Curse: The Eye of Isis

Curse: The Eye of Isis
Developer(s)	Asylum Entertainment
Publisher(s)	NA DreamCatcher Interactive EU Wanadoo
Engine	RenderWare
Platform(s)	Xbox PC PlayStation 2
Release date(s)	Windows [1] NA October 21, 2003 PAL February 6, 2004 PlayStation 2 [2] PAL February 27, 2004 Xbox [3] NA December 8, 2003 PAL February 6, 2004
Genre(s)	Survival horror
Mode(s)	Single Player
Distribution	1 DVD

Curse: The Eye of Isis is a survival horror video game that was developed by Asylum Entertainment and published by DreamCatcher Interactive and Wanadoo for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and PC. It was released stateside for PC in October 2003 and for Xbox in April 2004. The PlayStation 2 version was only released in Europe.

It shares the same sort of atmospheric setting, gameplay, fixed camera angles, and ammo preservation as the earlier Resident Evil games, as well as many other archetypal survival horror games in the genre, such as ObsCure and Silent Hill.

The Xbox version of the game was backwards compatible with the Xbox 360, but was removed from the list because of glitches. The game is currently unplayable on that system.

Storyline

Strange things are happening at Great Britain’s museum of natural history in 1890. A gang of ruthless thugs have broken into the establishment, the Eye of Isis Egyptian statue has been stolen, and a mysterious fog has overtaken a number of areas of the museum killing and transforming all it comes into contact with.

Playing as museum curator/archeologist Victoria Sutton and her childhood friend Darien Dane, you’ll have to fight the various beings and entities created by this fog. You'll spend considerable time in the museum, take a steam train to the coast and travel the seas in a huge cargo ship before finally entering the pyramid tomb where you must find and destroy the source of this ancient evil.

Player Characters

While you are provided with two playable characters, you cannot choose between them but instead must play as one or the other on certain levels. While their appearances may be different, the two characters' skills and abilities are exactly the same, so it doesn't matter which one you control at any given time.

Victoria Sutton: a museum curator and archeologist

Darien Dane: a researcher, childhood friend of Victoria and son of a once prominent archeologist

Other Characters

Le Chat: mysterious cat burglar who unwittingly unleashes the curse, leaves crossbow weapon for player characters

Abdul Wahid: friend of Dane's father, provides game play tips and acts as a save point and storage chest.

Bupo: a wealthy, unscrupulous collector of antiquities, directs a band of human thugs after the Eye of Isis

Reception

The game received mixed reception upon release, with the Xbox port receiving generally higher reviews due to the fixing of many of the PC versions bugs.

TeamXbox gave a mixed review, calling it an "average" game but that "Being a budget title, gamers will find that Curse is one of the more solid el cheapo titles, and worth the twenty bucks."

GameInformer Magazine gave a generally negative review, comparing the game to a "B-horror movie", and stated that "the menus are clunky, the map is useless, and combat is too easy." Although the controls were noted as above average, especially compared to the Resident Evil series.

GameChronicles, however, gave a generally positive review, praising the story, music, graphics, atmosphere, and voice acting, although noting the short length, simplistic combat, and linear gameplay as its shortcomings, but that they don't "...take away from the chills and thrills that await anyone who decides to play..."

References