PowerSlave Exhumed
2025-10-14
"Powerslave Exhumed" is a Nightdive's remaster of the console version of "Powerslave" (US) or "Exhumed" (Europe; apparently Iron Maiden had rights to this name or something like that). I have spent many hours in the mid-1990s playing "Exhumed" and I always liked its strong Egyptian theme as well as the gameplay. As often is the case, I never finished the game back then. I did that in 2020 when they finally sorted out legals and released it on GOG. But this game is different. How so?
Versions
While PC version was based on an early version of the Build engine (think: no slopes, but other than that all was there) and in fact was the first commercial Build game (it was not: "Witchaven" and "TekWar" were earlier), the console version was using a different engine and had different maps. And also different gameplay and some monsters behaved differently. They literally made 2 different games with the same set of assets. Actually cool. Some people even have preferences as to which one's better. I don't, but I barely started.
Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation had their differences too, but they were boiling down to what each console could do. But roughly it was the same game. Now, what Nightdive Studios did when creating "PowerSlave Exhumed" was to combine the best of the two games. I haven't played either of them, so I cannot compare. But I can compare with the PC game. And there are some notable differences.
The PC game had linear progression of 20 levels and while it was possible to go back to any previous level, there was no point in doing so. The console game, on the other hand, has Metroidvania elements: we have a map and we can move freely and sometimes the level has inaccessible area because we don't have the skill (like higher jumps or ability to stay longer underwater) and we have to return later. There are 6 artefacts extending our capabilities. In these regards, it reminds of "Shadow Man."
The first artefacts
So far, I found sandals allowing higher jumps and Sobek's mask that allows swimming longer underwater. Those artefacts, at least some of them, were spells in the PC game. Here they're permanent. Once collected, they stay with us. Upon revisiting the area, we have to fight all the monsters anew. It would be emptish without it. Again reminding of "Shadow Man." Although, unlike there, we can enter map from different sides, depending on how we travel. We travel on a camel, BTW.
(The camel reminds me, on the other hand, of "Hacx: Twitch 'n Kill," where the exit was sometimes in a form of reaching an area with a rickshaw. Speaking of games I would like to see remastered maybe.)
Platforming
The console game had more advanced engine that allowed to crate platforms hanging in the air and there is dynamic lighting, so when Anubis-like mook shoots, we can see it travelling in the darkness. This plus those magic sandals give a more platformer vibe than the PC game.
Silent hero
One of the things that Build games were famous for was talking: the main characters could comment stuff, either with sexist undertones (Duke Nukem) or gallows humour (Caleb in "Blood") or whatever the rednecks from "Redneck Rampage" represented. The main character in "Exhumed" (sometimes theorised to be named John) has 2 or 3 one-liners ("Sonuvabeech" being one of them). That is not present in the console game: John grunts but doesn't talk.
Saving progress
Both games didn't have savegames, but rather checkpoints. If you die, you go back there. The PC game had lives; once you depleted them, you would die completely and could start again from the same starting point. As long as you had lives, it would remember how far you got and which enemies you have killed. In "PowerSlave Exhumed" it looks like there are no lives and it just respawns at the last checkpoint in the state of the world as saved.
You cannot re-save by hitting the same endpoint, but you can overwrite the save state with another checkpoint. So it's possible to switch between two and more, I think. We'll see, but so far I got to a point where I need to repeat a longer sequence and I'm dying a bit further every time. At least it's not repeating the whole game (I'mma looking at ya, "Aladdin").
The PC game had red spiders while the console one had scorpions (which fit better one of the bosses). The remaster has both. There is also gyroaiming and I think you need to be precise, no more autoaim. And the mummies don't shoot skulls but a homing serpent, very much like the one that the Cobra Staff had on PC.
Further differences
There is universal ammo and at first I understood that all the weapons share the same pool, something I happened to experience in "Shrine" by Scumhead, to much of my dislike, but it's actually a tad better: each weapon has its own ammo, but picking up the ammo replenish the currently selected weapon. Might get tricky in the heat of the fight, but so far I didn't have a problem with it.
The M60 is still one of my favourite weapons in all the FPS, and with gamepad rumble it's even more satisfying.
The grenades are different. On PC there were normal grenades, but here there are some golden, ancient, scarab-like ones. They explode just the same, though, and that's what counts with grenades. They're used not only as a weapon but also a means of destroying some walls. So it's half-weapon and half-artefact.
Summary for the day
The game is ultra slick, even on Nintendo Switch and simply beautiful. My soft spot for Egypt as a theme for any game might have started with "Exhumed" (I'll leave "Stargate" to others), so it's nice to finally play it. Due to assets, it feels a bit like return to your favourite game, but due to it being a different game as well as the remaster itself, it's a completely fresh experience.
