A Creepy Visit to Chichen Itza in “Tombs & Treasure!”
When my friend Aylis (@MithraDragoon) mentioned Tombs & Treasure as a game she remembered fondly and might enjoy watching me play through, I must admit that I was a bit surprised. I had not really thought of this game in many years, and it is a game that I recall only having played when I was a child and then never revisiting. The truth is, when I was little, this game freaked me out a bit. It was creepy, had strange monsters, and rather dark, eerie music.
It was also really hard. The puzzles are the types of head-scratchers where it might take you hours to figure out without any help, and sometimes you have to wonder how the people who wrote the walkthrough figured it all out. Sometimes, the solutions aren’t things you’d immediately think about, but they do usually make sense.
At its core, the game has you exploring the ruins of Chichen Itza, searching for the archaeologist father of the female character in the party who had gone missing along with several members of his expedition. Indeed, only a guide named Jose survived whatever happened, and he, out of guilt, joins the girl and her male friend in order to help track the professor down. The game is a series of puzzles to solve, items to collect and use properly, and a light bit of fighting (which usually boils down to an attempt to steer the player in the right direction by presenting enemies that will otherwise be far too strong to defeat).
Given the overall creepiness of this title (indeed, it is similar to Shadowgate and The Uninvited from that era), I felt this was the perfect game to kick off a month of creepy games with!
