The Gods of Egypt: Secrets of the Lost Kingdom

(image credit: Google Play Store)

Story

The Gods of Egypt movie had a really promising concept. It featured Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as the powerful Egyptian god Horus and Gerard Butler as Set, the merciless god who plunged the world into darkness. The animations looked great on the first trailer, and the story was quite compelling, but boy was it abysmal on the silver screen.

The movie received very low ratings on many movie sites. Film review site Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 16% rating, which was beyond bad for a movie with a $140 million budget and stellar cast.

Films about Ancient Egypt rarely need an introduction. The influence of the Ancient Egyptian culture has transcended generations, which is why many of today’s film producers and game developers still rely on the era for interesting storylines. Exodus: Gods and Kings was the latest movie focusing on Ancient Egypt, and the producers did a slightly better job in doing so than the makers of Gods of Egypt.

As for video games, there have been many successful titles based on Ancient Egypt. The original Tomb Raider had a lot of references to Ancient Egypt, including Lara Croft’s travels to the City of Khamoon. On the other hand, casual games like The Temple of Isis, features symbols and icons of famous pharaohs and gods. The Egyptian culture is mysterious and mesmerizing, which is why people are attracted to it. Make a good story or game about it and it will sell – most of the time. Sadly, the creators of Gods of Egypt fell short with their rather tepid attempt.

The film was a disaster, that’s for sure, but what about its mobile game? At first glance, it looks like a mash up of Dynasty Warriors and God of War, which is good. How about when you actually play it though? Let’s take a closer look.

Game play

The game play is pretty straightforward. You control Horus and fight against an army of foot soldiers sent by Set. The button mashing makes it similar to the dynamics of Dynasty Warriors where winning means mashing the controller’s square button for hours. The difference between the award-winning Dynasty Warriors and the Gods of Egypt game, however, is that the latter had very little side quests that you can do in battle. There are no real-time incidents that can happen at any time that makes the game exciting. All you have to do is finish a particular mission and that’s it. Go from Point A to Point B. It’s pretty straightforward and that’s the biggest downfall of the game.
Controls

Controls are pretty standard for a mobile game. It runs much better when a controller is used. Without it, it’s difficult to stay focused on one enemy as the fingers sometimes slip out of the in-game controls. Those who are used to playing action games on mobile will find the controls easy, while those who are new to the genre will take time to adjust.

Sounds

What’s annoying is the fact that the game has no music playing in the background while the player is controlling Horus. Music helps a player feel engaged and the developer clearly didn’t acknowledge this need.

Watch a clip of the game below:

Overall Verdict and Score

Gods of Egypt has great graphics and animation but like the film, it isn’t so great. It’s one of those games that you’ll play for a few minutes, get bored, and move on to something more enjoyable and has high replayability value. It’s certainly not something you’d keep installed in your phone for a long period of time, that’s for sure.

6/10 Egyptian Osirises. Osiris. Osirii.