2025-10-25
More artefacts
I found another artefact which allows me to land softly, thus making big heights no longer an issue. It also allows me making longer jumps because I don't fall so fast. And these two artefacts, along with magic sandals, make the game a platformer. Not that it's a bad thing. It's not as crazy as "Ghostrunner," but then again it was in 1996. :D The PC game seems flat in comparison.
Set
Last time I played I got to Set's Palace but got stuck there. Today I sat to the game and just went through the level as if it was nothing. Perhaps I was tired. Set in "PowerSlave Exhumed" is a bit less of the challenge than in the PC version, where we would fight him a bit later and better equipped. It must have been shortly after getting the weapon hurling thunders from the sky and Set's arena was full of rats that would take the focus of the weapon. Tricky. Here, you shoot Set until he's dead.
Flamethrower and grande jumps
I also got the flamethrower. Unlike the usual FPS-es, there is exactly one place per each weapon we get. I remembered about the flamethrower but also forgot a little, mostly because M60 is such a fine weapon that I don't need anything else. Although, the flamethrower might be good with crowds. And I'm getting accustomed to using grenades (Amun bombs) more. And revolver is useful for shooting down exploding torches better.
Speaking of grenades. I got stuck at Nile Gorge and I resorted to a gameplay video. At first I found a walkthrough, but it turned out to be for the console game from the 90s and things were different a little (the place where a transmitter part should be had Full Health and the part was elsewhere). Anyway, from the video I learned it's possible to grenade-jump. Cool. And helpful because either due to the gamepad latency or something, but I couldn't jump into one place by simply jumping there.
Gibs
"PowerSlave Exhumed" is more visual than the PC game was. There was hardly any blood and Anubises would die simply falling on their backs and cat girls would suddenly stood up and turn to stone and fall back and crash into pieces. But here every mook dies into explosion of gibs. On the other hand I still haven't seen those odalisque dancers that were sometimes in the background. And on that note, there haven't been Anubises with drums either.
2025-11-01
Another artefact
I found a new artefact, which allows me to walk on lava and this bright green slime, which I don't know what supposed to be. I still lose my health but much less. This plus the diving mask feel very strong like what I had as Shadow Man.
Plot
I could really use subtitles, though, because the spirit of Ramzes gives me hints of where to go next but it's hard to understand him at times. I have to re-listen and then still guess where to go. But I guess correctly.
The plot is being served with a better pacing in the console game, though. On PC, I would just play level after level, to seemingly randomly get a wall of text, Doom style, but there is only a couple of them with nothing in between. Not that the story is deep or anything: aliens stole Ramzes' body and siphon some sort of energy from him. As far as the mid-1990s go, though, that's rather standard. I'm not complaining but simply noting.
Weapons
I also found the Cobra staff and it shoots homing projectiles as well. I thought that was gone in the console game, but I must have mistaken it with this bracelet which allows shooting thunders.
The shared ammo pick-up, I think now, must be a solution for backtracking. Without it, going back to an early level would not allow to replenish the ammo. Or the creators would have to account for that (like it was in "Wrath"). Still deciding if and how much I like it.
A new type of area
I just finished marshes, after successfully understanding Ramzes' instructions :D, and the PC version didn't have this area, which is interesting because PC was later than the console. New textures and all.
CRT filter
I tried playing with CRT filter but wasn't sold on it. I might give it a shot again, but I never played console games on TV (the last thing I used TV for as a display was Amiga 1200), so it doesn't bring any nostalgia for me.
More on weapons
Speaking of weapons, there is an interesting mechanique where some of our arsenal doesn't work under water, i.e., revolver, M-60, and flamethrower (that would be rich :D). There is only one underwater enemy, piranhas, and we have to slash them with machete or use magical weapons (grenades fall under this category in "PowerSlave Exhumed"). Amun bombs might be needed to destroy walls underwater, which is a new thing.
Ah, I briefly encountered floating mines which were absent on PC.
It is, however, possible to shoot piranhas from the shore. I don't remember if it was doable in the PC game. But speaking of water, it's done way better. I don't know if it's the console game or the remaster, but the surface is wavy and controls under water are more intuitive: in Build games, looking up and down *would not* affect the direction, so to swim up and down, you had to use jump and crouch, which always sucked. Here you swim in the direction of you crosshair.
2025-11-02
More new items
New artefacts! And I think the last two. I realised that Ramzes calls artefacts both weapons and what I call artefacts. Which actually makes sense.
