Riddle Of The Sphinx 2: The Omega Stone

by Dreamcatcher

Product Features

• PC from DreamCatcher
• ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
• Role playing game/Adventure

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00006HCJ1
• Item Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 17, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,638 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

After years of digging, noted archaeologist Sir Gil Blythe Geoffreys uncovered a secret chamber and an ancient papyrus scroll overlooked for centuries that revealed the whereabouts of a treasure sought after throughout the millennia: the Ark of the Covenant.

Further exploration led to the discovery of another prophetic scroll, the contents of which unravels an ominous mystery. Sir Gil Blythe Geoffreys, calls on you to lead the exploration and examination of the origins of this sacred scroll, whose symbols point to cultures of great intelligence and refined intellects.

Omega Stone lets you explore the world's most mysterious sites, each painstakingly reproduced from exacting source photographs. What is the connection between Chichen Itza, Stonehenge, Easter Island, the Sphinx, Devil's Triangle, and the ruins of Atlantis?

Product Description

Ancient symbols reveal a new riddle...Product InformationAfter years of digging noted archaeologist Sir Gil Blythe Geoffreys uncovered asecret chamber and an ancient papyrus scroll overlooked for centuries thatrevealed the whereabouts of a treasure sought after throughout the millennia:the Ark of the Covenant.  Further exploration led to the discovery ofanother prophetic scroll the contents of which unravels an ominous mystery. SirGil Blythe Geoffreys calls on you to lead the exploration and examination ofthe origins of this sacred scroll whose symbols point to cultures of greatintelligence and refined intellects.  Prepare to embark on an extraordinaryadventure that will take you to the ends of the earth. Why do the Mayan Pyramids resemble the tombs and monuments in Egypt and what role do they play in solving the mystery? What is the significance of the underwater 'road' at Bimini and the colossal statues of Easter Island that stare out to sea? Who were the builders of the stone circles of Stonehenge and why are there ancient reference to a magnificent civilization of Atlantis?Product Highlights Immerse yourself in an unforgettable journey as you search for lost cities and ancient civilizations. Decipher clues left by the ancients on a cryptic scroll linking the world's most mysterious locations to a forgotten past and a hidden code foretelling the end of time. Untangle the myths surrounding the riddle in your quest to discover the secret - The Omega Stone.Product FeaturesDecipher Cryptic Messages Ancient Puzzles Prophetic Scrolls Uncover Lost Chambers Hidden Tombs Sacred RitualsExamine Lost Cities Lost Civilizations Mysterious Artifacts Windows Requirements Windows 98 Me 2000 XP Pentium II 300 MHz or equivalent processor 64 MB of available RAM DirectX compatible Video Card DirectX compatible Sound Card 12X CD-ROM / DVD-ROM drive Keyboard Mouse 

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, Yet Oddly Tedious, May 6, 2003

By 

wysewomon "wysewomon" (Paonia, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Riddle Of The Sphinx 2: The Omega Stone (CD-ROM)

_The Omega Stone_ follows directly upon the events of its predecessor, _Riddle of the Sphinx_. In the opening movie your "friend," Sir Gil Blythe Geofferys, tells you that the scrolls you found in the last game make clear that a global catastrophe is coming any day now, but that you can prevent it by finding the six "omega discs" scattered in "mystic sites" across the globe. Sir Gil provides you with passes to all the sites (conveniently, all are being excavated by his research foundation) and a driver to get you from place to place. The rest is up to you.

To its credit, there are many things right with TOS. It's a stunning game visually, with beautiful 360-degree graphics. Its video engine runs remarkably smoothly. The background sound f/x are subtle and not too repetitious. The interface is easy to use, with unlimited saves available. You can die, but it usually happens only when you do something incredibly stupid. There are no timed puzzles.

Unfortunately, the good things about TOS are not enough to make up for the fact that gameplay is, well, a bore. With no character interaction to liven things up a game really needs lots of intriguing puzzles. But the puzzles in TOS were too few and far between, and mostly too easy. A large part of the game consists of running back and forth through endless tunnels searching for inventory, some of which is hidden in really unlikely places. Too, only about a sixth of the inventory you acquire is ever used for anything and none of it ever disappears, so every time you access inventory you have to scroll through about forty items to find the one you want. In the end I was all too aware that the miles of corridors and the excess inventory were contrived to extend a game that didn't have much to it. I found this irritating.

This is a four disc game with a full install option. As the full install takes up 2.7 additional gigs of memory and disc swapping doesn't bother me that much, I skipped it. I found the problem isn't disc swapping, it's disc LOADING. Every time you change discs or locations, or load a game in any way, it takes over five minutes. As there are places i the game where you can't go from pne place to another without going through a third, there were times I sat for twenty minutes or more just waiting to be able to play. I have no idea if the full install solves tis problem because when I tried to re-install it crashed my computer every time, and this despite having more than the recommended system.

TOS is pretty glitchy, with numerous hotspots that didn't show up, books that turned into other books halfway through, and important scrolls that were impossible to view, necessitating visits to a cheat site. Using inventory was really slow, making a couple of puzzles extremely tedious. There were items you could zoom in on for no reason, places you could go where nothing happened and places you could see from a distance but never get to. An entire sub-plot never came to anything. All in all, TOS gave an impression of superficial extravagance with little underlying substance.

I took about 35 hours to complete the game, but I really could only call about half of that actual "play." After everything, the endgame was stupid, obvious, and too quick, relying on an interminable monologue to wrap things up where I would have liked a better and more complex puzzle. I think we can look forward to another sequel; I hope OMNI can keep the beauty and take a serious look at the quality of the rest of the game. I might give TOS three and a half stars, but all the five star reviews I've seen must have been looking no further than appearances here.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for the impatient, October 26, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Riddle Of The Sphinx 2: The Omega Stone (CD-ROM)

Intersting game to begin with, nice scenery, simple puzzles, loaded easily onto my PIII pc. How ever moving the character from point to point no matter how close or far is a real challenge. Takes longer to move than to solve the puzzles. Sometimes it swings in one direction briskly, other times it is painfully slow, so slow you think the game locked up. There are cursors in the game not mentioned in the booklet, also there is a patch you have to look for and download to fix some things in the game. Moving to look up or down is tricky, easy to either swing past the object or take forever to get there. Some times trying to look at an object causes the character to move, then you have to go back and try again. The distances you need travel between some points is horrendous, and there is a lot of back and forth travel required. For me the worst part of the game was getting the character to move in the right direction. If you want a simple game, this is it. If you want one that is simple and easy to navigate, forget this one.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars No Load, June 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Riddle Of The Sphinx 2: The Omega Stone (CD-ROM)

The puzzles in this game are sophamoric busy work, no cleverness at all. Graphics are nice but after running back and forth countless times they become boring. Worst of all is the time you waste loading each disk, five minutes at a time, sometimes four times in a row. There is way too much inventory [at one point I counted 41 items and I had a long way to go]. The designers seem to have a fasination with skulls,23 in inventory for 2 seperate puzzles with lots more laying around. Some of the clues are so illegible you have no choice but to go to hint lines for help. I liked the first Riddle of the Sphinx but this one is a big waste of money.