I would like to start this... "Blog" by introducing myself, my name is Christopher, Chris for short. I was a teenager and an avid gamer In the early 2000s, and while I did own a PS2, and an N64 before that, I mostly played games on my PC. Games such as Doom, Half-Life, Quake. Now these games were huge, but I was also intrigued by smaller releases that almost nobody else knew about. Back then, services like Steam and Itch io weren't available yet, and internet connections were quite slow. This meant that smaller developers, especially games made by just one guy didn't really have the option of uploading their games for all to play, and instead they had to resort to handing out physical copies that you could order on their website, or selling them in person either through themselves or a third party. A more well known example of this is Funny Pizza Land, which was originally released in 2002, but only got attention 10 years later when it was uploaded to Itch io. This made a lot of games extremely rare, one such game that I had in my possession was called "Pharaoh's Crypt".
Pharaoh's Crypt was a game that combined the point and click adventure genre, dungeon crawlers, and adventure games all set within a 3d environment that moved in real time. It was also, seemingly being sold in extremely limited quantity in my local area, I said "seemingly" simply because I know of only a few other copies of the game being sold from research I did later, as almost no one I got into contact with seemed to have known about the game. Almost nobody I knew personally, and not even on forums when I went to ask whether anyone else played the game, with only a few exceptions. I bought the game, which was burnt onto a CD in a local video game store. The place was just local, it wasn't a big chain like GameStop or anything, so it made sense that they would sell something a bit more "sketchy" alongside the other more mainstream releases. Something that I noted immediately as strange was that there was never any mention of who the developer was, nothing on the cover, nor the game itself.
After I got the game, I didn't immediately get around to playing it as I was quite busy at the time. However, Summer break was coming up, and that meant I would soon have the free time needed to play through this mysterious game. After the long and arduous final week, filled with exams and homework, I finally got home on Friday and had 8 weeks to do whatever I wanted. I had a few things in mind, such as spending time with my friends and family, my girlfriend, and going on a hiking trip with my buddies. However, another thing I had in mind was Pharaoh's Crypt, as I didn't really have anything left to do that day and my peers were all tired and just wanted to get some rest, I decided I would finally get around to playing it. I prefer to play new games at night, starting around 9 pm, it just makes playing through it the first time... "hit different".
At around 9 pm I started the game up for the first time, I got to the licensing agreement screen, and proceeded to agree to everything without reading anything and downloaded the game. After a few minutes, the game was ready to go, and I launched it. The game started up and immediately showed me the main menu of the game, there were only 3 options: "New game", "Continue", and "Quit". Something that struck me as odd was the lack of a "settings" option, the game was full screen at all times, and there was no way to adjust the resolution or volume. The background showed an image of a pyramid at sunset, seemingly a photo from the real world, pixelated and ran through a filter that made the colors more muted and gritty, the title: "Pharaoh's Crypt", along with an animation of sand floating through the air. The main menu music was also an ambient track, sounding similar to the music from Silent Hill, with some Egyptian flare added to it, such as a Flute playing a somber and distant melody, a basic Drum beat, and the sound of wind howling, carrying the sand along with it. By all means, I was intrigued by what this game was going to be, the game's greatest strength seemed to be its atmosphere, which pulled me right in even in the main menu. I clicked "New game", and started my journey through the game.
The intro cutscene of the game started, overlooking the pyramid from the menu. It then explained that the game took place somewhere between 1830 and 1845. You played as William, a British explorer looking to uncover the secrets of a recently discovered pyramid found hundreds of miles southwest of Cairo. The pyramid was given the name "Duat" by the expeditioners who initially found the pyramid. For those unaware, the Duat is an underworld in Egyptian mythology where the deceased must pass through various tests and environments in order to be judged. At the end of the Duat lies the Hall of Judgement, here, their heart gets weighed against the Feather of Maat. If their heart is lighter than the feather, then they gain access to the afterlife, if it is heavier than the feather, their heart is devoured by Ammit, the Devourer of Souls. Ammit is a part-crocodile, part-lion, and part-hippo creature, basically an absolute freak of nature.
The cutscene then cut to a 3d, first-person animated sequence of William walking up to the pyramid's entrance, it was a purely CGI cutscene straight out of games you'd see in the 90s. Sure it wasn't the most technically impressive game in the world, but all things considered, fairly professional for a studio which for whatever reason, refused to credit themselves. They did a really good job of showcasing just how massive this pyramid was, a towering structure reflecting the sunset. The only reason a pyramid of this size wasn't discovered sooner was because of it's extremely remote location within the Sahara. The top of the pyramid was however, for whatever reason inverted, which I thought was a unique stylistic choice, something to make this pyramid stand out amongst the others. There were also 4 large, damaged statues of ancient Egyptian gods, next to the entrance. Unfortunately, they were all decapitated, so I couldn't tell exactly which gods were being represented. The protagonist of the game made his way to the entrance, and when he finally reached it, lit his torch. It was impossible to see any more than a few feet in front him, he descended a long, dark staircase, hieroglyphics such as Scarabs and Lotus Flowers lined the walls, and the sound of footsteps echoed all the more oppressively as William made his way to the first floor of the pyramid's interior. When he finally started to reach the bottom a faint light began to emit from the bottom of the staircase. At the very bottom of the staircase he finally reached the first floor, which was surprisingly completely illuminated by lit torches, they emitted a powerful, radiant, golden glow, and on the walls were paintings of gods. Of particular interest was a painting of a god with a falcon's head riding a flying boat, on top of more hieroglyphs. The room was also grand in scale, emphasizing a sense of power and grandeur. The music in this room was also more upbeat than the music in the main menu, while still being ambient, and the sound of shifting sand echoed faintly throughout the massive room. Now I don't know much about Egyptian mythology, but it was obvious to me that this floor represented Ra, the God of the Sun. There were also no obvious signs of danger, other than a pit of quicksand at the end of the room, on the other side of which was a set of large doors leading to what I presumed to be the next floor of the pyramid. There were also scarabs crawling along the walls, however they didn't seem to pose any threat. Just like the intro cutscene the entire game was in 3d with a first-person perspective. Pressing the "i" button on my keyboard opened up the inventory, my character had a bowie knife, a few first-aid kits, a torch, a journal to document his descent and map out the inside of the pyramid, and a health meter.
On the left and right were 2 doors, each leading to smaller rooms which contained treasure, jewels, and gold, as well as puzzles that I would have to solve. They all involved themes of the sun, day and night, and light in some way. One puzzle involved shifting around mirrors which reflected a central light source emitting from a large hieroglyph of an eye of Horus in order to guide it towards another eye, it was similar to a puzzle from Ocarina of Time's Spirit Temple, which now that I think about it, is actually the closest comparison to this first floor. After a while I found an item called "The Book of the Dead", it went right into my inventory and was obviously important, however none of the pages were readable as they were all hieroglyphics, and unfortunately I cannot speak Ancient Egyptian. As I made my way through the many rooms and halls of the first floor, I began to occasionally see things that looked somewhat out of place, just a few unlit torches here and there, a scratch on a mural, rusted pieces of jewelry, and occasional subtle whispering. I presumed that these were all glimpses of darkness foreshadowing what was to come. Eventually I reached a room containing a statue of Ra, interacting with it deciphered a part of the Book of the Dead I was carrying, giving me a spell that made a powerful golden glow emit from the book. After a series of puzzles that made use of my newfound ability, I finally made it back to the main hall. And I had noticed something I hadn't before, it was an eye of Horus on the ceiling similar to those in the puzzle I had described earlier. Using my new light spell on it, it activated a bridge that let me cross the pit of quicksand, and through the doors that led to the floor's final room. It was yet again another grand, circular chamber, with a sphere symbolizing the sun in the middle of it. Suddenly, a vision of Ra appeared above the sphere. He began to speak, and the dialog box said:
"Brave soul whom ventured here, willst thou wield the sword of light with honor, or allow the darkness to consume thee?"
Suddenly, a Burning Lion creature burst out of nowhere, snapped my torch in half, and revealed itself as the game's first boss fight, and first real threat. I wasn't prepared for this confrontation, but eventually figured out how the game's limited combat system worked. That wasn't before the Lion got me the first time, which played a pretty gruesome cutscene of my character being burned alive while being eaten at the same time by the Lion. This also revealed my character had 9 lives initially, now down to 8, I thought this was a nice nod since cats were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt. On my 2nd attempt I figured out I had to find mirrors while circling around the room, where I needed to cast the light spell to temporarily blind the Lion. It was actually yet again somewhat similar to Ocarina of Time's King Dodongo fight in terms of structure.
