Yes, it’s almost Halloween. No, I hadn’t planned to review another horror game. I’ve still got burnout about the topic after writing about them non-stop for months. However, a week or so before preparing this review back in July, I happened to look at GOG and spotted a DRM-free edition of a game called “Curse: The Eye Of Isis” (2003).
It was a “fixed camera” survival horror game, themed around both Victorian London and Ancient Egypt, which had been reduced to just 39p. How could I resist? Seriously, it was a low-cost DRM-free digital re-release of one of these cool PS2-era horror games 🙂
Even at full price, I think that it’s only about two quid. Many other games companies could learn a thing or two from this. And, with such a wonderful example of good practice, how indeed could I resist buying this game?
So, let’s take a look at “Curse: The Eye Of Isis”. This review may contain SPOILERS.
The game begins in London in the year 1890. A mysterious cat-burglar sneaks into the British Museum and steals a priceless Egyptian artefact – a statue of the ancient goddess Isis.
The statue accidentally gets dropped in the process. Shortly afterwards, a mysterious yellow mist appears and horrifying things begin happening to the cleaning staff.
“What? They want me to clean up the ancient curse of a vengeful goddess, now? Bloody hell! If only someone would hurry up and invent health and safety regulations!“
Sometime later, a man called Darien Dane visits the museum in the hope of talking to a researcher called Victoria Sutton. However, a detective tells him that no-one is allowed into the museum because the police are investigating the stolen statue.
“Oh, what a confounded shame! Well, given the deference of our era, I shall obey you without question detective...” Only joking! It would be a very short game otherwise…
A little while later, Darien sneaks in and finds the museum to be quiet…. too quiet. After snooping around for a while, he meets a representative of the Egyptian authorities called Abdul Wahid.
Abdul was a friend of Darien’s father, the archaeologist who found – and “borrowed” – the statue many years earlier. He tells Darien about the curse and urges him to find the statue and return it to its rightful place in the pyramid where his father found it…
Woo hoo! It’s always awesome whenever Abdul shows up 🙂 Imagine the merchant from “Resident Evil 4”, but he gives you free stuff instead and also helps you out with item storage and saving too. Truly the REAL hero of this game 🙂
One of the first things that I will say about this game is that – like “Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare” (2001) and “ObsCure” (2004) – this is definitely a “B list” survival horror game. Yes, the premise of it is really cool and there are definitely a lot of fun moments too. However, there were also times when playing the game felt like a frustrating chore. Even so, it’s a low-cost digital PC re-release of a classic early-mid 2000s “fixed camera” survival horror game, and this is always a good thing 🙂 More of these please 🙂
As for the game’s horror elements, they’re a fairly standard mixture of paranormal horror, suspense, gory horror, body horror, cosmic horror, jump scares and monster horror. Whilst this game certainly has some startling moments, some tense moments and some wonderfully gnarly monster designs, experienced horror game fans are unlikely to find it that frightening. Still, it’s more of a “fun scary” kind of horror game. Something you play when you want to enjoy a horror game – but without the traumatising terror of a seriously scary game like “The Cat Lady” (2012) or “Outlast: Whistleblower” (2014).
Seriously, this is fun old-school melodramatic horror, with some gruesome elements and some enjoyably suspenseful moments too 🙂
Again, I also just loved the atmosphere of this game too – in addition to lots of cool “Ancient Egypt” stuff, it is also filled with lots of “Sherlock Holmes” type Victoriana too. It’s all a bit stylised, but in a wonderfully melodramatic and/or mildly gothic way which is just… fun. Seriously, I miss when games had this sort of distinctive personality to them.
Egads! What fiendishness is this? Why, I almost dropped my monocle!
It’s a classic old-school survival horror game… some of the time. One of the unusual things about this game is the fact that it focuses slightly less on puzzles and slightly more on action. The combat system is a little bit more dynamic, with the player being able to strafe whilst aiming.
There’s also an auto-aim system too – with your attacks being more accurate and doing more damage depending on how long you stay “locked on” to an enemy (which is indicated by moving dots on the screen). Plus, the melee weapon in this game is an old-fashioned wooden truncheon as well.
I don’t know why this weapon is simultaneously funny and cool at the same time, but it is. Plus, unlike the melee weapons in older “Resident Evil” games, it is actually a useful weapon – about as powerful as the pistol, but without the range.
The game also sometimes requires you to learn and use tactics too. For example, when fighting mummies, it’s usually better to “shoot and scoot” rather than just standing in one place for too long. Likewise, some boss battles require you to use another button to target individual body parts (but this gameplay mechanic is only used like three times in the entire game...).
Some boss battles are almost puzzle-based things and others are ridiculously counter-intuitive. Case in point – the scorpion monster. Shortly before you meet this keyboard-smashingly powerful boss, you’ll be given a fearsome-looking grenade launcher. Don’t use it! Seriously, the best way to beat this boss is just to use the pistol, keep moving and take as many pot shots at its stinger as possible.
Enemies often move faster and can sometimes attack from a distance too, further adding to the more frantic and action-packed feel of the game. However, being a survival horror game, this is balanced out in a number of different ways. Not only are all of the weapons very low-capacity ones which require frequent reloads (and your ammo supply is definitely a “feast or famine” type thing), but the game will sometimes overwhelm you with large groups of monsters too. The trick here is to remember that this is still a survival horror game – in other words, it’s ok to dodge them and run away. Well… most of the time.
Yes, the game clearly encourages you to fight more than flee. Still, the game’s combat system is good enough that this isn’t too annoying.