First one is a wand that deactivates force fields which I saw, like, three times so far. In one place, there was nothing really special, but the other one led me to a new place. I need to recall where I saw the third one. All those places seem to blur.
The second one is Ring of Ra, which is the seventh, final weapon, so I'm armed to the teeth now. I don't remember if it had the same name on PC, but it was more like a bracelet that would create a lighting from the sky above the targeted mook. It was powerful and ammo was scarce, from what I remember. Ring of Ra has a different sprite and shoots a lot of small fireballs that bounce of the walls. It's highly damaging and takes little ammo, but can burn our character as well, so avoid in tunnels.
The flooded city
There was an interesting level in a flooded city. The only enemies were piranhas and floating mines, but the main challenge came from water itself: I had to plan the route in and out and either shoot fish and mines from the shore or use the Cobra staff, but that one can explode too close. I didn't drawn at all, so I got it right, but it was a kind of challenge you rarely get in FPS-es: where the environment is your main enemy (Doom's "Limbo"/E3M7 comes to my mind).
And I think I learned to jump better. It's a bit like in "Hollow Knight": you press longer, you jump higher. I got stuck in a place where jumping was the only way out, so I learned.
I still haven't encountered a single Kilmaati (the insectoid aliens).
The final artefact
Haha, okay, Ramzes *did not* mean to call the weapon an artefact, though I could swear that's what he did about Amun bombs (also known as grenades in this thread).
So, only know I have found the last artefact, Horus Feather which allows me flying. The game's getting crazier at every step. When I jump now and press jump again in the air, our character stays on this level. This brought new kind of puzzles. But it feels a bit over-powered. We'll see.
Wiki
I found a barely-filled wiki about the game and learned from there that the character's name, which is encoded in the code or files, is not John but Jon P. To my defence, I heard it on a video and never saw in writing.
I also learned that there is yet one more weapon to find. 🤘
And the cat girls is called Bastet.
Transmitter
I also need to make sure I have all the parts of the transmitter. I suspect that this beeping on the map when I select certain locations is a hint that there is this part to recover.
Differences with PC
On differences with the PC game, the levels are arguably shorter. On PC, each level was like a mini game, like those you sometimes buy on Itch.io. I loved that, but without saving it would be a horror to manage with my tight-on-games lifestyle.
2025-11-15
I have finished the game, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Final levels
It turned out there were roughly 3 or 4 levels more. I think 3. It was only then when I finally got to encounter Kilmaati soldiers. On PC, they were spread more evenly through the game. On the balance side, though, they seemed more dangerous here; this, however, might be my memory as it has been a couple of years. It is a bit of a downer because there is a limited number of enemies and they are a bit underused (like also Bastet).
Those final levels heavily utilise flying, which was a bit of my concern earlier, that my character would be too overpowered. He wasn't. It became more puzzley due to that, but I had a lot of fun with that part. It also makes returning to the previous maps a piece of cake.
The final boss
The PC final level is long, as they all are, and we need to activate some switches or set bombs on the alien mothership to destroy it, but here it's a rather short boss fight. And again it's shoot at it until it's dead. There are three different stages and I died a couple of time by falling off the map and one time I ran out of ammo. In these regards it's a little strategic: you need to use appropriate weapons on each stage.
Re: falling off the map, it was an interesting design. The fight happens on a piece of a land floating in some sort of space, which feels like a pocket universe, and if you get to the edge, you'll simply fall off and that will be it, so on top of shooting and dodging attacks you also need to pay attention about the surrounding.
That being said, the final blow was done with the revolver as I had only this and Amun bombs, and they were too risky to use. But this might be a skill issue. :D
The end
Then the plot resolves and Ramzes' body is returned to his grave and our character is granted an immortal life (let's talk about a satisfying ending). There is one last section where we need to run through a collapsing cave to a helicopter, but I managed to do it on the first run.
Conclusion
So, to summarise, it was fun although only lasted for 6 hours in total. I wouldn't mind something longer.
Visually it's superior to the PC version (although a modern port might help here) and there is different ammo management and the skills (e.g., flying) provide a different gameplay. Due to that, both games should be played because those are truly two different games sharing assets, as stated in the beginning.
Now I need to find a new Egyptian game. Actually, I did, but that's a story for another thread.
2025-11-17
And of course I forgot about one thing.
There was one more weapon: Manacle. I didn't manage to find it, but from videos and comments on the Internet, I know it's nothing special because it eats a lot of ammo, has long charge-up, and doesn't do that much harm. But that is the weapon I thought Ring of Ra was replacing. It's not. Ring of Ra is an extra weapon compared to the PC game. But then the PC had mummy's staff, which was an Egyptian BFG 9000.