The National Geographic Society, best known for its science and nature magazines, photographs and television programs, is now braving the world of gaming.

Early in November, the company launched its game division, National Geographic Games (NGG), in hope of interesting today's computer-savvy youngsters in subjects most of them would probably prefer to sleep through in school.

The first game released by NGG earlier this month was “Herod's Lost Tomb,” which is available both as a purchasable Macromedia Flash game and a free online game which can be played at the National Geographic website.

After downloading from retailers such as Reflexive Games, BigFish Games and Retro64, players can try out the Flash game free for an hour. Gameplay beyond 60 minutes will require a license, which can be bought for $19.99, or about PHP996, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas exchange rates for August 25, 2008.

NGG signed contracts partnering with game publishers Namco Bandai Games America and Sony Computer Entertainment to “publish and distribute globally National Geographic-branded titles on major gaming consoles and handheld devices, including the Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3 and PS3 Network, PCs and mobile devices such as the iPhone,” a company press release said.

“Herod's Lost Tomb,” according to NGG, “highlights content from the December 2008 issue of National Geographic magazine as well as its National Geographic Channel feature broadcast on the biblical figure King Herod, architect of the ancient world.”

An alternate version of the game, “Tomb of the Unknown Mummy,” is available for free online play at the National Geographic Kids website. This game targets young children and aims to introduce them to Egyptian artifacts and ancient Egyptian culture.

“Herod's Lost Tomb” is a hidden object game. Players will need to visit excavation points surrounding landmarks around Judea, and “dig” for items found in a list of clues. Each dig will require a different set of “tools,” available from the game menu. Each find will eventually lead to the finding of Herod's lost burial place.

“Tomb of the Unknown Mummy” is also a hidden object game, but not as difficult as “Herod's Lost Tomb.” Children will need to click on sparkles of gold on the screen to “find” artifacts and photograph them. At the end of the game, they will need to choose who is buried in the tomb based on the artifacts they found.

Both games feature detailed drawings and colored graphics of Egyptian tombs, desert scenes, ruins and artifacts. Newcomers to search-and-find gaming will easily get the hang of these games, but those used to cutting-edge 3D graphics and realistic imagery will find them lacking.

The game's strength lies in the information made available to players as they immerse themselves in the storyline, as well as the search for artifacts and the challenges presented by mini-games encountered in the game as well.

However, user reviews of the game have been less than stellar. While its “interesting historical story” makes it “stand out from the crowd,” Gamezebo reviewer nikkihayes said, it has “pretty standard [hidden object] gameplay.”

Also, while its graphics are “very pretty,” triplegamer said, “most of the objects look similar,” a sentiment shared by Vicki_S.

“Herod's Lost Tomb,” according to Reflexive Games, is playable on computers with Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems, 168 MB CPU speed and 512 MB memory (RAM). It requires the installation of DirectX 7.0 or later. Its download size is 149.30 MB, and its license costs $19.99.

Other NGG games released in November include “National Geographic: Panda,” made by Namco Bandai, and “National Geographic: Africa,” created by Sony.

“Sudoku Traveler: China” is slated for a December release, while “Rain Forests,” “Greencity” and “From the Bottom Up” are planned for 2009.

Photos: Screen Captures from the games. By POC staff. Licensed under Creative Commons license number BY-NC-SA-3.0-PH.

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