I’d like to think that I qualify as a true Tintin fan. Having grown up reading those classic comic books and watching the original cartoons, I then passed them onto my own children who in turn have become diehard fans themselves. We have visited the Hergé museum and even the real life flea market in Brussels which is the setting of The Secret of the Unicorn. Yes, I am indeed a Tintin nerd.
You can imagine, then, my excitement upon learning that a new Tintin video game was in development! As a young boy I remember taking turns with my friend on his copy of Tintin in Tibet for the GameBoy on long car journeys, jumping over barrels and swimming against the torrents… maybe this could finally be a return to video game form for the intrepid boy reporter?
The first cause for concern I had came from the developer. When I found out that Moulinsart (the parent company who cares for the Tintin IP) had teamed up with game developer Microids I became nervous. In my opinion, they have had their fair share of hits (see the fantastic Syberia and its first sequel) but also a growing number of misses in recent years, such as Alfred Hithcock’s Vertigo which disregards everything about that iconic movie in favour of an ‘original’ story and went down like a lead balloon.
The first issue that became apparent was the genre of game that Microids put out. The very essence of Tintin is globe trotting adventure, mystery and action, comic humour, dastardly villains and daring intrigue. In short, we should have been presented with a rip roaring good time. What we got instead was a tired and deathly dull puzzle game that borders on a point and click adventure from the early 00s! Gameplay jumps all over the place from complex puzzle solving to the most basic and at times childishly simple button timing as you attempt to grab a piece of paper caught on the breeze.
Disregarding the Steven Spielberg movie adaptation of 2011, Tintin has always had a consistent look. Herge’s inimitable style is tried and true, an iconic comic art style. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the character will immediately be able to tell that liberties have been taken here with the character design and art styles… and not for the better. This looks nothing like Tintin; surely an officially licensed video game adaptation would be permitted to craft a game that actually looks like a Tintin story! Instead we are presented with a dead eyed, baby faced man child who looks the furthest thing from a hero that one could imagine. It is also not helped by the sub standard voice acting performances, something that I have noticed to be a common theme amongst Microids games of recent years.
Whereas previous Tinting games have taken a platformer approach, Cigars of the Pharoah is, at its core, a glorified point and click/puzzle solving game with very light action adventure mechanics. That may be exactly what you are looking for, in which case drink hearty! Aside from a few vehicle operating missions, the majority of the action consists entirely of automatic, hand holding gameplay—Tintin is chasing after Snowy, there’s an obstacle ahead so press B at the right time to jump over it, now there’s a jump coming up, time pressing the X button correctly to swing over the gap. There’s little to no freedom of movement or choice, you feel as if you are on the most boring rollercoaster of your life.
Sections of the game have sequences requiring stealth, sadly these are not much better. At one point the game required Tintin to sneak past several crew members of a ship as he made his way through the decks. During one of these sequences I found myself creeping past a telegram operator who was sat at his desk with his back facing me. I accidentally moved too fast and alerted him to my presence, he stopped what he was doing and declared that he had found me without turning around, then as soon as I stopped moving and stood still he forgot I was there and continued with his work allowing me to continue my mission. It’s silly issues like this that hinder the gameplay and show how poorly designed it is.
The only mechanic in the game that feels slightly original are the moments where players take control of Snowy (or Milou depending on your level of devotion). Following scents and trails and hiding under furniture you will make your way through levels aiming to stay one step ahead of the villains. However, as this involves looking through the eyes of a shaggy dog with his nose firmly in the centre of the screen, the lack of polish in the graphics is immediately visible.
Sadly, these graphics are amongst the biggest problems. For a game released in 2024, I am truly shocked at how much this looks like a low budget PS3 game. From badly timed lip sync, to jagged edges all over the characters outlines and clunky unnatural movements that don’t match how humans actually move… it really is a messy offering from Microids! There were times during the game where a player would be leaning against an object that just wasn’t there, with their hand resting in mid air. There is no way to justify putting out a game with this level of detail missing and it’s hard to not get the feeling that this was a half hearted attempt at putting out a game for a small fan base… but that doesn’t mean they didn’t deserve a decent amount of effort being put into the finished product. Even when I failed a mission by being caught during a stealth sequence, the ‘Failed Mission’ screen would suddenly cut to a random glitch of Tintin falling (a screen usually reserved for when Tintin did in fact FALL!)
The puzzle sections aren’t bad and do require some thought on the behalf of the player, but as a longtime Tintin fan I didn’t want to spend my time constantly working out how to open a porthole or a door… I wanted to run and jump and explore an immersive world worthy of one of Belgiums finest comics.
At the end of the day, I can’t help but wonder who this game was intended for. I was here, ready and willing to enjoy it but after a short while I lost all desire to go any further. It has taken a great story and presented it as a game you played long ago and didn’t enjoy all that much to begin with. Even my 11 year old son, who is probably a bigger Tintin fan than myself and always asks to play whatever game I’m currently playing, has expressed zero interest in having a go. When a video game doesn’t stand out to an 11 year old you know that something is wrong.
The only positive I can find is that they used the theme tune from the original cartoon series and the loading screen is a nice call back to it. Other than that, there is sadly very little to recommend it.
