Hero of Egypt II

Hero of Egypt II is a God-of-War-style third-person action-adventure video game developed and published by Empire Entertainment; it is the second installment of the series, the third chronogically, and the sequel of the original Hero of Egypt. Loosely based on the Egyptian mythology (and partly Mesopotamian), it is set in Ancient Egypt, with heroism as central motif. The player controls the protagonist, named Imhotep, whom has become the Pharaoh of Egypt. Imhotep learns that a new threat, the Babylonian empire, born from the ashes of the Assyrian empire, is seeking to dominate the known world, stopping at nothing to achieve its goals. During his journey, his quest for heroism will also become a quest for vengeance.

The gameplay is very similar to the previous installment, and focuses on combo-based combat, achieved through the player's main weapon - Pharaoh's Khopesh - and secondary weapons acquired throughout the game. It features quick time events that require the player to complete various game controller actions in a timed sequence to defeat stronger enemies and bosses. The player can use up to four magical attacks and a power-enhancing ability as alternative combat options. The game also features puzzles and platforming elements. In addition to its vastly similar gameplay, Hero of Egypt II features improved puzzles and four times as many bosses as the original.

Gameplay
Just like the original game, Hero of Egypt II is a third-person single-player video game viewed from a fixed camera perspective. The player controls the character Imhotep in combo-based combat, platforming, and puzzle game elements, and battles foes who primarily stem from Egyptian and Mesopotamian mythology, including Gallu, mummies, Basmu, Edimmu, Mukil, Umu Dabrutu, evil Utukku and stone golems. Other enemies were created specifically for the game, including iron soldiers, iron archers, and the personal guards of Nabonidus (main villain of the game), including sentries, guardians, juggernauts, and high priests. Many of the combination attacks used in the original Hero of Egypt reappear, and the game features more than double the amount of boss fights and more difficult puzzles than the original. Platforming elements require the player to climb walls and ladders, jump across chasms, swing on ropes, and balance across beams to proceed through sections of the game. Some puzzles are simple, such as moving a box so that the player can use it as a jumping-off point to access a pathway unreachable with normal jumping, while others are more complex, such as finding several items across different areas of the game to unlock one door.

There are four game modes in the game:


 * Story Mode: a pratically linear mode where the player can save the game and purchase Imhotep's upgrades between stages;
 * Bonus Play: unlocked after completing Story Mode for the fist time; here, the player can choose which level to play, which costume will Imhotep wear for the level, and how many upgrades he will weild, including weapons, magic and health and magic bars upgrades;
 * Combat arena: unlocked after completing Story Mode for the fist time; the player can choose up to 5 types of the enemies Imhotep fought and defeated so far in the game. It is also possible to set Imhotep's health (very low-low-medium-high-very high), magic (very low-low-medium-high-very high-unlimited), items (very low-low-medium-high-very high-unlimited) and block (very low-low-medium-high-very high-unlimited), and the difficulty of the game;
 * Challenge of the Gods: is unlocked after completing the game for the first time, and is composed by 10 stages.

Story Mode includes a total of 16 levels:


 * 1) Death
 * 2) Divinity
 * 3) Liberation
 * 4) Showdown
 * 1) Divinity
 * 2) Liberation
 * 3) Showdown
 * 1) Divinity
 * 2) Liberation
 * 3) Showdown
 * 1) Divinity
 * 2) Liberation
 * 3) Showdown
 * 1) Divinity
 * 2) Liberation
 * 3) Showdown

Combat
Once again, Imhotep weilds his Egyptian Khopesh and Shield, which now seem to have a different look. As the game progresses, Imhotep acquires new weapons - the Axe of Kalash, the Blade of Hammurabi and the Sharur Hammer of Ninurta - offering alternative combat options.