After repeating this process a few times, I finally got close to the blinded Lion, pulled out my knife, and interacted with him. This showed a brutal but also badass cutscene of my character stabbing the knife into the lower part of the Lions Jaw, and running the knife down, slicing clean across through the Lion's throat and stomach, with all the grizzly detail of blood and guts being visible. "Damn... This definitely isn't going to be a game for kids" I thought to myself. Then, Ra appeared again, congratulating me on passing his test, and also apologizing for putting me in danger while mentioning that all things considered, this still would have been a merciful death compared to what I would have succumbed to later.
"Thou art worthy, take this with you"
I received a light-emitting amulet, with a scarab engraving.
"May it provide light where darkness lurks, may it provide hope where there is suffering, may it remind you to never succumb to the darkness beneath."
This item replaced the torch in my inventory, and the door to the next floor opened.
William descended another long staircase, amulet in hand. This time around however, the descent seemed to be more sinister, cracks lined the walls in increasing frequency the further he travelled down the staircase, and the occasional faint whispering now became almost constant. After yet another long descent down another staircase, William finally reached the second floor of the pyramid.
The light from the torches was now a lot dimmer in comparison to the first floor. The murals now depicted the underworld and its gods, such as Anubis rather than Ra, and the imagery of light and the sun was completely gone. The murals themselves also had a lot of scratches and showed signs of decay. The environment itself was a maze of dark, corroded, claustrophobic hallways. Cells containing the skeletons of those who died within them, rusted chains, and various messages scribbled in blood and... fecal matter, protected by iron bars lining each side of the various, twisting hallways. This place was also a lot more hazardous than the first area, which was almost completely safe, as the hallways contained various spike traps, poison dart traps, and pits full of venomous snakes. The music now had a slow but tense rhythm. In the background, I could hear the occasional rustling of chains, the sounds of bones cracking, all while the faint whispering continued. It became apparent rather quickly that this place was a prison. The environment required me to use the new Amulet as a light source, as natural light sources were quite scarce. A lot of the traps could also be disarmed with the knife in some way, If I managed to notice them before accidentally triggering them.
There was however another more pressing matter. As I explored the area I quickly became familiar with tall, dark figures who I will call the "Wardens". These creatures stalked the hallways, and were obviously not happy about their duties being disrupted by William. You could not defeat them, however you could either hide from them, or use the light spell to blind them in order to give yourself an opening if they started pursuing you. The Wardens would also emit a heartbeat sound that helped you identify their current position, as well as being unnerving.
Some cells contained the spirits of those who died within their confinement. Some of them would simply complain about their situation and not help out at all, while others were kind enough to help William by giving him tips on how to get past the area. Some spirits would even just scream and alert the Wardens.
One of the doomed spirits suggested that William should figure out where the eastern-most part of the prison was, and look for a place where he could insert the scarab amulet that Ra gave him. After dodging Wardens, spike traps, jumping over snake pits, and avoiding poison dart traps, I finally found a cell with a loose lock, which I entered. Inside the cell, there was a circular hole in the wall, seemingly matching the exact shape of the amulet I had, which I inserted. Nothing happened, so I waited, but still, nothing happened. Eventually I decided to take the amulet out, which caused the wall to crumble, revealing a hallway filled with strangely fresh bodies, some of them even appeared to be burnt. At the end of the hallway was a tome, approaching it and interacting with it, deciphered another part of the Book of the Dead. This time granting him the ability to "curse". William left the hallway, and got out of the cell, a light now appeared to illuminate his path forward, which I thought was strange, the Wardens also appeared gone now. This however made me even more uncomfortable, almost like the sudden calm was quickly going to spiral into a moment of panic. Then, all the cages in the prison behind me suddenly opened, "Shit" I gasped out.
The souls of the dead started to scream inhumanly, and began chasing William, I quickly started moving William forward along the path of light, careful not to make a wrong turn as that would mean the end of me, all the while the music was now completely overshadowed by the sounds of screaming, rattling, and the cells opening. At the end of the path was a locked door, this game was really getting to me now. With no other option, I did the first thing that came to mind. I cast curse.
The souls suddenly all stopped in unison, and then screamed incredibly loud, I actually had to turn down the volume on my speakers manually. Makes sense however, I guess getting cursed for all eternity does suck. Despite their attempt to kill me, I still felt bad about dooming them for all eternity, as if they weren't already screwed before, stuck in this forgotten prison somewhere impossibly far underground. The door to the next floor was also quite disturbing, it had dried blood and claw marks all over it, along with rusted chains and locks to secure them as tight as possible. That wouldn't matter however, since the chains began to turn into sand, and the doors opened. I braced myself for whatever might be behind those doors, expecting the worst.
However, when I entered I was met with what seemed like, well, it looked like a spa, the room was well lit, didn't have any signs of damage, and in the middle was a... Hot tub... for lack of a better word. It was a giant pool of hot water, interacting with it, it healed some of the minor damage my character took from the traps in the prior section of the game. "What the hell?", I said to myself out loud as I was not expecting something so welcoming. Then a figure, seemingly a woman appeared from the light fog created by the hot water. She introduced herself as Aset, the goddess of Healing and Magic. She explained that this is in fact an Oasis, a pocket dimension within the pyramid that helps those who seek out the Pharaoh's Crypt a place to rest and recover. This essentially served as the game's checkpoint system, any death from now on would return me to the last manual save I had made in the Oasis. It had the same feeling as a Resident Evil save room, the only truly safe place in the entire game. Aset then told me that once I was ready, I could just go through the exit and continue my descent. I was expecting something to happen, something to go terribly wrong. This had to have been another fake-out right? Well it wasn't. I still had my suspicions that maybe it would be corrupted later however, maybe on my next visit Aset will turn into a demon and the hot water will be turned into lava.
Now at this point it was getting quite late, however, it was a Friday, and I still wanted to see what the next floor of the game had to offer. So I went through the exit of the Oasis, ready to see one more floor before I turned off the game.
William descended the next staircase, what greeted him below was a lake within a large open cave. The music here was also fittingly more aquatic, but also a lot more ambient, with heavy reverb being utilized to convey the lake's size and depth. I needed to pull out my amulet just to get a light source here, it was obvious I needed to follow a set of wooden platforms floating on the lake in order to get to the other side. Below me, in the water, I could faintly see bodies of hundreds of dead people being held down by chains that they were attached to. They looked like naval mines but instead of the bombs it was corpses. I swear there was a faint, muffled whispering coming from the lake. Something large also appeared to be swimming in the lake, though I could never take a good look at it, more so I just felt it's presence throughout. I didn't want to stick around too much longer since I didn't want to get eaten by it and lose another life. The platforms would sway from side to side, and occasionally the creature would briefly surface, however all I could ever see was a row of gigantic teeth. I eventually came across a wrecked ship stranded on a large rock, with massive scratch marks all over it, and a significant level of decay. In order to enter it, I needed to solve a puzzle, and once I got in, I was quite relieved that nothing horrible awaited me in the ship's main hall.
Surprisingly it didn't seem like any water got into the ship itself, meaning that I was free to explore the entire ship. Some rooms were darker than others, and I could barely see even with the use of the Amulet. The music here was quite quiet, and the only sound I heard for the most part were my footsteps and the creaking of the ship's floorboards, as well as what sounded like running, but it was always distant and always brief. As I made my way through the ships many rooms, I discovered journal entries left by the sailors who met their end here. They started out hopeful enough, talking about how good the crew's morale seems to be, and how they were excited to discover new territory. As the journal entries went on they got more and more depressing, one sailor talked about how not everything is going to plan and how he misses his family, another one talked about how they haven't seen land in too many days, and that they would have to find some soon as supplies weren't going to last much longer. The quality of the handwriting also started off good but got progressively more shaky as the entries progressed. I eventually found a bedroom where I found the final journal entry. I'll let the final entry I found speak for itself:
"We don't know what to do anymore, we don't even know where exactly we are anymore. We don't know which way we are going, we have completely run out of supplies, there are no fish in the area, but there is this... thing. I haven't seen it, but I swear I can hear it, I can feel it, I know it's watching, it's been watching us for days now, it will follow us everywhere, we can't go anywhere without being followed by it anymore. That thing must have eaten all the fish, it doesn't seem to mind the thunderstorm that has been raging for several days now either, but we sure as hell do, or I don't know, I don't even know if it matters anymore. We nearly got capsized multiple times now, sooner or later we will get capsized by a wave or crash into something. We don't know where we are, we have a hard time controlling the ship through the storm, most people don't even seem to care anymore. We are starving, we are going to die here and get eaten by whatever that thing is. I feel so sorry for my family, they will never get closure, and I feel so bad for the captain's son, that poor boy."
