Games worth discovering

Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine Review: A Classic Egyptian Thriller

13K View2022-05-23

Despite absolutely loving scary movies, I rarely play horror games, mainly because of how easily frightened I get when playing alone. There are definitely a few horror games that I've relished throughout the years, like Alien Isolation, Dead by Daylight Mobile, and The Forest. I've always had a love-hate relationship with these titles, since I despise getting chased, yet I enjoyed these games. I think the thrilling rush of knowing that shutting myself into a room or a cave might get me killed pushed me to play a bit better. A newer game that's been sort of hitting that spot is Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine.

Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine is a free-to-play Egyptian-themed horror game with ghouls, mummies, an undead pharaoh, and the god of death, Anubis. It's the third game in the Endless Nightmare franchise but features a larger map, more weapons to acquire, and a few versatile enemies to take down. Just like its predecessors, Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine features maze-like gameplay with the goal being to reach the end of the pyramid and find the heart of the pharaoh while staying alive.

Image Credited to Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine | 707 INTERACTIVE: Fun Epic Casual Games

The story starts with you investigating a syndicate attempting to steal an ancient artifact called the heart of the pharaoh. The syndicate has already entered the pyramid and awoken Anubis and the dead remaining throughout the Egyptian crypts. It's up to you to catch up to what remains of the grave robbers and keep the artifact in safe hands. As you go deeper into the great pyramid, you'll encounter mummies and undead warriors relentlessly trying to stop you from diving further into the structure. Once you reach the bottom floor, you'll need to defeat the god of death, Anubis, to make it out alive.

The gameplay is pretty simple: Solve puzzles and contraptions, reach the final boss, and defeat it to survive. However, the journey to the boss is quite long, as Endless Nightmare 3's map is extensive and features many rooms and floors of various sizes to explore. Some walls can be smashed down to create new openings. And you can only open other mechanisms or doors with a particular key, object, or lever. Also a few rooms are magically sealed, meaning you'll need to use a perk acquired by upgrading abilities across your arsenal, which is a feature unlocked later. There are three difficulty modes featuring altered experiences: For easy mode, you face Anubis; in hard mode, you have to battle a pharaoh; and nightmare mode tests you against both.

Image Credited to Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine | 707 INTERACTIVE: Fun Epic Casual Games

To combat Endless Nightmare 3's undead monstrosities, you'll first receive your tech glove—an advanced glove that you can upgrade to punch devastatingly, electrify hordes of enemies, and regenerate your HP, stamina, and energy. You'll use the tech glove to learn about assassinations, which means crouch-meleeing an enemy unnoticed from behind and instantly killing them. Crouching also makes you near-unnoticeable. After battering tons of mummies, you'll get your first gun, the classic pistol. Unfortunately, you'll have to rely on the pistol for most of the game. And although it may seem a lame weapon to use, especially against the literal Egyptian god of death, it can do some significant damage when aimed at the head.

Honestly, I enjoyed the easy mode for its simplicity, but the higher difficulties certainly bring more challenges. Endless Nightmare 3's approach allowed me to have fun and tried to hook me in early, so I'd invest time and money into the game. See, Endless Nightmare 3’s game design revolves around using your arsenal to stay alive, but all of the best weapons need to be purchased via microtransactions. From submachine guns to crossbows, everything that could actually be beneficial towards my gameplay was locked behind a microtransaction—and I didn't like that at all. It made me feel like the only reason I'd won the game was because I had money. Also, ammunition was sparse and hard to come by. Most of the time, I found roughly around twenty bullets across each floor, which didn’t get me very far when used against a catacomb filled with undead skeletons.

Image Credited to Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine | 707 INTERACTIVE: Fun Epic Casual Games

Luckily for my poor aiming skills, most enemies didn't really notice me when I walked into a room. When enemies were far enough away, I could pull off a two-tap headshot, immediately killing them. The only major issue with the pistol was how scarce ammunition was in the game. I absolutely needed to hit those headshots, or I'd waste too much ammo to survive for long. And when I died, the wasted ammo didn't just come back like in most games. Dying in Endless Nightmare 3 sent me back to the start of the game, with the option to watch an ad that would revive me on the floor I died on.

This mechanic meant that I had to play carefully and ensure my target placement was head-level. If I wanted more supplies, I needed to buy them through microtransactions or watch ads that provided a few bullets, which wasn't worth the time. There’s also an in-game shopkeeper who sells ammo for cash, but that resource was a rare drop from mummies or collected treasure, and the shopkeeper was always at the start of a floor, meaning I'd have to backtrack if I needed to restock.

Image Credited to Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine | 707 INTERACTIVE: Fun Epic Casual Games

Endless Nightmare 3 felt somewhat scary, but it didn't scratch that horror game itch. The game's visual and sound design are its best features, but even still it’s less scary than it is thrilling. It feels somewhat balanced for survivability in easy mode. But taking a step into the harder difficulties includes a drastic bump in the challenge, and it quickly became too frustrating for me to enjoy. Endless Nightmare 3's built on a promising premise and mechanics, but that draw only lasts for the first few floors before it hits you with its large shop of microtransactions. It never forces players to watch ads, but it'll leave you with no honest choice but to watch them or replay the entirety of the game. And if you’re anything like me, you’ll end up in an endless cycle of dying and watching another ad, over and over, like the worst version of the afterlife imaginable. I had high hopes for Endless Nightmare 3, but it’s too worried about making money off its players and not concerned enough with actually scaring them.

SCORE: 2 STARS OUT OF 5

PLAY IF YOU LIKE:

• Subnautica. If you enjoyed the thrill of enemies chasing after you and potentially killing your character if you don't act fast like in Subnautica, you might enjoy Endless Nightmare 3.

• The Endless Nightmare franchise. If you liked the rest of the games in this franchise, then you’ll probably get something out of Endless Nightmare 3. The first game features a ghostly, home theme, while abandoned creepy hospitals inspire the second. All three games in the franchise feature the same focus: Get in, survive, and get out...while you can.

Mentioned games