Prologue
"[The screen is black, and only Imhotep's voice is heard.] One of the greatest paradoxes in life is that men who crave power are best fitted to acquire it, and least fitted to exercise it. [Cut to a mural depicting Imhotep dressed as a Pharaoh and sitting on his throne. Imhotep is worshipped by everyone, and most of them bow to him. Tanit, Imhotep's wife, sits next to him (and she is also dressed like Cleopatra from Civilization VI lol)] The Pharaoh is the heart of Egypt. The land is its body, and the people are its blood. Now I am the ruler of Egypt. And yet, I feel satisfied to be called... the Hero of Egypt. [Cut to Imhotep riding on his chariot, leading an army while destroying the Assyrians, along with their king Ashurbanipal.] My armies, armies that have defeated any enemy it crossed, armies that put an end to the injustice of an Assyrian tyrant, my armies have thundered across the boundest desert, and earth has trembled beneath them... [Cut to another mural where dozens of workers are building an obelisk.] ...just as it has trembled beneath the steps of dozens of thousands men, working to the monuments to my glory... a glory I had hardly earned. But just as I have respected Egypt, Egypt respects me as well... even Menreptah, the Pharaoh that came before me. Menreptah was Egypt, just as I am Egypt, and as my son will be Egypt. His face is my face, and his face. His strenght, our strenght. [Cut to another mural where a priest, masked with the head of Anubis, looms on the sarcophagus of Menreptah.] The Pharaoh that came before me gave his life to protect Egypt, a task passed by me when I managed to defeat Seth, the evil God of Chaos that sought to plunge the whole world into chaos. And when his duty was complete, so too was his life completed, his life now a bright star in the sky of the night, for he now has joined the ancestors in the world of Aaru, the Reed Fields where all just men go. He, along with all the Gods, now watches over all of us, over all of Egypt. [Cute to a final mural where Imhotep and Tanit are holding a baby in their arms. The baby is their son, Amenhotep (whom, in HoE II, is now eight years old).] And even as my "father" was taken by Anubis, a new life came to the world: it was my son, born the day after my crowning as the Pharaoh of Egypt. And as my "father" was bound with fine linen, my son was freed from the bounds of darkness, and could see light for the first time... and thus, eight years ago, a new day came to all of Egypt. [The murals sequence ends, and we see Imhotep walking out of his palace, and looks at the Sun.] I am proud of all of this, all of my achievements, all of my deeds, all of my works. And yet... it is just the beginning for me. After all... I am the Hero of Egypt."

- Prologue of the game

It has been ten years since Imhotep has defeated Seth. Two years later that day, Menreptah, former Pharaoh of Egypt, has died, and Imhotep has been crowned on his place. Since the beginning of his reign, an obelisk has been erected, and named as "Stele of the Hero" in honour of Imhotep himself. Also, Imhotep and Tanit now have a son, Amenhotep.

Outside Egypt, relations between the Egyptians and the Hittes are now even stronger, also thanks to the past battles against the Assyrians. As for Kalash, secondary protagonist of the previous installment, he has returned home in Syria, where he is now leader of a merchant guild.

Meanwhile, Babylon, taking advantage of the fall of the Assyrian empire, has now taken possession of all that remained of the empire after the death of their king Ashurbanipal. The new Babylonian empire is led by a king named Nabonidus, strong and charismatic.

The death of Kalash
The game opens with Kalash departing along with a caravan and leaving Tyre, the same city where he was imprisoned in the previous HoE game. The world seems living in peace after the death of Ashurbanipal, the mad king of Assyria, as well as the defeat of Seth.

Kalash, along with the caravan of the head of Egyptian diplomacy, is leaving the Hittite empire, returning on their way to Egypt. Along with Kalash there is a veteran soldier who fought with the former Pharaoh Menreptah when Egypt was invaded by the Assyrians and the Sea Peoples. Soon, the whole caravan stops in a forest of green oak trees, on the edge of a steep slope littered with splitten boulders, far away from the city.