After I got done reading the final journal entry, I put it away and was immediately jump-scared by a skeletal, thin young boy with black eyes who just stood in the doorway leading out of the room I was currently in. He didn't make a noise or anything, the music actually stopped the moment he appeared on screen.
"well, I guess I'll have a hard time sleeping tonight."
I told myself in my head. After a few seconds, he just disappeared. This made me extremely uneasy, I needed to find a way out of the ship. I didn't know which was worse, being trapped with the ghost boy on the ship, or jumping across wooden platforms outside the ship, essentially walking on eggshells in an attempt to avoid that monster.
I wasn't done with the ship segment of the game yet however, it was similar to a survival horror level, where I needed to find keys and collect different items to progress. The presence of the ghost boy never left me either, however I would only faintly glimpse his shadow from time to time. One puzzle involved inputting a sequence into a compass that corresponded with the path a ship on a map had to take, that I had to figure out using said map. The ship also had a nice level of detail with pieces of broken furniture, and plants alongside other signs that nature was slowly taking over, alongside imagery depicting crocodiles, and the figure of a man with a crocodile head. I eventually unlocked the top part of the ship where I came across another tone, which explained a bit about the monster's origin, it was related to the Crocodile god Sobek. A fierce and aggressive deity within Egyptian mythology, with the body of a man and the head of a crocodile. This explained the imagery that I found, that I mentioned seconds earlier. It also granted me yet another spell, this time resembling a "Sonar" device that I could use to track monsters, and in this case the thing in the water.
After finding the exit out of the ship, I was met with a maze of wooden boards floating on the surface of the water. I didn't know exactly which way to, however I felt safer in being able to cast the sonar spell, which I promptly did. It showed me that the monster was to my left, so I headed forward, and alternated between going right and forward. This sense of security wouldn't last long however as the monster briefly disappeared off of my sonar, before yet again reappearing. This time right in front of me. The beast flew out of the water, launching the wooden board several feet up into the air as it revealed it's horrifying form. A zombified crocodile, with rotten human limbs, and skinned human faces grafted all over its head. I quickly turned to the right, and got as far away from this thing as possible, however I could also tell I was losing my way. The creature's roars went from bestial in nature to sounding like the screaming of men, the music here was also the most intense it has ever been so far. After what I would assume to be several minutes of just running away from it, barely avoiding it with the help of my sonar ability, I saw the ghost boy again. My first instinct was to run, however for whatever reason I approached him. I quickly realized that he was trying to guide me out of here to hopefully avoid the same fate that those sailors had. With the help of the ghost boy I finally got to the other end of the lake, a bright light emanated from the next door. When I finally got to the shore, I decided to look behind me one more time to see what the ghost boy would do. On my sonar I could still see the crocodile thing approaching, it jumped out of the lake, desperately trying one more maneuver to get me. The ghost boy however, flew into the air and a powerful fog obscured what happened next. However, I knew exactly what happened, the ghost boy too, felt guilt for what happened, as well as hatred towards the beast that killed his crew. With my help, he was finally able to get rid of his guilt as well as take his well deserved vengeance on the beast. The most horrifying floor so far, also had the most bittersweet ending thus far.
I entered through the door, saved my game in the Oasis, and finally turned it off for today. I shut off my PC, messaged my girlfriend good night, exchanged a few more texts with her, and finally went to bed at around midnight.
That night, I had a nightmare about the game. I can't recall the exact details, but the environment was disgusting. Rotten meat, rusted industrial mechanisms, and black, distorted symbols that just barely resembled hieroglyphs at this point lined the walls, the floors, the ceiling, they were all pulsating, they were all alive. By itself it made me feel sick, It looked similar to something you would see in Silent Hill, but the problem was I felt like I was really there. Disturbing and distorted moaning and shuffling sounds overwhelmed my sense of hearing, and I was seeing eyes that for whatever reason I knew, weren't actually there. For some reason I just knew where I was, I was in the lowest floor of the pyramid, this nightmare was about the game. I traversed the claustrophobic hallways of this nightmare realm until I reached a crypt. This was it, the Pharaoh's Crypt. A tomb closely resembling that of Tutankhamun. Suddenly I couldn't move, and I felt a presence, this presence manifested into a tall, shadowy being who towered over me. I could not remember a single defining feature about it, however I remembered what it said:
"You are making great progress Chris, I have to say, I'm impressed. But remember, you can't turn back now. Just keep up the pace, something great awaits you."
After the mysterious figure said that, the grave began to open slowly, a feeling of unimaginable fear got more and more intense, as incoherent sounds got louder and louder, I felt a pressure in my head going from subtle to unbearable, the more the grave opened slowly revealing its contents. But before I was able to see what was inside it, I woke up screaming at 4 am. My bed was completely drenched in sweat, and my heart was pounding. Needless to say, I didn't really want to go back to sleep anymore.
I decided to listen to some music and watch YouTube for a few hours until I could begin my morning routine at a more reasonable time. I finally decided to get out of bed at just before 7 am, I felt quite groggy as I really only slept for around 4 hours. I was also happy my sudden yelling didn't wake up my parents. I saw no point in texting my girlfriend just yet as I knew she probably wouldn't be awake yet to see it, and I wanted to at least wait another hour before I did, in the meantime, I decided to take a shower, do some basic hygiene, and make myself breakfast.
A pretty normal morning, considering the rough nightmare that I had, but I generally do not let those get to me even if this one felt quite intense. It's not the imagery that bothered me per se, it was literally just the feeling that felt so intense. It's the kind of extreme fear that only a nightmare can induce, no horror game or piece of media could even come close to it.
I thought about what I would today since I still had a lot of time on my hands, I decided to go for a morning jog, nothing too intense, just something to wake me up properly, and also keep me fit. I eventually got around to arranging plans with my girlfriend, as well as my buddies. My girlfriend was already busy today, she had some homework that she had yet to turn in and wanted to do it all today rather than later, so she apologized and told me we could meet tomorrow on Sunday. Which was great timing as we decided to go on a hiking trip with my friends on Monday. We would spend 2 nights out in the wilderness. This meant that I needed to pack a lot of things, which I decided to do in the afternoon as I would probably not want to bother with it while my girlfriend is around.
I had not forgotten about the game of course, it wasn't really my priority. After a long day of just generally wasting time, and finally enjoying my freedom, the evening rolled around yet again and I was deciding what I should play. Pharaoh's Crypt was always an option. I had almost completely brushed off the nightmare by this point, though when I initially started the game up again I was reminded of it, which soured me slightly on the game at that moment. I debated whether it would be a better idea to play something else like some Doom wads I didn't play yet, but my intrigue got the better of me, and I braced myself for another session of Pharaoh's Crypt. When the game loaded up I noticed a few slight changes, the main menu's background was now a bit darker, there was also a lack of music. I didn't think this was particularly odd, some games have dynamic main menus that change as you progress through the game. When I hit the "Continue" option, the game started loading.
On the loading screen, was a message:
"You can't turn back now"
The game loaded and I was in the Oasis. But the truth is, I was completely frozen, my eyes fixated on the message that was no longer on my screen, my mind was stuck reading that message, still completely fresh on my mind. It freaked me out more than anything else the game has shown me thus far, this had to be some insane coincidence I thought. After all it seems like a message that would fit perfectly into a game like this, I tried to brush it off, but to be honest, I could never get rid of this sharp, paranoid feeling in the back of my mind for the rest of the session. After all, these were the exact words spoken to me in my nightmare, what are the odds of that? But other than a cosmically insane coincidence, I just had no other explanation.
Brushing off my discomfort, I exited the Oasis to see what the game had in store for me next. The next floor initially appeared more comforting than the previous 2. It was something that actually resembled the inside of pyramid, and while the amulet definitely helped, it wasn't a complete necessity as the floor was actually quite well lit. The area had a distinctly red, orange tint, conveying the dryness and heat of the place. The music also sounded like the first thing you would think of when you thought of "Egypt pyramid music", the sounds of quicksand permeated that rooms and hallways, accompanied by the sound of pennies falling from holes in the ceilings and walls. The Egyptian symbolism was also back in full-swing in this area, hieroglyphics and all. It was a non-threatening place, until I encountered the floor's main enemy.
