My wife and I recently completed the above GAGs, and I felt they had enough in common to warrant a double review. Both take most of the subject matter from pop culture depictions of "Ancient Egypt," complete with mummies and golden artifacts. Of course, one of the key characteristics of any good GAG is a compelling game world, and both of these games score here. The biggest problems are the usual suspects: glitchy interface and cumbersome characters. Still, while both games are a little rough around the edges, and haven't aged very well, the good outweighs the bad.
The biggest problem with both games is pixel hunting; that age-old practice where a patient player must sweep the mouse pointer over every centimeter of the screen to find hidden "hot spots," such as an invisible button or a hard-to-spot exit. This problem takes on catastrophic proportions in Mummy, which had my wrist in spasms of pain after only a few hours of play. On at least four occasions, I got stumped only to find later (after browsing the net for hints) that I had simply not found an arbitrary hotspot--such as a rag hidden in a shadowy area under a wine rack. Thankfully, Riddle isn't nearly this bad, though the wretched perspective in several locations increases the game's difficulty by ratcheting up the frustration level. One vitally important panel, for instance, can't even be looked at directly. You have to approach it with a small pin (looks tiny in the inventory but is actually the size of a steering wheel) and arbitrary click the mouse towards the bottom of the window. Viola! Thank you, UHS.
Someone ought to do us GAG fans a favor and put up a special hint site that doesn't give anything away--its only purpose would be to help out pixel hunters and glitches in the interface. Most of the time, when I'm stumped, it turns out to be something stupid like this rather than a cryptic puzzle.
Mummy grafts on some characters and dialogue to spice up the atmosphere. While I love Arthur Conan Doyle's work, this Sherlock is too stiff with cliches to be much fun. I'm surprised that Frogwares couldn't find a better sounding Holmes. I daresay, I could do a better Holmes. The guy they found sounds like some "dude from downstairs that duz this british accent when he's drunk." Yeah...It's wince-worthy.
Bad acting also shows up in Riddle, though thankfully there are only a few extended scenes involving it. One occurs early in the form of three cassettes that must be suffered through to find vital hints. "Old friend..." Dude, I'm not your friend. It seems that Omni was going for the same type of video clips seen in Myst and Riven, albeit with even less finesse. Still, you get to explore the Pyramids. I love Egypt.
The best part of Riddle is definitely the great-looking scenery and clever puzzles. They are mostly of the translation variety (trading symbols and schemes from one clue to another). Most of the puzzle areas are self-contained, which makes for efficient sleuthing. There were few moments when I felt totally lost and unsure what to do; clues and puzzles seemed to come together well. What makes this even more impressive is the expansive feel of the gameworld in Riddle. A nice blend of outdoor and indoor areas helps here. The world feels massive, and the "dead" feeling of Myst is alleviated by the presence of so many life-sized statues, sculptures, and wall paintings scattered about.
Mummy is perhaps a bit weak in terms of scenery, since the game takes place in one large house. Its puzzles are mostly of the Tool type, where players search for keys or parts of machines to get to new areas. There are also some totally out-of-place traditional slide puzzles. One puzzle involving putting small white and black disks into a huge grid to form a picture (pixel by pixel, almost) is absolutely grueling (and it's supposed to be taking place while the house is on fire!).
Both games have a Myst like navigation system where you click on exits to advance or the sides of the screen to rotate or turn around. Mummy also lets you look all around at each location, but this is more painful than helpful. I have a pretty strong stomach, but this game was making me nauseated. Riddle has this panaromic view at points, but it can be turned off (and I did so).
Wrapping up, I'd have to admit that neither game is really outstanding. These games are "meat and potatoes" fare that pale in comparison to other games like them, such as Myst or Rhem--or Return to Mysterious Island for that matter.
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