"Veteran: Are you ill? Kalash: No, I'm just tired. Veteran: Bad news, I guess? Kaòash: Could have been better, but as long as Imhotep rules, the situation will never become desperate. Veteran: I know the Hittites very well: they are just brute and aggressive. Several years of alliance have made them even more arrogant and vindictive. Kalash: You are wrong; it may be that our world goes to pieces because of a whim, but Imhotep is right: you can not give in when the fundamental values of our civilization are at stake. Veteran: Undiplomatic language of yours. Kalash: My time of retiring is near. I had promised myself to resign when travels seemed silly and exhausting to me; that day has come. Veteran: I see... but you know that the Pharaoh will not let you go that easily. Kalash: I am as stubborn as Imhotep, so I will win the argument somehow; findin me a successor will be easier than he images. The "royal sons" are not all simple courtiers: some are indeed excellent servants of Egypt. In my business, when curiosity wears off, you have to stop somehow. The outside world is no longer in my interest; the only wish I have is to sit in the shade of palm trees and see the flow of the Nile. Veteran: It is not a simple moment of fatigue? Kalash: Of course not! Negotiating and talking do not interest me anymore. My decision is irrevocable. Veteran: You know, this is the last trip for me, too. Finally some relax! Kalash: Where are you from? Veteran: I'm from a village somewhere in Karnak; my mother is very old, and I'll be happy to help her and spend a peaceful oldness. Kalash: Are you married? Veteran: I never had time for that. Kalash: Neither had I. Veteran: You are still young. Kalash: I would rather wait until my later years wear off my passion for women; in the meantime, I will accept this weakness courageously, in the hope that the divine tribunal forgives me. Veteran: [Lights a fire with flint and dry wood.] We have some great dry meat and some good vine. Kalash: I would rather get a cup of vine. Veteran: Are you losing your appetite? Kalash: I have lost so many appetites. Could this be the beginning of wisdom? [At the same instant, it stops raining] Kalash: Maybe we could depart. Veteran: Men and beasts are tired. Once relaxed, they will proceed more quickly. Kalash: Very well. I will sleep a little."

- Conversation between the veteran and Kalash

Kalash starts sleeping, haunted by nightmares of his past, when his whole family was slaughtered by the mad Assyrian king, and when he finally received his retribution by killing Ashurbanipal himself.

But suddenly, he hears a shout of pain, and Kalash, along with some of them, harsly wake up, only to find a man that has been killed by an arrow. Coming from the rear, more shouts. Arrows are shot flying from the top of the oaks; many Assyrians and Hittites, armed with broadswords, longswords and spears, emerge from either side of the path. Half of the Egyptian soldiers are exterminated in a few minutes, the survivors only manage to break down some of the aggressors, who greatly outnumber them. Kalash, angered, joins the battle, and exterminates as many as he can. After killing at least an hundred of enemies, Kalash manages to save the veteran soldier that was with him. The two ride an horse, galloping faster than they can, but a very long spear pierces both of them from behind and far away. The veteran is impaled through the earth, and dies almost instantly as he falls on the ground; Kalash, instead, is impaled thought a his left lung, and shortly after the veteran has fallen, he too falls on the ground. When his eyes open again, he finds an horrible surprise...

"Kalash: You... Ashurbanipal... Ashurbanipal: Yes, Kalash, the winner is me. At last I have triumphed! At last I have my revenge, filthy bastard, of you who have contributed to my fall! But you were nothing but an obstacle on my path to the glory. Now, is the turn of Imhotep, Imhotep who shall believe that the author of this aggression is the vile Hattusili! What do you think of my plan? Kalash: That... you are... the vile."

Ashurbanipal, resurrected by the priests in the secret ending of the first game, now scarred all over his body, has now achieved his vengeance. He summons his new weapon, the Sword of Ashur, and impales Kalash in the chest. He then leaves him to die...

"Narrator: As the life drained out of Kalash, the revenant king of Assyria enjoyed his vengeance at last... and yet, the Gods still took pity of him, the man who helped he who would have become the Pharaoh to save his own people, as he saved him before. [Kalash feels a friendly presence near him, as an hand touches his temple.] Narrator: Kalash, the one who contributed to the fall of the Assyrian empire, felt the warm and friendly presence of a God... and then... he realized what he had to do. [With the index finger, giving on his dying energy, Kalash traces a single hieroglyph on his tunic, over the heart. In the end, his latest masterpiece completed, Kalash is definitively abandoned.] Narrator: Having not enough strenght to write the name of Ashurbanipal with his own blood, Kalash spent his last energies to write a single hieroglyph. Even without words, Kalash would still have saved the world. And when his eyes finally closed, sign of the end of his proud life, a tear of sorrow and piety fell upon his face. Kalash would finally see his family again in Reed Fields, wishing Imhotep to honor his sacrifice, as well as their friendship. That hieroglyphic, Imhotep would have understood."

