it and that is indeed how i got confused. Thanks!

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