Zeus Quest – The Rebirth of Earth Review

In ancient Greek culture, Zeus is the God who controls the sky and thunder. He is also the leader of all the other Gods, reigning high above the country on Mount Olympus. He is famous for having a thunderbolt in his hand waiting to strike anyone who disagrees with him, and for sleeping with mortal women in the disguise of something else. But did you know he invented a time machine to save the world? No? Neither did I until I started playing Zeus Quest – The Rebirth of Earth. 

Zeus Quest – The Rebirth of Earth is a family-friendly, remastered point and clicker set in the world of ancient Greek, mixing in a heady combination of sci-fi and silliness. The story goes something like this – Zeus is brought back to earth from his spaceship by some ancient mechanism. He lands in the middle of the ocean, clueless as to who he is and what is going on. He lands in Santorini, an island on the coast of Greece, and then goes on a fantastical journey meeting a host of characters and trying to gather pieces of a time machine to save the world. 

The writing and story are the best bits about this game. It’s family-friendly with some great characters and animals to interact with along the way. Think “Horrible Histories” and you can now imagine the type of material we are dealing with here. I liked exploring the world through the different locations and found the dialogues to be entertaining throughout. Zeus Quest never takes itself seriously either, and is not afraid to mix ancient Greek mythology with a modern sci-fi fable.

Gameplay-wise the game follows a familiar pattern for all you point-and-click adventurers out there. On the screen, you are presented with several points you can interact with. These might be characters to talk to, items to collect or interact with, and exits to other areas. By listening to the conversations and talking with people you get an idea about what to do next and where to go. As with all games of this genre, some of the solutions to what to do are quite strange and sometimes unusual, but it’s good to try as many different potential solutions as possible. 

There is an inventory to be had, helping you collect all your items, which you can combine cleverly to make other items. There are some little mini-games to play as well, like a nicely interesting mosaic puzzle that is quite tricky but still very enjoyable. If you get very stuck then you’ll find – in the right-hand corner of the screen underneath the menu – is a complete walkthrough. Now, this is very handy indeed, but also so tempting. Even if you get slightly stuck you’ll not be able to be tempted; “Just a quick look…I won’t do it again”. It’s handy, but naughty. 

One thing that particularly stands out about Zeus Quest is the way the characters are drawn. At times it’s like they’ve been lifted straight out of an ancient Greek mosaic with all the strange angled features and postures. It’s a good design with some great use of colour that reiterates the family-friendly message. It’s not going to break the graphical powers of an Xbox machine, but it does a pleasant job throughout. The soundtrack is the same, with some nicely laid out tracks to go along with your puzzle solving.  

Zeus Quest – The Rebirth of Earth is a good point-and-click puzzle adventure game that is unique, fun and suitable for all the family. It has a lovely world to spend some time in and there’s been some decent translation to the console scene. I do think the puzzles can feel a bit obscure, especially for a family-friendly game, but you have the solution waiting for you at any time should you need it, something which is a bit of a blessing and curse. 

If you like variety and fancy a bit of Greek then Zeus Quest – The Rebirth of Earth could be the god game you are looking for. 

Zeus Quest – The Rebirth of Earth is on the Xbox Store