Hieroglyph

Hieroglyph description

Domestic, despite the English-speaking, rarity is probably one of the most difficult Russian games, never enjoyed the reputation, in fact, lost and now returning to the audience of players - but now, hopefully, worldwide.

The game has a plot, but in detail about it for several reasons, hardly worth it. It will suffice to mention that the action takes place in Ancient Egypt and you play for a certain high priest, who saves the poor people from the evil forces in the corridors of the scary pyramids. In practice, of course, it's not scary, because the genre of the game is the most that neither is a puzzle with an arcade element, but the difficulty is lacking.

The game screen presents a grid of nine squares, eight of which are located the elements of a maze (!). The side walls of the grid is shaded to represent four different colors: red, crimson, blue and green. From every wall at varying cell bordering the wall, there is a man of a certain color, moving strictly within the element of the maze. Your task is to move the elements so that to create for man a solid path to the side wall of the same color, which is painted man. To move an item in the maze and walking it man.

In practice, to achieve this sometimes very easy, but almost always extremely difficult. The items with just one less than cells on the playing field; they cannot "twist", i.e. you can only move in the position in which they are set by the game; they can only be moved to neighboring cells only horizontally and vertically, and only if the empty cell is. There is a choice of three game modes with different speed men, but even on the "easy level" game can be quite hard; sometimes the screen may appear simultaneously two man, but this happens rarely and usually when one is completing the movement, and the second is just starting.

If the way a man breaks, he dies, they find themselves in a special rectangle at the top of the screen; under the assumption of the death of five men the game ends. The path can be stopped in different ways: if the man went to the side wall of the "alien" colors; if he was in front of the cage, where no element of the labyrinth; if he faces the cell where the element of the labyrinth is not bordered or not bordered properly with the element which it follows. For each saved man scored 50 points, and when you reach 5000 you can return the life of one of the dead men.

Graphically, the game looks simple but is very attractive in terms of background, decorated in true Egyptian style. There are also music - at first sight *does* not Egyptian (however, educated people will know immediately that it's for work), although if you listen separate local notes to hear all is still possible. Verdict - just a great puzzle, the real pride of domestic gamedev and more than worthy response to the Western ones just in all respects. And most importantly - the perfect gift for everyone from directly players who like to stretch their brains, to collectors, especially taking into account the actual unavailability of the game for many years.

Play your favorite childhood game Hieroglyph online in your browser for free here.

Source: Archive.org