Almost always, when a game comes out based on a movie it is typically built as a quick cash grab, a way for studios to make more money on the name than just the film. These deals have made some of the worst games in history, but Way Forward may have proved that they can take a flawed, poorly performing film and make it into a great game. Mummy Demastered is the game in question, one that takes the general themes of the recent Mummy film to make an all-around solid Metroidvania experience.
Mummy Demastered is by no means perfect, but it’s probably one of the best movie games I’ve played in a while. Instead of taking control of Tom Cruise (which is how most game studios probably would have approached this idea), players control a nameless soldier of an international task force that takes down the supernatural. When an evil mummified Ahmanet arises in a cave system in Iraq, Prodigium is called into action to exterminate her and her monsters at all costs.
It’s not just from a lack of being able to use Tom Cruise’s likeness as a character that determines the player character. Being a nameless, expendable soldier is baked into the game’s most unique mechanic. Dying leaves a corpse that evil magic then animates. Players then respawn with one health tank and the basic weapon and must kill their previous self in order to get their gear back. I’ve seen similar systems in games before, such as Ubisoft’s ZombiU, but it helps ground some of the themes at play in the game.
While this system is really cool, it can really hamper progress if one dies in a weird spot. For instance, dying around tough enemies can lead to a lot of frustration. Add in that there are no health stations in the game and it can grind the pacing down to a halt. There were plenty of moments before taking on bosses that I had to grind for health, which is never fun. Simply letting a player regen at save stations would have fixed this.
Mummy Demastered definitely has some catchy tunes that will put one in that nostalgic state of euphoria. Yet, there weren’t any stand out tracks, it all just sounded like generic SNES sounds. It’s hard to explain, but I just wasn’t all that impressed with this game’s sound design. It suffices, but it just doesn’t have that magic like Shantae: Half-Genie Hero had in its soundtrack.
Everything else in the game will feel incredibly familiar to fans of the Metroidvania genre. There aren’t too many surprises, but the game controls well and exploring the different areas can be a lot of fun. Level design is fairly tight, especially considering that most players will see everything in the game in around eight hours or so, but each space feels adequate. Player movement is a little limited, as the want to be able to skip areas through a cool technique often comes to mind, but the movement options available get the job done. There’s even a shinespark-esque move that can make for some cool traversal late in the game.
Weaponry doesn’t have the same feel as some games in the genre, as most of them just do more damage in a different way, but it can make for some fun run-and-gun moments. Players will be doing a ton of shooting in Mummy Demastered; there are thousands of enemies. This is often at the game’s detriment though, as sometimes enemies just get in the way of platforming to the point of irritation. Having more reserved enemy placement would have done wonders for the game overall.
Most progression through areas is tied to having a particular explosive or taking down a boss. Each of the boss battles are fairly fun and there a few different options when it comes to taking them down. Every boss just needs to be hammered away and picking whatever weapon works is half the battle. Knowing a boss’s pattern is where real mastery comes in; most of them have a few set attacks that are telegraphed to the point that they always feel fair, yet challenging.
In the story department, Mummy Demastered keeps things simple. This mummy lady is bad news for the world, put a bullet in her brain. Do whatever it takes to reach that goal. It could have easily been replaced with a different antagonist and the game would have felt identical. Having the Mummy license doesn’t do anything for the game, but having the Mummy Demastered actually makes the movie seem a little easier to watch. I had no interest in seeing that film, but now that I’ve played through this game, I kind of want to see it.
As far as a Metroidvania goes, Mummy Demastered isn’t going to blow anyone away, but the execution of this one is just solid on all fronts. There a few issues I had with it (gathering health and enemy placement), but overall it was an absolute joy to go through. Ahmanet was also an interesting threat, as she goes from a crawling husk to a powerful monster by the end of the game. Seeing her get more powerful over time and just generally showing up through out, gave a lot of determination and drive to the game. I’m just not sure if Mummy Demastered will have the lasting appeal that games in the genre tend to have.
At the end of the day, Way Forward took a fairly boring contract deal and put their golden seal on it. This proves that when it comes to using a franchise in bold new ways, Way Forward is ahead of the game. I’d love for them to attempt a few other franchises, namely Predator, Alien, Terminator, or hell even the previous Mummy movies, just to see what might come out of it.
For more information on Mummy Demastered, check out the official website. The game is available on Steam, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. A Steam copy was provided for this review.
For a similar review, I recommend checking out my Metroid 2: Samus Returns review.
