Installation:
Once downloaded the zip file unzips to two files, the read me and the combined set up and activation module. If you are new to the giveaway project I suggest you read the read me otherwise just set up the game as normal.
Introduction:
This received 77% of 271 votes when it was first given away back in December of last year. The game is nothing spectacular, though it is better than a lot of this genre. Personally I think the 2D versions (especially Acky's XP Breakout, Beatball 2, Reaxxion and Ricochet Infinity)
The Game:
There are 17 bonuses, including the lightning cannon and the mega magic cannon, these two are the only additions from the first version of the game. Other bonuses that are also found in the original, but are slightly different from your normal Arkanoid are the three different levels of ball destruction from (em>high, maximum and absolute. As with the first game there are also special magic symbols to collect. Collecting three of the same will give you magic spells that range from ‘The Glance of Horus, Breath of Atum, Lightning of Hathor, Fire of Ra, Curse of Atem, Fireball of Oseris, and the ‘Pitch of Darkness’ making a total of seven spells, that when added to the bonuses makes a total of 24 bonuses. The spells will be expended as soon as you collect the three symbols. So ensure your bat is in a suitable position to take advantage of the spells power. That is if your bat just so happens to be under an area of very few bricks you will not make the most of the spell. The spells are basically the same as those you got in the original Egyptoid apart from that the developers have changed the names around a little, for example the Fire of Ra becomes the Flame of Ra (and there’s a Fire of Aten,) and the Pitch of Darkness was known as Outer Darkness. Also the graphics are better. To boost your score there are lots of gems to collect.
There is an option to change the lighting in the game from no light, normal to advanced. I really didn’t see what the difference was, though I only checked out the no light for the first level
Other points about the game
• There are 7 stages each with a slightly different graphics set. Each stage is divided up into 10 levels. I found playing it on the hardest setting the best option as on easy and medium, the balls speed was excruciatingly slow. There are loads of the magic symbols to collect and you will find the Flame of Ra, The Pitch of Darkness or one of the other five spells will release lots of other bonuses, though you’ll need to selective as there’s always lots of positive and negatives together.
• Some power ups such as the sticky bat last throughout a level unless you lose a life, wheras others such as the guns and lightning bolts are limited to a specific number of shots. If you don’t use them all before the level ends they actually carry forwards which is unusual for this sort of game. There are some bricks that are indestructible on one face, though these can be destroyed using any of the gun power ups or the spells. You’ll also find teleporter’s on some of the levels.
• One of the nice little touches we get with this game is the lightning bolts at the end of a level. This occurs when there are only three bricks left; so there’s not the usual frustration that you get with some games where you have to hit every brick before moving on to the next level. The ball physics are okay as well, though not the best I’ve seen (Action ball 2 and the freeware games Poing and Beat ball)
• Although the music is ideal for this sort of game I did find it a little repetitive. The good news is that you can change the music if you wish, though (as usual) you will have to convert your music to the ogg format using a suitable audio converter. The defauly location for the music files is:
c:\Program Files\Egyptoid2\data\Sound
Remember when replacing the original music you will also need to change the name of your music to the piece you’re replacing. I would back up the original just in case anything goes wrong. You can find a freeware audio converter in the freeware library:
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/2007/07/30/free-mp3-wma-wav-converter/
• There are several screen resolutions to choose from: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864 and 1600x1200 with the option of 16 or 32 bit graphics.
Images:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Egyptoid+2&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2
Conclusion:
In my opinion this version is better than the first one in the series, but if you were not in the enviable position of getting it free today and had decided to buy one I’d definitely go for Egyptoid 2.
Today’s giveaway came as a pleasant surprise because I lost this the first time around within a week of it being given away due to a format. With respect to playability, I found that I had to set it on the most difficult setting to make the game even slightly challenging; because it suffers from, the same malady that many other 3D arkanoids suffer from and that’s having a ball that moves incredibly slow unless you have collected the ball speed up bonus. This would be an ideal game for those who are new to this genre as well as younger children because of this slowness.
There is no option to create named profiles but you can save different games if you wish. You will be given the option to save your progress on exiting the game and when restarting you can either opt to continue with the saved game or start a new game. Once a stage has been unlocked it remains unlocked so if you choose to start a new game you can actually choose to play any stage that’s already unlocked, though you can’t select all the levels, only those at the start of each stage. (Takes a breath)
If you like 3D arkanoids and want more of a challenge I would suggest the following for starters. The first one has been amongst my favorites for a few years and the second one is much better than its predecessor Action Ball Deluxe.
Suggestions:
Incrediball:The Seven Sapphires and Action Ball 2. (I’d been waiting for a new release of Action Ball since before the game giveaway started) As 3D arkanoids go (and despite what I’ve just said above) Egyptoid 2 is reasonably challenging when you compare it to the likes of the Magic Ball series (all three of them plus the expansion packs) which are very very easy by comparison. Nuclear Ball 1 and 2 are also much more challenging than this game as is Gem ball, all of which have some remarkable likenesses to today’s game including its Egyptian theme:
Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires:
http://www.reflexive.com/index.php?PAGE=game_detail&AID=469
Action Ball 2:
http://www.alawar.com/games/action-ball-2/
Nuclear Ball 1 & 2:
1)
http://www.ursegames.com/games/nuclear-ball/nuclear-ball.php
2)
http://www.ursegames.com/games/nuclear-ball-2/nuclear-ball-2.php
Gem Ball:
Thank you very much Realore and the Game Giveaway team for repeating this game so soon. I'd only played the first stage when I lost this back in December so as I said above this was a very pleasant surprise this morning. :)
Everyone, have a fantastic weekend. :)