The main threat of the 4th floor were "golden mummies". Thin, humanoid creatures seemingly being made out of gold, or rather, what was previously people, now completely encased and trapped inside gold. They had no discernible facial features, just a flat, round surface of gold where their faces would be, and they also moved in an extremely unnatural and uncanny way, the sounds they made were extremely eerie moans and groans that sent a quick shiver down my spine whenever I heard them. They were also quite quiet, not making any obvious sounds, which made me lose a life to them.
The death animation wasn't anything complex, one of the figures simply grabbed me by the head, and stared at me while it made a hush sound before it cut to a game over screen, making my number of lives jump down to 7. In combination with their high-polygon count within a low-poly game, It was a really off-putting and eerie death screen.
I figured out quite fast that the best way to deal with this new enemy was to use the Sonar spell I got from the previous level, it wasn't unbalanced however, as the range at which it could detect the Golden Mummies was quite short. Using the Curse spell also appeared to be effective, slowing their movements to a sluggish pace for a few seconds.
Progressing through the level I made my way through the claustrophobic corridors and waterfalls of golden pennies. From the murals that were painted on the walls I could slowly piece together a common theme of greed, and abuse of power. Some murals had a figure sitting on a throne of gold with stacks of food, while below were rows of people reaching out, but nothing came to them. Another mural had the same kind of rich figure sitting a golden carriage being carried by what was obviously slaves. The most interesting mural however was also the one that deciphered the origin of these Golden Mummies, it was a mural depicting a king being slowly turned into gold while the slaves and peasants cheered, later on I encountered a mural of people smashing the Golden Mummy with a pickaxe, taking the gold, and even ripping out still preserved chunks of flesh and meat that was hidden underneath the shell of gold.
Towards the end of the level I unlocked another spell, this time a "Stasis" spell, which did exactly what the name implies. Once I got my new spell, a giant boulder crashed through the wall opposite of my position, thinking quickly I stopped it dead in its tracks with my new spell. This spell was also useful for the Golden Mummies, as instead of slowing them down, it completely froze them. I figured out later that I could freeze some of the falling pennies to reveal hidden pathways behind them, some puzzles also forced me to use both the stasis spell in order to stop moving mirrors, and the light spell to reflect light off of them at the correct angle. The final challenge in this level was an encounter with a sentient, golden Sphinx statue, it was obvious I needed to engage with it in order to open the way into the next floor. I expected this to be a boss battle, however it was more of an NPC interaction, with me needing to answer its riddles in order to progress. The riddles were just the usual, although some were a bit more interesting such as "The passage of time brings with it evolution, evolution makes what came before redundant, but what is the thing that your kind will never replace?", for this riddle I had to select an item from my inventory, in this case it was the knife. It makes sense I guess, the blade is something that won't become redundant any time soon. Eventually however, it asked me:
"What is the thing that haunts the Pharaoh's Crypt?"
I was a bit freaked out, but then I read the options, which were:
"A giant snake",
"The Pharaoh's ghost",
and "A tall dark figure".
My jaw dropped. Despite all the signs I still thought this was a coincidence, however there was also no real way for me to know the answer, unless... I selected the third option, only to find out I was right. I had no explanation for this, but it still had to be some kind of coincidence. I mean the game is pretty creepy. I don't have nightmares that often either, but it's not like it's some grand mystery, I had a nightmare about the game and that's it. Besides these things are quite predictable, it's not uncommon for a horror game or a game with horror elements to feature a "tall dark figure", that could literally be anything, and I'm quite certain almost all horror games have that to some extent. Oh, and about the message "You can't turn back now", it has to be one of the first things you think of when you think about a horror story where you descend into a place further and further, so nothing out of the ordinary there either.
I aggressively brushed it off and just continued with the game. This time however when I got out of the next Oasis checkpoint, I opened the door to what I assumed would be another staircase, it wasn't. Instead, it lead me to a room that looked like a rusted jail cell, not like the ones in the 2nd floor, but something that felt more modern. This didn't mean it was well kempt in any way, it was disgusting, with rust covering the walls, the floor tiles were rotting, and what was obviously a light bulb had a horde of insects flying around it. It flickered on and off, and as it did so I could hear it flickering. The music in this area was also quite disturbing, the main instrument was a horn which was heavily distorted, followed by what sounded like the scraping of metal or machinery with added distortion and reverb. In the center of this small room wasn't a staircase, but a hole with a bottom that I couldn't see. This was an uncomfortable thematic shift, up until now William has had the luxury of going down staircases he couldn't see the bottom of, but at least it wasn't a hole he couldn't see the bottom of. God knows how deep it would take him, if he even survived the impact. Having no other option, I jumped down.
The next floor had an industrial aesthetic. Everything had a dark red, almost brown tint, you could practically feel the decay just from looking at it. Stained light bulbs were the only source of light, and they were all locked behind cages or bars. The floor was also made of the same rotten tiles, and there were rusted pieces of industrial equipment and machines everywhere. Some of them even functioned, and the ones that did, made extremely uncomfortable screeching sounds as they were all practically on their last legs and had thick layers of rust and decay. None of this even felt Egyptian in any way anymore, unless you want me to believe that the Ancient Egyptians were an advanced civilization which used modern-day machinery to build the pyramids, and used light bulbs instead of candles and torches. All the while the music from before became even louder and more intense within this rusted maze.
It was a maze like environment, as I just mentioned. It also made clever use of the stasis mechanic that I got from the previous floor, with puzzles involving freezing cogs in place in order to stop pistons from crushing me, or in order to get past gap that was being blocked by a giant moving cog. This was by far the most dangerous level so far with a variety of hazards and traps such as the aforementioned cogs, saws, as well as just falling debris or the floor crumbling right beneath my footsteps. I actually lost 2 lives just while exploring, which brought my overall number to 5.
I had noticed something strange however, whenever I lost a life in the game, I could also feel... something... When I lost my 7th life I felt a tickling sensation around my ribs, but when I lost my 6th life I also felt something, this time it was a small amount of pressure. But whatever, maybe I just forgot to breathe properly during my workout earlier, and this was the minor consequences of my actions. This new disgusting environment also called for a new, disturbing enemy type. The main enemy type for this level was a biomechanical abomination, a "person" stitched together from multiple different corpses, held together by rusted machinery, and quite literally stitched together body parts which were all infected where the individual stitches penetrated, and the stitches themselves were also rusted and decayed. This enemy had a bloody, rusted circular saw in place of where its right forearm should have been, and it let out a distorted scream that started off as just the voice of a man in pain, but near the end began to sound like the same screeching of machinery. There wasn't really any way to counter this enemy, no spells seemed to work. Sonar did detect them, but it felt quite unnecessary as they were quite loud, which gave off their position.
The more I progressed through the level the more death I saw, at first it was just the enemies, then the rooms began to contain decapitated limbs and other body parts. I had noticed eyes painted with blood on the rotten walls, they were still similar to the eyes of Horus, just a bit more... "distorted". Every once in a while I could also see a tall shadow creeping just around corners, but whatever it was, was always gone before I managed to take a look at it. Eventually there was even a puzzle I found an engine room where I had to unclog a pipe, and when I did so a mass of crushed flesh and bones spewed out of the now unclogged pipe. Solving this puzzle activated a drawbridge elsewhere in the level which I could now cross to get to the final part of this floor.
The final room had a boss fight against a large, incomprehensible entity made out of several corpses. The closest thing I could compare it to would be a frog or a some kind of insect. It moved rather slowly but had a few abilities it could use, such as lunging at me or spewing acidic vomit. There was also no unique music, it was still the same horn and screeching that played through the entire rest of the level. In order to defeat it I had to lure it into jumping into a meat grinder in the center of the room. As the meat grinder shred its bones and flesh, it didn't let out any scream, just soft howls of pain, while the sounds of rusted machinery breaking bones apart were far more apparent. The lack of desperation it had when it got shredded made me think it was almost glad to finally die, glad that it was getting put out of it's misery. I was also glad not to lose a life to this boss, as it was one of the harder ones so far.
I saved my game at the next Oasis, and decided to turn the game off for tonight. I was feeling quite tired for whatever reason, so I did my usual routine before bed before heading off to sleep once again. I felt quite happy that my girlfriend would be coming over to my place tomorrow, and that I would go hiking with my friends the day after that. As for my thoughts on the game, it was spooky yeah, definitely more so than I had expected at first, but I was still intrigued as to what the ending might be, and just how the next floors would look like. Needless to say, yesternight's nightmare wasn't bothering me at all anymore. Playing the game seems to have been a way for me to face my fears head on, and come out on the other side stronger. With that satisfaction, I turned off the lamp on my bedside table, texted my girlfriend goodnight and that I couldn't wait to see her, and went off to bed.
