Perhaps the most popular gaming genre which has adopted the Egyptian theme more often than any other is the online slots genre. Very few of them are as good as Eye of Horus or Book of Ra, but the theme of ancient Egypt is a predominant theme for the entire genre. Outside of slots though, you may find that not many video games have successfully adopted the ancient Egypt theme as well as they perhaps should have. Nevertheless, the ones on this list are each an excellent example of the few times that the developers did manage to get it right.
Assassin’s Creed Origins (RPG)
There is no other open-world RPG game with an Egyptian theme which comes even close to what Ubisoft Montreal managed to achieve with this absolute epic of a release. One may argue that Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was an even better game, but rest assured that Ubisoft, self-admittedly, built on their Egyptian themed superhit release from 2017 to create the sequel.
Bayek’s story set in Ptolemaic Egypt had only traces of the original Assassin’s Creed formula and storyline, but that was exactly what the series needed to reinvent itself. If you have not yet ridden a camel through the vast Egyptian desserts at the backdrop of a setting sun to hunt a giant cobra, you are really missing out here!
Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation (Third-Person Action)
Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation is a very old game, and you may not have even heard about it, unless you had been gaming in 1999. Almost two decades before the new Tomb Raider series even appeared, Eidos Interactive and Core Design had released the fourth installment in their Tomb Raider Series back in 1999. It went on to be the entire series’ biggest hit. Some of the game’s most memorable Egyptian stages include The Tomb Of Seth, Valley Of The Kings, Guardian of Semerkhet, Pharos, Temple Of Isis, The Sphinx Complex, The Great Pyramid, and of course, Temple Of Horus.
Age of Mythology (Real Time Strategy)
Age of Empires is the more popular series and there have been several games released in the series by Microsoft so far. However, there has so far only been one game called Age of Mythology and it is arguably better than anything else that Microsoft has managed to release after that in the fantasy RTS genre.
Although there were other civilizations (Greek and Norse) to choose from as well, we loved how well they did the entire Egyptian mythology. If you have ever wanted to lead your own troop of Anubites, Sphinxes, and giant scarab beetles, as your citizens fanatically pray to appease Set, Ra, or Isis at their respective temples, this epic RTS is a must-play. Don’t forget to pick up the Extended Version for PC which came out later and included the Titans Expansion too. You should be able to call upon Ra himself, so that he can stomp the daylights out of your enemy troops!
As our readers may have noted, we have selected three games from three different genres. If we left out your favourite game from this list though, that’s only because this post includes only one of each type. Also, we left out any games with a movie tie-in and only included original titles.
As a bonus though, Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (NES) also deserves a mention here, since it remains the best retro beat ‘em up superhit from the early 1990s. If you are more into puzzles, check out Egypt III instead, or better yet, try Monument Valley 1 & 2 on your smartphone or tablet for a more up to date experience.
