I love Egyptian mythology. One of my favorite things as a kid was going to the Egyptology exhibit at our local museum, then coming home and reading tales of the various myths from books I checked out at the library. The Book of Aaru immediately caught my attention as a Rogue-like game painted with the Egyptian aesthetic.

The Book of Aaru is an isometric-style Rogue-like, set in an Ancient Egyptian world. This game doesn’t pull its punches, and due to its inspirations from Hades and Curse of the Dead Gods, it is a tough experience from the start. The first thing I noticed involves the game’s controls, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

You play as Emily Sands, an archaeologist searching for the Temple of Osiris in 1926. Good news, you found the temple. Bad news? You’re trapped in it and cannot leave until you explore an ever-evolving labyrinth. Each death brings you back to your start hub, but with knowledge and meta progression that will allow your next run to be slightly easier.

The gameplay seems deceptively simple. Emily can do a light attack or a charged attack with both her melee and ranged abilities. She can roll to avoid damage, block, stop time temporarily to break enemy shields, etc. In between combat arenas, Emily must avoid and navigate trap rooms, trying to avoid taking damage.

Emily has limited stamina, which determines how much she can roll or how quickly she can attack in succession. As you upgrade the meta progression, this will change. However, in the beginning, you’ll have a hard time surviving. There is an equipment and attribute system that can offset some of these weaknesses, but it takes some time to get used to it.

Emily being able to slow time is a fun idea, and it brings some variety to combat. The different weapons you (eventually) get also offer a variety of playstyles, but there’s a bit of a problem overall.

I personally found the controls in The Book of Aaru to be a bit clunky, not exactly giving much in the way of fluidity. Instead, I would miss attacks, parrying would be difficult to time, and overall, dodging traps and movement just felt bulky. It also didn’t help that attacks didn’t really feel impactful. Enemies didn’t stagger or show any sort of reaction to being hit beyond a small audio cue, but that didn’t make getting the rhythm of combat any easier or more satisfying.

Something The Book of Aaru does that a lot of Rogue-likes don’t is mechanics around environmental destruction. Many things in the environment can be destroyed and will provide crafting materials for use back at The Bastion (your hub). You can also use crafting materials during a run to create Medallions, which provide temporary buffs or healing.

The Bastion is also where characters “live” for you to interact with. As you do various runs, you’ll be able to resolve quests, learn about them, and utilize them for your various needs. Admittedly, this is where I find The Book of Aaru stumbles. The story is very bare, mostly given through half-hearted NPC dialogue and implied storytelling.

I spent several runs (including the tutorial) before I had to go to the Steam page to figure out where my character fit into the narrative. Very little of Emily’s story is explained beyond being lost in the temple. This, combined with the clunky controls, made it feel less than satisfying to play.

Granted, I know that I am a bit spoiled from playing well-tuned games like Curse of the Dead Gods, Hades, and (more recently) Hades II. However, spending some time with The Book of Aaru just felt more like a chore than it was fun. Some people like the “less is more” approach to story, but I felt like it made The Book of Aaru feel generic.

With that said, I like the music and the design of the environments, traps, and enemies. Even the boss I managed to make it to was interesting. Sadly, overall, I just felt like The Book of Aaru was mediocre at best. It wasn’t bad per se, but I’ve played many better games in the genre.

If you are looking for something different and just want to give it a try, I won’t say that it is a bad investment. Some people may like to dive deep into the sci-fi Egyptian hybrid world presented in The Book of Aaru, and they might not mind the control scheme.

There are some interesting, new ideas here, and I won’t fault Amenti Studio for trying something different. Sadly, I just think that The Book of Aaru needed a bit more tuning and a bit more work before release. I keep seeing comments on the Steam page that the developers update the game regularly, though, so that’s an upside at least.

A PC review copy of The Book of Aaru was provided by Amenti Studio for the purposes of this review.

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The Book of Aaru

$14.99 USD

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Interesting Egyptian theme
• Traps and Environments are interesting
• Music is well-done

Cons

• Slow Progression
• Combat isn't impactful
• Controls feel clunky
• Story is very sparse