That night, I had another nightmare. This time I woke up in a void, just pure darkness. The only sound I could hear was an ominous hum all around me, it was like being stuck in space. It remained like this for a while, however I was beginning to feel increasingly uneasy. White paintings of eyes began floating in the void, they weren't painted on anything, they just floated, and they looked exactly like the ones I saw in the 5th level of the game. Then they all suddenly stopped, for a second there was silence, then a static noise began to play as they began floating towards me. The static got louder and louder as they inched closer and closer towards me, but just as I could almost feel them touch me, everything went black again. I can't exactly tell if what happened next was part of the same nightmare, or another one I had later into the night. But I was suddenly dropped into a dark-red hallway, there were no sounds at first, so I started to walk down it. I remember I wasn't particularly scared or even slightly uneasy here, for whatever reason I felt quite calm. I needed to make my way through a sort of red "maze", until I heard something say:
"Come here, Christopher"
It was a very deep sounding voice, and it echoed throughout the many halls. There was no doubt in my mind that it was the same voice that the tall dark figure had in my previous nightmare. I was shaken up by this, but what other choice did I have other than to continue? I felt like my movements were almost dictated by something more than just my own willpower, allowing me to come closer despite the increasing fear that I felt. As I got closer to the source of the voice, I could hear torches burning faintly down the hallway, and once I got there I was greeted by the same room from my previous nightmare. A golden tomb lay before me in the center of the room, closed shut. The unease in the air became more apparent, until the dark figure showed itself once more.
"I'm so glad to see you are back"
It said so in a friendly manner, although that didn't really do anything to stop the feelings of panic that I felt seeing it again.
"You are soooo close now... Just 2 more floors left until you are at the bottom"
Suddenly, I realized I was completely frozen in place. No amount of wishing that I could move my limbs helped the fact that I was trapped in my own mind, with this thing...
Also, it just became clear to me that the dream suddenly started being a lot more... "vivid". It didn't feel like a usual dream, it felt a lot more like I was actually there. It felt more like sleep paralysis, rather than the usual nightmare at this point. I was started to get really paranoid about what would happen next, I was hoping maybe I'd start to hear some loud noise that would wake me up, but nothing like that happened. The nightmare wasn't over yet. The figure slowly approached me, but its footsteps barely made any sounds. As it was nearly right up in my face, it lifted me into the air and said:
"We will see if it has all been worth it, you can't go back now, so no use in regretting what you have done. What's done is done, now, it is time for you to face your judgment."
As it said this, it paused for a moment before asking me:
"Are you ready?"
It was funny in a way, since I couldn't even talk. The nervous laughter in my head was suddenly replaced with a feeling of confusion that quickly turned into panic as the strange pressure in my chest grew into a strong force that tore my chest and abdomen open. I was in agony, there was a hole in my chest and my ribs also began to crack. I could see chunks of my ribs falling out, before I could feel my heart tearing apart from my internal organs and arteries. The pain was excruciating, but I could still see the figure take my heart into it's hand and slowly back away. It then summoned a golden weighing scale, and placed a feather on one end of it, before it put my heart on the other. My vision blacked out right as my disconnected heart nearly touched the scale, I couldn't see anything, but I could faintly hear it say:
"You are a good person Chris, take solace in that"
I woke up in a sweat, breathing heavily, and at the same time as yesterday. I touched my chest and was glad that I still had all my body parts intact. I wasn't really thinking per se, more so just examining my surroundings and making sure I wasn't under any sort of threat, like a caveman or animal would probably do. Once I did all that I simply lied down on my back and stared at the ceiling for a while, I mean what else was I supposed to do? I guess the game was getting to me, but I wasn't sure why it was getting to me that badly. Simply thinking about the game, now made me feel scared. Now you might say well duh, it's a horror game. But this wasn't that "fun" type of fear you get from playing those, it wasn't the ominous feeling you'd get from reading a scary story or a movie of some kind either. It was a lot more instinctual, something more akin to a phobia.
I was tired but also felt a lot more alert, the uncomfortable feeling just over my shoulder didn't leave me. I got out of bed, and tried to do my usual morning routine of taking a shower, making myself breakfast, all of that. It was Sunday now, and I needed to make sure I got some proper rest, as well as spend quality time with my girlfriend once she came over. I couldn't however ignore the elephant in the room, which was Pharaoh's Crypt. This game was really getting to me, but it also intrigued me more than ever, so despite the obvious effect the game was having on my mental health I thought that by playing it earlier in the day I could "face my fears" as well as hopefully avoid another nightmare. I kept in mind that for two nights in a row now the last thing I did was play the game for 1 or 2 hours so... With it being so fresh on my mind its no wonder that it influenced my dreams so much. Despite that, the dreams felt a little... too weird. Just a bit too real.
My girlfriend would be coming over in the afternoon, stay for a few hours and then leave in the evening. I decided that in the meantime I could do a few more productive tasks before playing the game once again, I wanted to get at least one floor done. I wasn't entirely sure why I was so eager to get back into it after the nightmare I just had today, I suppose I just really needed to see what was next. After all this seemed to be an extremely rare game, and searching for it online revealed no further details. I became a lot more like William, fighting through the fear and against demons in order to get to the bottom of that pyramid, or in my case, the game itself. Quitting now would also mean losing to my own paranoia, and I'm somebody who likes to finish what he starts. It was the only way to satiate my curiosity, and eventually I got around to it.
Starting the game up, this time around there was no background image on the title screen, nor was there any background music. It was simply the title of the game, and the options. I found this quite off-putting, even for a horror game, and even in spite of the fact that I already knew that the title screen changed as you progressed through the game. For whatever reason, a completely black background and no music made it really eerie. I clicked continue and, there was still nothing wrong with the Oasis when I loaded into it. It really was a safe zone from all the horror. When I took the exit out of the Oasis I found myself in a strange room that looked like the depths of a cave, with a caged elevator on the other end of it, which would also be my way down into the next level.
This elevator sequence was quite long, in fact, it lasted 3 entire minutes in real time. The faint sounds of machinery from the previous level could still be heard near the top of the ride, but eventually faded. As the ride progressed and the light got dimmer and dimmer, what replaced them was instead faint, occasional whispering and a sort of "rattling" sound.
After a really long way down the elevator, with lights flickering along the way, it finally reached the bottom. The next level turned out to be a decaying mix of a lab and a mortuary, it was extremely disturbing. I could practically smell the stench of death from my screen, the music just resembled static now, and the lights flickered on and off. It was a very dark level with almost no light source other than the few flickering light bulbs, so I had to use the scarab amulet. Some of the cases were leaking brown, almost black fluid. Some of them were even opened and showed bodies that were wrapped in bandages at differing stages of mummification. It was the first time I realized just how harrowing Egyptian mummification truly was, usually media explores finding a relatively clean body that then rises up and chases the characters through the halls of a pyramid. This game really put the death and decay into perspective, with all of them being covered in the brown fluid and some of them were even missing limbs or other body parts, some were even decapitated. The wrapping wasn't always perfect either, sometimes they had openings that revealed carcasses which were almost slowly turning into dust. However, every once in a while I would come across a body that looked slightly more fresh.
Other than the multiple rooms acting as mortuaries, simply containing rows of cases with mummified bodies in them, were other rooms that resembled labs. Some of the "labs" earlier in the level contained only contained the things someone would need to perform a successful mummification, such as the bandages used for wrapping, the canopic jars for storing the organs, as well as the instruments used for removing the brain during the process. However when I got deeper into the level, things started to change, they went from looking like mummification chambers, to downright torture chambers. These rooms were stained with blood, and had scratches that looked like they came from desperate attempts to escape. These rooms also usually contained chains and other devices used to restrain people, and sometimes had body parts just laying on the floors. The most horrifying part though, was that the instruments used for excerebration were also present, and quite noticeably, used. It appeared that the reason for some of the bodies looking more "fresh" was because... they were. This also explained why a few of the bodies were missing their limbs, I guess the ones that got off gracefully were lucky to not be "mummified" while still alive. Things didn't stop there however, uncovering more of these morbid rooms I eventually found ones with industrial and medical equipment. Including sowing machines, drills, and circular saws. It appeared to be the origin of the enemies from the previous level. The faint whispering became nearly constant in these rooms, the floors were now drenched in that brown liquid, and I also noticed paintings depicting a shining eye of Horus within a triangle, surrounded by other occult symbols. They very clearly being used in an attempt to perform some kind of ritual, or to receive some kind of occult blessing. It appeared as though whatever horrible things happened in these rooms were done so in an attempt to achieve some kind of "enlightenment", maybe by torturing a person and turning them into a biomechanical monstrosity was seen as merciful, and a higher existence by whatever sick... Honestly I wasn't even sure if who did this was a person in any way at this point, but I had a feeling I would get acquainted with them very soon.
