Sphinx borrows heavily from Egyptian mythology in its setting and story. And it's a fascinating mythology to work with, not to mention an underused one. The adds a lot in the form of magic, gods and mythical creatures, so you won't get bogged down in historical accuracy. It just does a great job of using history as a springboard for imagination.

As always, first impressions are king. The opening movie for Sphinx shows the titular character and a peer being sent on a quest by their teacher, Imhotep. The animations look good, but none of the characters speak. There's no spoken dialogue at all; it's all subtitled. If not for the sound effects it would be like watching a silent movie. Watching mute characters mime conversation to each other is a letdown and seriously hurts the presentation of the story. The lack of voices is so disillusioning and empty I thought I had an option turned off somewhere. I'm sure there are reasons, but it's a shame the game had to ship without any dialogue. The story, and the game, seem less tangible.

What it lacks in voice work Sphinx does its best to make up for in visual beauty. It's just plain gorgeous during gameplay. The art style is somewhere between whimsical and realistic, with trees, plants and rock formations too weird and brightly colored to appear in nature. But it's all presented so beautifully that it seems real. The edges are smooth, even on the PS2. Some levels are too heavy on certain colors, but the tones and shades are so carefully crafted it doesn't matter. Sphinx himself moves gracefully and without a sign of clunkiness. Sphinx is a tribute to what can be accomplished on a game system hooked up to a normal television. It doesn't need high definition to look fantastic.

Combat becomes a lot more commonplace after the first level, during which you find the Blade of Osiris. Your mission evolves into the save-the-universe type and you're joined by a mummy companion, who's current state is the result of a nice early plot twist. You can switch control between the two characters, and the mummy comes in handy when you need to sneak around or put up with a lot of physical abuse that's far beyond Sphinx's thresholds. These moments, when the mummy is setting himself on fire or providing comic relief by any means necessary, are some of the game's best.

It's not exactly fair to call the puzzles straightforward. They do require some looking around. But there's only one way to get the job done and advance, and everything notable in a given area is usually part of the solution. Therefore it's not a matter of using the environment to overcome an obstacle. Rather, Sphinx is an exercise in examining the area, taking a quick inventory of what's going on, and then executing a few actions to move along. It's not hard to figure out; it's tedious and usually obvious. Things get a little more complicated deeper in the game, but it's just more of the same puzzles piled on one another, with harder jumps and other mechanics thrown in to add difficulty. Once you know where you have to go, it's just a matter of timing jumps and attacks correctly. Sphinx isn't necessarily too easy or too hard, the tasks just aren't engaging and they feel too much like tasks instead of part of an adventure.

Sphinx attempts to be a platform game heavy on the puzzles, but it's really just a boring platform game. It's too bad it's a video game and not a slide show, because playing the game is almost painfully boring at times despite the graphics. As much as you want to see what's next, forcing yourself to get through each contrived puzzle isn't usually worth it. The Mummy sections help a lot because they're the most original and refreshing part of the game. It's always disappointing when a game is so clearly within reach of greatness. Sphinx has great looking levels, original animals and monsters and pretty good play mechanics. It's just the gameplay itself, the puzzles and objectives, that needed more attention. Maybe that will improve in the sequel, when they add some voices.