‘Entombed’ Review
I don’t really call myself a fan of adventure games. Simply cause I like a lot of action and combat in the games I play. And more often than not, the adventure games I come upon have little combat. Entombed lacks combat, but fortunately there are other qualities that make me rethink my opinion of adventure games. Although the game has a simple objective behind it, interesting obstacles lay in your path. If your not interested in reading the entire review, I’ll tell you now, the game is a pretty good purchase at its price.
Gameplay 8/10
The basic premise of the game is leading your character, Blake, on an adventure to return ancient Egyptian artifacts to their respective pedestals lest you suffer a curse. Pretty simple right? Problem is, various deadly obstacles stand in your way. With the blocks and the barricading and the arrows launching from the walls, the task can become tricky. Fortunately these puzzles aren’t too hard to figure out. maybe that’s what makes this game shine. Puzzles that are challenging enough, but still simple enough to solve within your first few tries. But the game can become repetitive because the obstacles all seem pretty similar. But still, it’s tolerable for you to be able to go through the game at least once.
Graphics 9/10
In my opinion, the graphics are top-notch coming from a little-known developer. Currently the graphics are akin to that of a minimally graphics intensive PSP game. It’s in no way an eyesore, kudos to Fun Guy Media for pulling it off nicely. What I especially appreciate though is the minimalist HUD (Heads-Up Display). It shows you what you need to know and that’s it. Even the items you’ve collected aren’t shown until you tap your bag to open your inventory. Another aspect that certainly impresses is the environment, it really looks like an Egyptian tomb what with the Sarcophi laying around. It’s this attention to detail that separate developers that will update their games from ones that will probably release a game and ignore it. The downside? Character illustrations look a bit awkward to me. But it’s nothing more than a small distraction. So once again, kudos to those at Fun Guy Media.
Controls 7/10
One finger controls certainly are convenient. You could be sipping your Starbucks and still be able to play games with your free hand. This is exactly the kind of control scheme Entombed adopted. Everything literally is controlled by one finger with dragging, tapping, or using simple gesture. Unfortunately though, the controls do seem to be unresponsive at times. An example is when you want to move a block, you simply have to position yourself and swipe the block in the desired direction. Simple, if your swipes actually worked. Sixty percent of the time with that block will have you unintentionally moving Blake or doing nothing at all. Simply put, the controls need a little more refining.
Sound 5/10
In all my reviews, sound is always an important aspect. But in Entombed, they only got half the sound. You have ambient sounds and music that certainly draws you in, but then you can barely hear the sound effects. I find that the ambient noises as well as the music simply drown out the sounds so much, you could figuratively hear someone whispering next you more than you can hear the effects, with earphones on. This, for me, takes away from the experience. I appreciate the ambient noises Fun Guy, but tone them down a bit more so we could actually hear more than we can now.
Menus 10/10
The menus are functional and designed in a way to blend with the Egyptian theme. With that said, there are no problems I can find with them.
Longevity 8/10
From what I can gather after having had played a few stages, you’ll spending quite a bit of time exploring stages to find all the scarabs as well as placing all the artifacts in their rightful place in order to get the highest score. This made even longer through puzzles hat get in your way. So it should make for a good time killer for those times where you have nothing else to do.
Cost 10/10
At $1.99/ £1.27 this game is a bargain! The only way it could get better is if it were $0.99! $1.99/ £1.27 is a completely reasonable price for the game.
Conclusion 57/70 – 4/5
The game is a good deal for the asking price. A good long adventure/puzzler that has its faults, but those faults can be easily fixed or overlooked. There is no real reason not to buy the game other than to save a couple of bucks. Even then it wouldn’t be a waste of money. All in all, Entombed is another good example of app store gems that came from a little-known developer. It’s these kinds of games and their developers that app shoppers should support.
