Curse takes place during the late 1800’s. The British Museum is staging a new Egyptian exhibit. The main attraction is a beautiful statue called the Eye Of Isis. Just as your character Darien Dane is scheduled to meet the lovely Victoria Sutton for a sneak preview, things quickly go awry. A group of thugs break into the museum and the statue is stolen. The cursed statue releases a horrific yellow mist into the air and all hell breaks lose. Ancient mummies come alive, people are transformed into blood-thirsting zombies and objects suddenly become possessed.

Your task is simple. Run around and kill everything while looking for keys and objects to complete several simple puzzles. Most of the solutions are logical, but require a lot of back tracking through familiar areas. The map included offers little help because nothing is labeled. The game is also lacking any quick save feature, which I just don’t understand. In order to save you must find your way back to your pal Abdul Wahid who also doubles as extra inventory space. After battling through deadite zombie monstrosities, running back to Wahid to save just seems like a waste of time.

For the most part you will find the right location through trial and error. The game isn’t too difficult, but there are several instances that I found to be very challenging. The Grizzly Bear boss attack was very hard to overcome to say the least. Unfortunately there is no objective menu to review your mission goals. So many times you are forced to wander and search with only a few words of encouragement from one of the other characters loosely indicating the correct direction to proceed.

Objects of interest are easily identified because they flash and Darien moves his head whenever he passes something of interest. Items can be combined in the inventory screen and there is a description of everything you pick up. This is helpful, as there are several documents and clues and combinations you will find. You can also access bullets and health in the form of menthol and smelling salts in the inventory screen as well as switch weapons.

At some point during the game you will play as Victoria Sutton. Let’s just say something happens to Darien. There isn’t much difference between the two characters aside from appearance. The change does provide a bit of a diversion for your eyes. The voice acting is not bad and adds some drama to the proceedings. The sound effects help fuel the sense of hopeless terror with squeaking hinges, rusty door mechanisms and shrieking blood curdling zombie growls.

Curse is a decent offering for the survival-horror genre however it is plagued by familiar deficiencies. The camera angle very often kills you because it is impossible to see what lurks in front of you at times. So when a zombie appears suddenly from nowhere you are startled. I can’t tell if this is a true scare tactic or just an irritation, you decide. I got ambushed several times because of this.

The control scheme with the keyboard is rather awkward. The directional arrows handle movement and they cannot be remapped. This may take some time to get used to. The combat keys and inventory control require a set of ambidextrous fingers, which is impossible in the dark which is how I choose to play horror games. These keys can be remapped however. There is also gamepad support, but to be honest I found it unintuitive and played the game with the keyboard and mouse configuration.

Having said that, there are several good points to Curse as well. The graphics are dripping with dark Victorian depravity. The environments look and feel old and worn and gloomy. The character animations are fluid, but some of the monster movements seem too over the top. The flame-thrower has some nice pyrotechnic eye candy and the story is refreshing as horror games go. If you’re really into horror games then Curse The Eye Of Isis may be worth a look especially since the price tag is reasonable.

Sound: 7
The music is unremarkable yet appropriate. Voiceover work and sound effects add to the terror.

Difficulty: Medium
The puzzle solutions are logical but the wandering method of trial and error become aggravating at times.

Concept: 7 
Horror game with an Egyptian spin. Curse doesn’t add anything new to the genre, but it has a few good moments that horror fans will enjoy.

Overall: 7.3
Curse is a decent game that offers a good diversion for horror fans, but not much of a memorable experience as it covers familiar gaming territory that has already been done before.