One interesting thing here is that, like in an action game, you can actually search fallen foes for supplies and items. Often, zombie-like monsters won’t drop anything. But sometimes vital keys and/or puzzle items are only available from defeated foes. Puzzles are almost always reasonably simple item-based things too. It’s definitely a more action-orientated game, but one which remembers that it is in the survival horror genre.
Talking of this, there are also a few more overtly suspenseful moments, such as times when you don’t have any weapons or when you get a gemstone which glows when danger is nearby (in a similar way to the crackling radio in the old “Silent Hill” games).
“Gemstone? Huh? What is going on with that gemstone?“
The game also has a reasonably decent story too. Yes, it isn’t exactly “Silent Hill 2” (2001) or “Amnesia: The Dark Descent” (2010), but it’s still a cut above a typical Resident Evil story. Not only are the three main characters reasonably well-written, but the game has a bit of a “Tintin”-style thriller plot (with lots of horror elements too). Plus, the game is also well-written enough to be able to have modern sensibilities without feeling like it is self-righteously lecturing the player too 🙂
The level design is a mixed bag though. The game starts out in a relatively streamlined way, which I actually found to be very refreshing. Even so, this doesn’t last that long. There are four sprawling maze-like “levels” in the game – many of them with the same gloomy muted palette and with the sort of maze-like layout that requires lots of memorisation and backtracking at times.
Though, to be fair to the game, there are some cool locations – like this awesome Victorian train station, which you get to explore for all of five minutes…
Plus, this game actually has some awesome “Silent Hill”-esque fog effects… for a few minutes in a couple of parts of one level.
Plus, although you unfortunately can’t select a character, the game alternates between Darien and Victoria in a “Resident Evil 3” (1999)-type fashion, which adds a bit of variation to things.
The game’s inventory and saving system is interesting too. You have a limited inventory, but it is reasonably generous. Throughout the game, Abdul will show up in various places. If you look at your inventory next to him, he can hold on to excess items for you.
If you talk to him, will let you save your game too. He can only be in one place at a time, so he is also a bit like a checkpoint system too. He’ll also give you healing items and ammunition occasionally too. Darien and Victoria can also exchange items in a “Resident Evil Zero” (2002) esque fashion on the few occasions that they meet.
Earlier, I mentioned frustration and this game definitely includes some of this. Whether it is the way that you sometimes have to do things in a precise way, where missing one step means doing lots of tedious backtracking to put things right before you can progress.
Whether it is the “curse” system – which is cool in principle (eg: large clouds of yellow mist, which can also animate corpses into zombies). If you come into contact with the curse, a meter starts filling up. Depending on how full it is, your health will drain at different speeds (similar to the “poison” mechanic in classic Resident Evil games). If you’ve got enough bottles or menthol or ancient amulets, it isn’t a problem. But sometimes you won’t… and you’re basically screwed… unless you load an earlier save and try again. And again. And again.
See that small yellow meter in the top left corner of the screen. The fuller it is, the faster your health drains. And, no, I didn’t have any items that would reduce it when I took this screenshot. And, yes, this cool-looking boss is VERY annoying. You have to knock it down in precisely the right place and then quickly press a button on a control panel three times.
There are also the modern controls too. A lot of people moan about traditional tank controls being “awkward” or “cumbersome”, but they aren’t! They allow you to keep moving regardless of where the camera is pointing. THIS game uses modern directional controls – meaning that you constantly have to re-assess which arrow key to press every time the camera changes. It may sound more “intuitive” on paper, but it left me stumbling around and going in the wrong direction more times than I can remember.
The game’s default controls are definitely set up for an older OS too. “Crtl” is run and “Shift” is aim. If you’re playing on Windows 10 and you accidentally press both buttons at once, it will change the language layout of your keyboard. Still, the controls seem to be rebindable, so this isn’t a major issue.
Likewise, in order to use items or ladders, you sometimes have to stand in… precisely… the right spot. It can be really annoying! Add to this the maze-like nature of some levels and the “Where the hell am I supposed to go?” or the way that the game occasionally won’t progress until you cross an invisible line somewhere and set off a cutscene. At one point, it seemed like my save file disappeared (probably because I minimised the game to look at a walkthrough) but it was there again after I restarted the program. Seriously, although there are some really good parts of this game, it can be a frustrating chore sometimes!
In terms of graphics, voice-acting and music, they are… ok. The dialogue is wonderfully Victorian, but in a fun melodramatic modernised way (“Great Scott!” etc…) and I’ve definitely heard worse voice-acting in horror games before. There is “dramatic” music sometimes too, which is rather fun. The graphics are wonderfully early-mid 2000s PS2-era graphics. Yes, they look old but – if you grew up back then – they will be wonderfully nostalgic 🙂
Woo hoo! Early-mid 2000s graphics 🙂
As for length, my save file claimed that I took a little over five and a half hours to finish the game. In reality, it was more like seven or eight – due to having to replay various parts after making mistakes. Although the game seemed reasonably straightforward at first, and I was initially glad to be free from the distraction of a walkthrough, this didn’t last. By the later parts of the game, I was leaning pretty heavily on walkthrough guides.
All in all, this certainly isn’t the best survival horror game you’ll ever play. But it still has some good parts, the premise of it is really cool and – again – it is a classic early-mid 2000s “fixed camera” survival horror game that has actually got a low-cost digital re-release 🙂 Given the low price, it is possibly worth taking a chance on this one. Again, it isn’t the best… but it’s still better than “Resident Evil Zero” (2002) though.
If I had to give it a rating out of five, it would get three and a half.
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