It’s weird how rare mummies are in gaming, right? Despite pop culture’s obsession with Egyptology, one of the world’s most famous mythologies is often restricted to either niche indie games or more comedic titles. Even Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy trilogy only led to the production of three barely remembered tie-ins, which is surreal given the sheer potential of a mummy-centric horror game.
Well, it turns out there was at least one notable attempt to craft a true survival horror game full of mummies, ancient Egyptian curses, and colonialist Englishmen getting zombified for being, well, colonialists. That game was Curse: The Eye of Isis for the original Xbox and PC. Outside of a European-exclusive PlayStation 2 port, the game was specifically built by Asylum Entertainment for platforms favored in the West. The longer you play it, the more you realize this goes both for its themes and presentation.
You see, Curse is caught between trying to be bothSilent Hill, with its theme of a cursed lineage whose debt must be repaid, and a campy homage to classic mummy movies, right down to a melodramatic jump scare string instrument effect. It wants to terrify you with ominous lighting, maze-like environments, and even the uncertainty of who you’ll be playing as next or whether you’ll be able to save your progress. At the same time it throws in character models straight out of TimeSplitters and lighting that you can’t ever quite adjust to the right brightness to maintain a good balance of mood to playability.
That’s the double-edged sword of Curse: The Eye of Isis - it never quite hits the balance of the films that inspired it, but neither is itbad. Uneven games can be fascinating, great experiences, but you’ve really got to know what you’re getting into.
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Curse might come across as a fairly typical horror game of its day, but it really can be atmospheric - lighting tweaking aside. There are many games that attempt to capture classic fixed- or game-controlled camera angles only to misunderstand how to use them right; Curse never has this issue. Since you have to wait for your guns to zero in on their target, lest you waste precious ammo, backing away skillfully across multiple quick cuts is a regular occurrence. Each combat encounter can feel like a scripted chase sequence thanks to how well framed every shot is. Since precision is all timing based, you’re able to also land good hits before the enemy is on-screen. It’s balanced and rewards situational awareness over pure reflexes.
The steam age London is an equally refreshing setting, allowing for some modern weapons, like a flamethrower and revolver, without letting you get overpowered with assault rifles and combat shotguns. Your inventory is limited but expansive enough thanks to letting you have different slot sizes for weapons, items, and documents for solving puzzles. A minimalist HUD that only shows your health and lungs when either is damaged demands you keep track of your shots.
The lung damage is particularly interesting, as the demonic possession in Curse is partially a viral plague victims inhale, sort of like the REC films. Smelling salts and menthol are crucial to cleanse yourself, lest your health degrade before your eyes. Even more ominous is the musical score, limiting itself to brief hints at threats before strained digital strings sweep in as you’re surrounded by undead monstrosities and mechanical deathtraps. It can lean into the campy side of things, but in a loving homage rather than unironic cringe.
The ghastly traps and museum exhibits are easily the highlight of the level design. They often factor into your progress, as well as the best scares. You won’t ever be scratching your head for long, but they’re fun all the same.
This is all still in service to cheesy monsters and cartoonish humans, yet just enough models land well enough that you can embrace it. There are some earnest attempts made at protagonist Darien being at the heart of a longstanding curse on his family, but he’s such a reserved character that he makes paint drying look emotional by comparison. Seriously, Marcus Fenix has more complexity going on when he gets behind a chest-high wall than Darien does across an entire game.
The lung damage is particularly interesting, as the demonic possession in Curse is partially a viral plague victims inhale
This is particularly noteworthy given the other heroes of the story - Victoria, Darien’s friend and fellow Egyptologist, and Abdul, a Middle Eastern government official who was a friend of Darien’s father - have at least a smidge more personality. Granted, the latter’s surprisingly positive role in the game - offering advice, saving your progress, and storing excess items - is offset by the extremely awkward ‘Arabian Nights’-esque theme that plays whenever he appears.
Yeah, Curse is very much a game of its time, and it’s best to bear that in mind. There’s absolutely some terrifying stuff in Egyptian mythology, some of which Curse tries to give the cliff notes versions of, such as Osiris’ grim fate. However, this isn’t a game full of nuances that, in hindsight, could’ve made the horror far more biting with intrigue.
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While there are some nudges at ‘maybe we shouldn’t have stolen away an entire culture’s legacy for our museum?’ at the heart of the story, it’s still framed more about how the curse affects Darien, which loses a lot of potential meaning in our void of a main protagonist. Fortunately, there are a few sections that let you take over as Victoria, with any gear left with Abdul up for grabs; it recaptures theResident Evil2 dual-protagonist formula while keeping it all in a single playthrough.
This however is also where the game’s insistence purely on manual saves with Abdul and not sharing puzzle items can be the absolute undoing of Curse. It’s possible to softlock yourself for over thirty minutes of retreading gameplay because of giving the wrong character the wrong item. Compound that with encounters that regularly lack clear signposting, and it’s very easy to waste hours of time retracing your steps over a simple mistake; or worse, undoing a glitch.
Yet for all its flaws, I keep being drawn back to it. No other horror game has really tried the blend of campy horror on offer here, especially not with this aesthetic and style of gameplay. Were it not for the backtracking and awkward controls, it might not actually be a bad first horror game for some players. The balancing is very forgiving, the load times are exceptionally quick, and the aesthetic can help ease in those who might otherwise be squeamish.
And if nothing else, Darien’s many, many pointless observations of unimportant objects across the game make for utterly hilarious flavor text, such as worrying about the plants not being watered when monsters are roaming the museum and ripping people from limb to limb. To think they call this museum a professional institution!
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