This level utilized all the spells and items that I had in some way. The knife for example, was used in 1 puzzle to dig out a key from one of the corpses' eye socket. While the sonar spell could now be used to detect important items such as keys lying around the several chambers of this level. The weirdest part was that this level didn't seem to have any enemies, it was eerily quiet, although that doesn't mean the level was without its own hazards. But other than a couple of traps, there wasn't really any danger. Usually I'd be relieved, however it just made me feel all the more uneasy in this level. As I found the exit door, it became even more confusing that the game would simply just let me through. Right as I was about to open it, I heard a whisper behind me, I turned around and saw... A tall shadowy figure, that disappeared too quickly for me to be able to tell any of its defining features. It was just like the thing I had seen in my nightmares, and I just didn't get it. I turned around quickly and made it the Oasis, saved my game, and quit.
I was pretty much frozen in place, unable to stop thinking about what I had just seen. This game was getting to me, more so than any other horror game. In fact, it stopped being the "fun" kind of fear a long time ago. Everything about this game, sure the levels could get quite disturbing, the music was eerie, the idea of the descent through a long-lost pyramid is creepy. But what really got to me, what really made me want to put away the game for a long time was the nightmares I was having, the 2 consecutive, terrifying nightmares, and the game... Sure, I suppose I can explain the message I got the day before as just a coincidence. In fact, I could explain of all of this as just coincidental, but it no longer felt that way. There were too many things in common, and it was freaking me out, it freaked me out more than anything else did in my entire life. Following this I was planning taking a long break from Pharaoh's Crypt, I'm sorry, but the figure from my nightmares somehow appearing in the game was the final straw. I pushed against my own psyche when I started up the game again today, but instead of finding answers, I just found more questions. Somehow I just knew that, they were the exact same entity, no matter how hard I tried to deny it. I was wondering how the game would be able to do any of this, I suppose, my questions would be answered if I just dug a little deeper. After all, I was surely getting to the end of the game now. Maybe one more floor left until I reach the bottom, I just had that feeling I don't really know why. But, at the moment my sheer paranoia and anxiety completely overshadowed any kind of intrigue I had about that. More than anything I just wanted the uncomfortable experience to be over.
It was around 3 in the afternoon that my girlfriend, "Jessica" finally came over, I was really happy to see her. Although, I suppose it would be a bit of a problem if excitement wasn't the first emotion I felt. We needed to come up with something to do, now ordering a pizza did sound nice. But, as a fun date idea, maybe we could try making one ourselves. The problem is, I didn't really know where to start, so I decided to look up a recipe on the internet as there were quite a few good ones. When I returned to my room however, I found it strange that my PC had turned on. Or was turned on, I don't really know, I just couldn't remember turning it on, only turning it off. Maybe Jessica was the culprit? Either way, I just decided to brush it off. After a few hours of doing stuff together, watching movies and such, Jessica noticed that something was off with me. We were laying next to each other in bed when she inquired about my strange behavior. I didn't even notice it myself. She said I was more quiet than usual, and looked like I had something on my mind that weighed me down a little. I was of course hesitant to tell her about the video game, so I just told her I was probably just a bit tired. She didn't believe me however, and kept insisting that I was acting strange, and that she knew something was bothering me. I thought about whether I should tell her some kind of made up story, to put her concerns to rest. Maybe something like I lost my wallet and didn't find it yet, which seemed to be a good choice, since she probably wouldn't ask too many questions. So, I told her that I lost my wallet while walking home on Friday, to which she immediately called my bluff and said:
"Chris, I saw your wallet in the living room on the dining table, I'm not stupid, you know?"
Now that the cat was out of the bag I knew I had to come up with something else, or I could genuinely try to tell her the truth and hopefully not get sent to a psych ward. So I told her:
"Jessica, look, please don't think of me as crazy, just try to be open-minded."
She looked obviously confused, hopefully she wasn't worried I'd tell her I was cheating on her when I told her to be "open-minded". But she was still obviously willing to listen to me, as she was clearly waiting for me to say something more.
"I have... well... I have had 2 consecutive nightmares these past 2 nights, and they have made me feel somewhat unwell."
I looked at her to see her reaction, but it didn't look like she had any objections yet.
"I think... There's this game I started playing on Friday and I think it has something to do with it."
Jessica interrupted me:
"Well... Can't say I'm surprised, maybe don't play scary games before bed then you dummy. And here I was thinking it was something actually serious."
I could have given up at this point, trying to explain it to her. However, that option didn't really cross my mind, and instead I felt the need to explain myself further.
"It's not like that... I feel like the game is something more."
She paused for a moment, clearly not understanding what I was trying to say. With a confused look she replied:
"What do you mean by that?"
I wiped my face with my hand and rested my hand on her, signaling to her that I really meant what I was saying.
"I mean like... The game is connecting with me in some way, it's hard to explain exactly what I mean by that. It feels like... the nightmares are intentional, not coincidental."
She laughed at me, obviously not taking me too seriously. After here I was, a nearly grown man telling my girlfriend about nightmares I had because of a scary game, it is somewhat embarrassing when you think about it. She smiled and just told me:
"Chris, you are such a baby. Hey, if it really scares you that much why don't you show me later?"
She was a lot more playful rather than concerned now, and began to touch me more while smiling and giggling the whole time. It was obvious she wasn't taking me seriously at all, and now seemed more interested in mingling with me. It's not like I could blame her too much however, after all I probably need to have a really good life if my biggest concern was bad dreams I was having because of a scary game. I also just didn't want to be a buzzkill either, and ruin our time together because of it. So I tried as hard as possible to not think about it, and simply live in the moment. After we got done, she decided that she would stay over, and I didn't have problem with that. I was glad to have her by my side, in case I would yet again have another nightmare. There was still some time left, and we weren't really tired just yet, but I decided not to show her Pharaoh's Crypt in the end. I was afraid it might just have the same effect on her, and that wasn't something I really wanted to risk. So, instead we just decided to watch some short movies and talk about life until we finally went to bed.
That night I had a dream where I once again woke up paralyzed in the room with the sarcophagus. I can't say I was surprised at this point, I knew that this was coming, however that didn't lesser the sheer panic I felt in any way. It was quiet, say for the few faint whispers I heard, along with the sounds of banging and stuff falling way off in the distance. This dream also felt more vivid, even more so than the last one. Then, white "paintings" eyes began to float around all over the room. Although for some reason I could once again tell that they were only something I was seeing, not something that was actually part of the scenery. Then, I heard a voice behind me:
"What's the matter Chris? You are slowing down. That is quite unfortunate, I had such high hopes for you."
It was a deep voice, and I could immediately tell who... or rather, what it was. I wanted to tell it that I just wanted it to stop, but I couldn't. Suddenly however it said:
"You want this to stop?"
I didn't tell it anything, so it was frightening to know that it could now seemingly read my thoughts. I can't say however, that it was anything groundbreaking for me at this point.
"If you want this to stop, Chris. Then you would, listen to me! And face your judgement!"
I couldn't really tell what it meant by that, either way I was beginning to feel even more afraid and panicked now.
"Didn't I already tell you? You cannot, turn back now. So finish what you started, Chris. Don't be a coward!"
The Figure then... teleported in front of me, this time I could see its features slightly better than before. But it wasn't anything that I could describe, it looked like a mix of an extremely old man and the rotting carcass of an animal. He pulled out a spear, and just as it was getting ready to do god knows what, I heard another voice say:
"Chris, Christ wake up! It's just a dream, it's alright. Nobody is..."
I suddenly woke up and screamed. I was covered in sweat, but at least my girlfriend was right next to me, brushing my cheek in an attempt to wake me up. When I looked at her, she looked genuinely concerned. She was still holding my hand and making sure I was okay. I asked her what I was doing, and she told me:
"Chris, you were shaking and mumbling the whole time. Are you okay?"
I took a moment to collect all my thoughts, and told her:
"Yeah, I guess I am Jessica, don't worry about me too much."
I'll be honest with myself. I started to reconsider whether the hiking trip was such a good idea, considering the nightmares I was having. I also had no clear way to get rid of them, but I was at least glad Jessica managed to pull me out of this one. I was really grateful. In the end, I just pulled her closer to me, and decided to get some more sleep. She still looked quite distraught, but slowly began to calm down once we embraced and eventually got back to sleep.
