Introduction: Curse: The Eye of Isis takes after the Resident Evil series and brings an Egyptian twist to the survival horror genre. Beware of the Curse! It might have infected the crew at Asylum.

The Game: The story behind Curse: The Eye of Isis is based around an Egyptian exhibit in the British Natural History museum that brings evil along for the trip. Set in the 1890's the heroes (Darien Dane and Victoria Sutton) must enter the museum and figure out what strange activities have been occurring. You will soon find zombies and kinds of evilness being re-animated by a mysterious floating smoke.

In the introduction I mentioned that this game is similar to the Resident Evil series and believe me that isn't a stretch. The controls are almost identical and Curse uses fixed camera angles which builds more frustration then suspense. Curse also uses the same formula in its puzzles; find key, open door, shoot zombie idea. The save point can also be a burden to use, since you have to find your friend Abdul Wahid who holds your inventory. Abdul moves around the house which calls for too much backtracking and longer gameplay sittings if can't find him right away. Unfortunately developer Asylum never saw past the original concepts behind Resident Evil despite the awesome premise of an Egyptian horror game.

Now to the fighting! There are no high carbine machine guns in Curse because the battles with the evilness utilized simpler weapons such as guns, clubs, arrows and mortars. The shooting interface is great, and it takes aim and patience to pull of a good shot with the older rifles. The ranged weapons are far better than the hand melee weapons in Curse. Overall all the weapons seem to have the same effect and there is no real sense of power, excluding the cool Flamethrower.

Graphics & Sound: The graphics in Curse are average and the textures seem dulled which hurts the ambiance, but luckily still manages to keep a creepy overtone. The character animations are also a few generations behind the times. I have heard that graphics in the PC version are more crisper and detailed. If you have a capable computer you might want to check out the comparisons before you purchase.

The sound despite the graphic situation excels in keeping the atmosphere together. The sound aspects from footsteps to haunting noises are all spot on. Sound always plays an important role in horror games and Curse is no different.

Innovation: A notable innovation in Curse is the subjection to catching the deadly curse through air intake in your lungs. The fragile state and ease that you can become infected makes a more believable world. Working on the believability of Curse is the ranged aiming system, this is no Max Payne. Besides those innovations, Curse: The Eye of Isis is most made up of used concepts and sadly doesn't offer many other major innovations. Curse is more like a flash back to older survival horror games. That's not a horrible thing if you're not being judged by innovation. Too bad, Cure is.

Mojo: Is there some mojo locked away in Curse? The answer is. euuggg... kinda! The old school Flamethrower is wicked cool, and killing zombies is always fun. The game has some small innovations, but it can't tip the wily into action. Overall Curse is held back by it's graphics and the dated gameplay.

Lowdown: Curse: The Eye of Isis strong points are in its creepy ambiance and Egyptian storyline. It's unfortunate that the rest of the game is less then stellar. Curse plays out like the 1990's Resident Evil games and doesn't try to move the formula in a forward direction. Worth a look if you're interested in the genre. If not.. it's time for a vaccination.

Gameplay: 5.5, Graphics/Sound: 6, Innovation: 3.5, Mojo: 4.5. Final: 5