- The death of Kalash

Bosses

 * 1) Ashurbanipal
 * 2) Goliath
 * 3) Ligish
 * 4) Utultar and Dibbarra
 * 5) Nemesis
 * 6) Semiramis
 * 7) Marduk
 * 8) Nabopolassar
 * 9) Ashurbanipal: King of Assyria, and final boss of the game.
 * 1) Ashurbanipal: King of Assyria, and final boss of the game.

Pharaoh's Khopesh
Imhotep's Egyptian Khopesh, his regular trademark weapon, has been blessed by Horus, becoming the Pharaoh's Khopesh. Now, Imhotep's attacks have become stronger and faster, and new attacks are now available to him.

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%
 * Kemetic Fury: A quick combo that hits the target. Square, square, square, square
 * Kemetic Fury (Air): A quick airborne combo. Jump, square, square, square
 * Bravery of Horus: A powerful but slow overhead attack. Triangle
 * Bravery of Horus (Air): Airborne version of the Bravery of Horus. Jump, triangle
 * Kemetic Rage: A powerful attack to damage enemy defenses. Hold triangle
 * Plume of Maat: A quick and powerful combo ending in an explosive finish. Square, square, triangle
 * Double jump: While in the air, press X to gain more height. X
 * Grab: Allows Imhotep to grab to any opponent. Press Square to stab the enemy with the Khopesh, or Triangle to slam him on the ground and stomp on him.
 * Evade: Allows Imhotep to dodge incoming enemy attacks. This works for all weapons. Right stick

Level 2

 * Cost: 1'500 orbs
 * Power: 150%
 * Spirit of Geb: A powerful but slow multiple hit combo with an explosive finish. Triangle, triangle, triangle
 * Spirit of Geb (Air): Airborne version of the Spirit of Geb. Jump, triangle, triangle

Level 3

 * Cost: 2'250 orbs
 * Power: 200%
 * Strenght of Shu: Slow but powerful combo. Triangle, triangle, square
 * Dance of death: Useful combo for critical damage. Square, square, square, square, triangle
 * Anger of Isis (Air): Imhotep performs a powerful, airborne multi-hit attack on the enemy. Jump, hold square
 * Fall of Ra (Air): Imhotep performs a powerful, airborne overhead attack that slams the enemy on the ground. Jump, hold triangle

Level 4

 * Cost: 3'750 orbs
 * Power: 250%
 * Fury of Nu (Air): A Multi-hit air attack ends with an explosive finish. Square, square, square, hold triangle
 * Wrath of Osiris: Imhotep performs a powerful multi-hit attack after evading. Evade, hold square
 * Wrath of Ra: Imhotep performs a very powerful attack after evading. Evade, hold triangle
 * Ascension of Thoth: Simultaneously launches Imhotep and enemies into the air. Evade, hold X

Level 5

 * Cost: 9'000 orbs
 * Power: 300%
 * Blessing of Osiris: Enemies drop Green Orbs when hit while Curse of Seth is active.

Pharaoh's Shield
Blessed by Horus, Imhotep's shield has been transformed into the Pharaoh's Shield. Thanks to this, Imhotep is even more resistant against even the strongest opponents, and it will take more time before his defenses are broken.

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Defence: 100%
 * Block usage: 100%
 * Block: Allows to block incoming attacks. R1
 * Parry: Allows to shove an attack just before the enemy attack connects. R1

Level 2

 * Cost: 1'500 orbs
 * Defence: 150%
 * Block usage: 75%
 * Valor of Horus: A counter attack after parrying your foe. Parry, then Square

Level 3

 * Cost: 7'250 orbs
 * Defense: 200%
 * Block usage: 50%
 * Wrath of Horus: A powerful counter attack after a parry. Gives an opening for opponents. Parry, then triangle

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 2'000 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 7'000 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 2'000 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 7'500 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 2'500 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 8'000 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 2'000 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 6'000 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 2'500 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 7'500 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 3'000 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 8'000 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 3'000 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 8'000 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 2'000 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 6'500 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Level 1

 * Cost: n/a
 * Power: 100%

Level 2

 * Cost: 3'000 orbs
 * Power: 150%

Level 3

 * Cost: 7'500 orbs
 * Power: 200%

Enemies

 * Babylonian warrior
 * Babylonian archer
 * Babylonian champion
 * Babylonian royal guard
 * Giant snake
 * Rock snake