When I woke up that morning, I was actually pleasantly surprised that I didn't have any other additional nightmare. Maybe it was finally going away? Jessica woke up at pretty much the same time and asked:
"How are you feeling sweetie?"
I was quite groggy, which made sense since I didn't get true, quality sleep for 3 days in a row now. But I still told her:
"I feel just fine, I'll just need some coffee."
She gave me a kiss and got up from bed, she headed to the living room while I just trashed around for a while more in bed, thinking about the night's events. I can't say I was surprised in any way at this point, more so just glad that she woke me up and the nightmare didn't come back at any later point in the night. When I finally decided to get up, I caught her making the coffee I had indirectly requested for me, so I went up to her and hugged her. At this point I was also well aware that I was going to have to go on that hiking trip soon, even if I wasn't feeling like I was in the best shape due to lack of sleep in general.
Before I did any of that however, she decided to inquire further about what was going on. She confronted me while I still had my coffee in hand:
"Chris, was that the 3rd nightmare you had in a row? Do you have any idea why you could be having them"
I felt somewhat frustrated as I already tried to explain it to her yesterday.
"Jessica, please, I told you. I think it's the game, somehow it's gett-"
She interrupted me:
"There's no way you'd be having these sorts of nightmares from a video game."
These sorts of nightmares? I guess I never explained to her just how terrifying they were, although I suppose my behavior while I was having them spoke for itself.
"Also, if it really is the game, why don't you just stop playing it?"
Frustrated, I told her:
"I already tried Jessica, I haven't touched it since you came"
"Since I came? So you played it yesterday just before I came?"
"Yeah..."
She burst out laughing, I guess I really was somewhat stupid. Maybe I really just needed more time and I would let go of the game somehow. Just forgetting the entire thing exists felt like the best option. The rest of the morning we spent doing the usual together, until we finally had to go at around lunchtime. After lunch, which consisted of the leftover pizza from yesterday, I packed my stuff, made sure she was ready as well. When I went to my room however, I found out that my PC was once again turned on, which was strange, but I didn't really think much of it and just shut it off. After that we got in the car, and I drove her back to her place, after which I was headed to our rendezvous point with my buddies. I arrived at around 2 pm. It wasn't very far from my place, but a mix of strangely bad traffic from what I assume was an accident somewhere down the road, and having to bring my girlfriend back to her place ate up quite a bit more time than I thought. At the very least I wasn't super late, but it was still few minutes after everyone else had already arrived.
"Well, look who it is!"
One of my friends shouted, with a sarcastic undertone.
"Chris, good to see you man!"
Another one added, before following up with:
"How are you feeling Chris?"
"Oh, I'm feeling great."
I replied back, lying through my teeth. However, I was still hoping the hike would give me a rush of energy and dopamine. One way or another, being outside and in nature was a welcome change for me. I took my stuff out of the car, put on my backpack, and we started climbing the first hill of many.
It all went well for the first few hours. I was actually feeling great, the exercise I got along with being with my friends, and the sunlight helped me get my mood up. Once the clock hit 6 the evening started to slowly roll around, and we needed to find a place to set up camp for the night. Going off trail and deeper into the forest, we eventually found an abandoned shack, it didn't seem like anyone owned it, so we took the risk and set up camp there. I didn't assume we would get lost as we still had our compasses and had a map of the area which made it so that we could still tell what our approximate location was, and the nearest trail was only about a mile away. We put our sleeping bags and mats inside the shack, and started a campfire outside. We had plenty of food, but we would probably need more wet wood to keep the fire going. And so, I was sent out with an axe, one of my friends, and a hunting knife to find some more wet wood, deeper off-trail into the forest.
Eventually we found a pretty good spot, although we were quite far away from our camp, completely isolated, and it was also getting dark now. Luckily my friend was making sure we wouldn't get lost, but for some reason I felt off. Not like I was sick, but more so like I was being watched. I began to chop into one of the fallen trees with my axe, and carefully took of large chunks of wet wood, when I noticed that the tree had a carving in it. It was... of an eye, quite similar to those in my nightmares. Maybe my mind was just playing tricks on me, so I asked my friend if he saw it as well:
"Yo, man... uh... take a look at this, kinda' weird somebody would just carve out an eye like this right?"
"An eye? I don't know, seems more like just a circle to me."
Circle? I guess some people just don't have as much imagination... Or maybe I am just paranoid... As I gathered just about enough wet wood, I was ready to go back to camp. I put all of it in my backpack, and just as I got up I saw a tall shadow briefly appear before disappearing right after amidst the trees. Quite freaked out, I told my friend in as calm of a voice as I could:
"Hey, we should really get going."
I tried to play it off cool, but really, I was in full on fight or flight mode after I saw that shadow. Still, I told myself that it was probably just an animal or something. Surprisingly nothing strange happened on our way back, and we got back to camp just fine. I put my backpack down, took out the wet wood, and we started making dinner while talking about the usual things. All of us were quite tired, but since we probably wouldn't be on a trip like this just by ourselves for quite a while, we wanted to make the most of it. The 2 packs of beers one of my friends brought helped quite as well, but I didn't want to drink too much, so that I wouldn't get hungover on top of everything else.
We talked about the usual "guy stuff", such as our lives, work, women, how we were enjoying the trip so far, and laughing at inside jokes from way back in the day. All the while drinking beer and cooking canned tuna, and "leaves soup" above a campfire. The conversation eventually turned to video games, at first we talked about some of the games which were relevant at the time such as Half-Life, GTA 3, Diablo 2, before I eventually brought up "Pharaoh's Crypt". I didn't really know why I brought up the game, perhaps I was hoping that someone else here had played the game, and I could compare our experiences.
Nobody else seemed to have even heard about the game before, that was except for one friend who, while not having played the game itself, read about it on a forum dedicated to obscure and rare games. I explained to him the game's mechanics, and the variety of strange levels the game had, as well as the fact that the developer wasn't listed.
"Oh yeah about that"
He interrupted me, in order to give me more insight about the game's origins.
"I read on the forum that the game's developers were tied to some kind of cult, and didn't want to be tracked down for whatever reason."
A cult? That was quite strange, and also creepy...
"Also, the few people in the thread who had experienced the game strongly recommended against playing the game, they urged those who were interested to not seek it out."
Yeah, I wish I had heard that before I got the game myself. Although, to be honest I probably wouldn't have listened and got the game anyway. As 9 pm slowly rolled around we extinguished the campfire and went to sleep in the shack. We all noted that it was quite strange that usual sounds of wildlife during the night seemed to not be present, maybe this area just didn't have a lot of animals? Then again why would it not have? Another theory was that the campfire might have scared them off, which seemed like the best possible explanation. With a slightly eerie feeling, I drifted off to sleep once again.
That night I had another dream where I woke up on a medical table inside one of the rooms from the sixth floor. I already knew what was happening, whether I wanted to admit it or not at this point, the game had a hold on me and I didn't know what to do about it. The Figure appeared in front of me once again, its footsteps were heavy this time around, but it didn't speak to me at all. All the times that it spoke to me before were terrifying already, but it, just slowly pacing around the room not saying a word induced a type of panic in me that I cannot even describe. That's when I heard rusted metal scraping against the floor, the next thing I know, it was towering over me with a rusted excerebration instrument. I desperately wanted to move, to scream, to do anything at all, but I was completely paralyzed. It jabbed the instrument up my nose and I could slowly feel and hear it going right into my brain, just as the pain was become too extreme I woke up yet again covered in sweat.
I checked around for my things before I heard the sound of one of my friends outside, screaming. This sent me into a panicked frenzy and I quickly gathered as many necessities as possible and got dressed in order to investigate the strange sound, and check if my friend was okay. I got out of the cabin, and a strong gust of wind immediately blew over me, it seemed like it was very windy outside. I quickly ran in the direction of the sound, and as I approached it I began to have a strong, splitting headache. It was strange, as I didn't have any alcohol the day prior, and I wasn't too tired either, but that didn't matter right now. What mattered was whether my friend was safe. The closer I got, the more "watched" I began to feel, the feeling from the day prior was no longer something I could ignore. Then I saw it, my friend, with blood leaking from his mouth and completely pale skin. He stood completely still, and had his chest pierced by a spear, which was held by... A tall, dark, shadowy figure.
I was absolutely losing it at this point, I didn't know what to think at all. Then the Figure looked at me, and simply said:
"run."
