So I didn’t live blog as much as I hoped so I decided I’d do a review of Tomb of the Lost Queen. It’s gonna be a long one so I’ll give my basic ratings first so y’all can ignore my ramblings if you don’t want to deal with them.
Setting: The setting was beautiful. I loved the inside of the tomb, and felt it really captured the beauty and mysterious nature of ancient Egyptian tombs/pyramids. My favorite parts were the cat’s tomb and the golden coffin the most. And I loved that the setting inside the tomb kept growing because it kept things interesting, it gets boring in the games where we have limited places to explore so I loved it. However towards the end of the game that also became a downfall because I got really confused and frustrated trying to find my way through the different halls because they all connected so it was easy to make wrong moves and then go wtf is happening. It took me longer than I’d care to admit to find the second exit at the end.
Outside the tomb I wish they would have done a bit more. I wish the tents would have had more details we could look at and that there would be a bit more outside. Overall I loved the location and setting in general and have only minor complaints.
Characters: I have a love hate relationship with this cast.
Lily agrivated me the entire game. I felt like she had no ambition for being part of the team and that she was rather lazy hiding in the tent all the time. She wanted to take charge but then did nothing. I also felt her “fear of curses” was forced and came across fake. I also wish that she would have had a more vital role than she did, they kept planting things to make you feel suspicious but they never completely came together so I didn’t get much closure at the end of the game with her.
I both loved and hated Abdullah. I hated him because of his persona and his ego right off the bat. I was like stfu about yourself. I felt even more that way when Nancy solved the glyphs he struggled with so quickly. If his entire persona was based on being the best as he and everyone else claimed then HER really dropped the ball on that one. I also felt it would be more logical for him to be the one we went to about the history than hotchkess. Not because I don’t like her but because he was claimed to be an expert. But I still felt HeR did a great job because they wanted us to hate him and dislike him and I genuinely did so props to them.
I don’t have much to say about Dylan. I felt he is just a fill in to make sure we could distract lily and continue the game. I feel he wasn’t very necessary to the game and was easy to forget about.
Jamila was the shit, I love how she is a strong woman who had a mission and succeeded. She knew she needed to be seen as ignorant and dumb to slip under everyone’s radar and do exactly what she needed to. I also loved her history with her family of women and in general felt she was an amazing addition and did a great job protecting her identity.
I don’t have much to say about Jon because I felt we didn’t interact with him enough for me to form a valid opinion.
Puzzles - I loved translating the glyphs to figure out what was being said. That felt very authentic to me and struck me as something Nancy would really have to do at a job site like this in real life so they were great.
I loved that many involved history and research because they also felt realistic and appropriate for the setting and the plot. Overall I feel like this is one of the few “newer” games that had a hint of realism in the puzzles and I appreciated that.
The other puzzles were wonderful, but honestly weren’t memorable to me. They all were rather easy so I finished them and the game quick, so I definitely will replay in senior mode if I play again so that it’s more of a challenge for me.
Plot - the plot is something I’m torn on as well. I loved being in the chamber and on a mission to find the lost queen. I felt it was really elaborate and kept things interesting. But I hated the plot with Jon. I felt like it was forced and that it was never quite resolved or fit in with the mystery. It seemed like an after thought that never quite developed properly. I wish they’d connect the two more or would have left it out completely. I also felt like it was incomplete, I wish lily would have had more of a connection with Abdullah and tied in to his schemes more than it did. I felt like she was another mini storyline like Jon that never quite got completed all the way. Given her issues at school and that he still took her on the team I feel there could have been way more development. Overall though the plot wasn’t awful, it just had quite a few plot holes for me.
Conclusion - this is one of those games that I genuinely liked, but I felt more developement would have helped. As an author I’m a little disappointed with the lack of character development in Lilly and Dylan, and I am disappointed that there were loose ends. None of that was a deal breaker for me and I could see myself playing this one again. I wouldn’t put this game in my favorites list but I also wouldn’t put it in my hated list.
