The Curse of the Scarab is a surprisingly complex game written by Nils Fagerburg. On the surface, it looks like a simple grab-all-you-can type of game – inspired by Captain Verdeterre’s Plunder and Sugarlawn, both amazing optimization games on their own. But Curse of the Scarab is its own thing. There are puzzles along with limits, mobs that will try to kill you, and scarabs that want to eat. In the end, how much you make from the treasure becomes your score. The more you make, the better. As of writing this, Wade Clarke holds the highest score of 1585 pounds.

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*** Spoilers from here on out

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This type of game can be played several times, seeing different stuff during each playthrough. You start out by focusing on the pit, but there are clues that lead to the desert and back again. The goal is to make as much as you can by stealing everything from the tomb. You need to escape Egypt due to your exploits. It looks like this isn’t the first burial chamber you robbed. It’ll cost you the Scarab Amulet to get out of the country, but there is so much more to find in the tomb.

There’s everything you would expect to find in an Egyptian tomb – plenty of loot, puzzles to unlock, and a Mummy. Yes, waking up the Mummy can be very deadly – he’ll chase you around. And that’s the cool part about the game. You’ll do stuff, get yourself in trouble, and then work your way back out of it. Or die, which can happen a lot too. Some deaths are funny, and some are cruel, but I keep coming back to this game anyway.

The game uses a custom parser, which is a bit of a turn-off. Because it uses its own parser, the benefit is it can display custom graphics and Egyptian hieroglyphs, but I would love to have a z8 or glulx file for it so I could play it on my iPad whenever I want. The interface is cool. I do like the graphics and the hieroglyphics add to the game, but locked into itch.io like this, there’s no portability. I’d rather not be forced to use a browser to enjoy an I.F. game.

This game also has an inventory limit with a bag that can only hold four items. The same goes for the player. But the game challenges you to find different ways around it, like wearing certain pieces of treasure – a great idea. There’s also a time limit. You have a torch that can burn out. If this happens in the tomb, you’ll die. Scarab’s are afraid of the light but will feast on your flesh in the dark. One good thing about the limit is time doesn’t advance when the player looks at something. It only increases when doing stuff. Also, like any good adventure, there’s a way to refuel the torch.

Another unique thing I found about the game was that there are cursed objects or ways for objects to become cursed. The game is called The Curse of the Scarab. You have to be careful because the Mummy can fry things, or certain things are already fried. So when you do return to Saad, you don’t want to have any cursed items. You’ll get nothing for them.

This game is fun, really fun to play. It’s simple enough to get into the tomb and beat. You’ll die a few times, but walk away with a good sense of what’s happening. Later, you can delve back into that scarab-infested pit. And start to mess with that Mummy as you take everything not nailed down, hopefully coming away with half of what Wade did. That must have been an incredible run.

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