It let out an inhuman scream, the paintings of eyes began to appear all around me, and the strong gust of wind now began to sound like a constant, faint screeching. And you'd be goddamn right, that I turned around as fast as possible and began to run like never before in my life. Maybe I should have gone ahead and warned the others, but that didn't cross my mind at that moment. At this point, I just wanted to survive, and while some part of me knew what I was seeing probably wasn't real, primal instincts took over me and I knew that if I didn't run now, I'd be seriously fucked. I quickly ran towards the direction of the nearest trail, all the while more eyes began popping up between the several tall trees, and watching me trying to run for my life. I never once looked back, but somehow I just knew that the Figure was hot on my trail, I had felt its presence somehow. When I got back onto the trail, I had remembered that our camp was to the left, meaning that the way out was on the right, so I began sprinting in that direction. My pace had considerably slowed down, the ground beneath me began to feel heavy, but I could also tell that the eyes and the thing chasing me weren't about to be merciful or fair. The eyes were following me, tracking my every move, and the presence behind me was just getting closer the more I slowed down. So I wasn't keen on stopping at any point, I had so much adrenaline that the exhaustion I felt didn't slow me down at all. I was absolutely flabbergasted as to how any of this could be happening, I had no idea if I just well and truly went completely insane, or this was actually real. After several hours, I had finally made it out of the forest, with the only breaks I ever took only serving to give me the bare minimum time I needed to drink water so that I wouldn't die of dehydration or some kind of shock. My heart was still pounding, and for whatever reason I knew that I still wasn't completely safe, after about an hour more of just walking at a faster pace, I finally made it back home. I shut the door closed so hard my next-door neighbors probably thought it was a gunshot. For a second I just lied down on the floor, trying to catch my breath, before going to the bathroom to drink about 2 liters of water at once.
It was still well into the night, around 3-5 am. And while I wanted to get more sleep, I still felt too unsafe, and too afraid to go back to bed just yet. I took off the dirty clothes I had, and just left them in the hallway for now. I got back into my room, and my PC was turned on, the monitor was a black screen, with the title screen of "Pharaoh's Crypt" on it. At this point I had accepted that, either the game was a cursed artifact made by a cult, or I had just well and truly lost my mind. I sat down, put my hands on my mouse and keyboard one more time, and braced myself to do what I now knew had to be done. The title screen also only had one option now, which was:
"Face your judgement".
I clicked the option and wasn't even taken into the Oasis, instead it seemed like I was placed right into the 7th floor of the game. This level was a large maze consisting of large tunnels, similar to those you'd see in a subway station. Everything was very gray, depressing, and I could almost feel just how cold they were from looking at my screen. Carvings of snakes littered the walls, along with references to an entity named "Apophis". Every once in a while, several smaller snakes would pass by me, even if they didn't seem very interested. This was a place so impossibly far underground, that any hope of making it back up to the surface was completely shattered. I had also noticed that the faint sounds of something large moving in the distance, which echoed through the large tunnels of the game, would every now and again feel like they echoed in reality, rather than from my speakers.
The Scarab amulet was seemingly stronger in this level, which seemed to be to compensate for the long and large tunnels of this area. I had cautiously wandered through the maze of tunnels looking for some clue that would put me on the right path towards the exit door, which I assumed would lead me the final level of the game. A few of the tunnels had doors on the side which I could enter, and they would always contain a puzzle I had to solve, which would give me pieces of a map, or interactions with NPCs which looked like trapped, white spirits that would give me hints to guide me through the maze. The puzzles seemed like a mix of all the puzzles from previous levels, with a peculiar focus on more snake imagery. There was even one where I had to guide a small snake through a maze of his own, where I would have to freeze traps in place or open doors with the light spell, in order to help him get to the exit.
Walking through one of the many tunnels, following my map, everything got strangely quiet. Then I heard it, a strong roar behind me scared the living daylights out of me, and I turned around to see a gigantic, rotten snake. It was a terrifying and massive creature with pitch-black holes for eyes, an all consuming, gaping jaw, and it seemed to be so large that it barely fit into the tunnels despite how large they already were. I tried to run away from it, but this thing was simply faster than me, and caught me. The death-screen simply showed its jaw closing, and everything going pitch-black before hitting me with the game over screen. I was down to 4 lives now.
This entity was extremely dangerous, it killed me 3 more times before I was down to one last life. I really didn't want to know what would happen if I lost that final life, my hands were shaking, but I had to do this somehow. Employing every trick in the book, using the sonar spell, checking every corner just in case, and collecting all the hints and map pieces along the way, I eventually found the exit door. It was at the end of another long tunnel, I made William sprint over to it, and just as I did so, I heard the loud roar behind me in real life. It sounded like my things were breaking in the living room, and I felt genuine fear as I quickly raced to the exit door before the giant snake could get me. As my character got through the door, I could hear an extremely loud thud on the door to my room. Had I not immediately looked, I would have guessed a bomb exploded outside of it and sent my door flying right through the window, but in reality it was completely fine. The sound seemed to be just, a fragment of my imagination.
There was no Oasis here either, I was just transported to the final floor of the game. It was exactly like my dreams, a maze with hallways made from meat. I was feeling extremely tired and dizzy at this point, but I needed this to end. There were no enemies or puzzles in this level, it was simply a maze with ambient music. After around 3 minutes of just walking around aimlessly, I had found the sarcophagus room. It was by far the shortest level in the game, but at this point that just made me glad, since I probably wouldn't be able to beat another long level, and had only 1 life left anyway. When I approached the sarcophagus, a cutscene began to play. The Figure had, this time actually appeared in the game, but I kind of just accepted that it was there now. I didn't really care for anything anymore, I was just glad this game was finally going to end. Then it spoke to me, not through my speakers, but more like I was hallucinating its voice:
"Chris, I'm glad you are here, even if I needed to push you. Forgive me, and don't worry, it will all be over now."
It paused for a while, before resuming with:
"Are you ready to face your judgement?"
The screen cut to the sarcophagus, it slowly started to open, the same intense screeching noise that I heard in my dreams began to emit from my speakers. And just as I almost saw what was inside, the game froze, I could hear and see something shooting out from my computer with sparks around it, but next thing I know, I'm laying on my floor and it's 8 pm in the evening.
It seems like I had blacked out, I checked my clock and was in disbelief that I was seemingly unconscious for nearly the entire day. I had several missed phone calls from my friends, Jessica, pretty much everyone you'd expect to be worried about me, was worried about me. And I had missed calls, and several texts from pretty much each and every one of them. Before I got to explaining everything to them, which I didn't even know how I would do, I decided to check what was going on. My computer wasn't turned on for one, and when I turned it on, there was nothing weird about it. Except for the fact that Pharaoh's Crypt seemingly completely disappeared, with no trace of it anywhere on my PC. Also, the disc that contained the game was now laying on the floor of my room, and seemingly burnt. Not "burnt" as in something was copied onto it, I mean it was like it was actually lit on fire and turned into ash. It was no longer hot to the touch, but it was obviously no longer functional. I decided I would send it to the scrapyard tomorrow and never touch it again.
I decided to text Jessica first:
"Hey Jess, I'm okay, don't worry too much about me. I probably just drank too much yesterday or something. I'm back home, completely safe, I'm fine just a bit tired."
I didn't feel like calling her just yet, it was also quite late after all. After that I needed to repeat the process for pretty much everyone I know, before deciding what I was going to do with the rest of my day and how I was going to fix my sleeping schedule. Also, it just dawned on me that my car was still near the entrance to those woods, so I would go back for it the next day. Also my friend who "died", well, he was seemingly completely fine since he texted me, asking if I was okay as well. I eventually decided to get some sleep, in order to fix my sleeping schedule, and luckily, I didn't have any nightmares.
My life after this, pretty much went back to normal after a few days. While I still had the occasional weird feeling every once in a while, after about 72 hours, it was like nothing had ever happened. However, I still needed to know more about the game. For months on end, all I would find was information that I already knew from threads I had already read on forums that I already visited. Sometimes I would find a new thread, one of them was even the thread my friend had mentioned back when we were out camping. That was until one day I decided to search for "Burnt disk with a weird video game on it".
While the results didn't yield anything at first, I eventually found a report of a person being found dead in front of their computer, which had seemingly also turned off before they found him. It was later determined that the cause of death was an epileptic seizure, despite his family stating that he had no history or even any signs of epilepsy, and seemed to handle flashing lights just fine in the past. The thing that freaked me out however, was that when they inspected his computer for evidence, they found a strange blank CD, burnt to a crisp.