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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/exhumedpowerslave_menu.jpg]]
2''[=PowerSlave=]'' (a.k.a. ''Exhumed'' in Europe and ''Seireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu''[[labelnote:Translation]]''1999 AD: Pharaoh's Resurrection''[[/labelnote]] in Japan) is a 1996 FirstPersonShooter released for Platform/IBMPersonalComputer, Platform/PlayStation and Platform/SegaSaturn. It is set in Egyptian ruins and makes the player fight alone against plenty of demons and undead, making it a kind of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' or ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' in Egypt. However, while the PC version is a typical FPS of the time, the console version distinguished itself by being a first-person {{Metroidvania}} long before ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' came out.
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4The story occurs at the end of the 20th century and puts the player in the shoes of a special forces soldier sent to Egypt with a team to investigate weird rumors about monsters appearing near Karnak. Their chopper crashes, and [[ItsUpToYou he is the only survivor]]. Later, he meets the ghost of King Ramses, who warns the hero of who the true culprits are: an alien race called the Kilmaat, who are using Ramses' corpse for some evil purpose.
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6After being unavailable for digital purchase for years, the PC version of the game was [[https://www.gog.com/game/powerslave digitally re-released]] on Website/GOGDotCom by Throwback Entertainment on November 19th, 2020, with Throwback also [[https://twitter.com/ThrowbackCorp/status/1329889365447897091 working with]] Creator/NightdiveStudios to remaster the console versions of the game. Said remaster of the console version, titled ''Powerslave: Exhumed'', was officially announced on August 14th, 2021 and released on February 10th, 2022.
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8Not to be confused with the ''Powerslave'' album made by Music/IronMaiden (although the title track deals with Ancient Egypt too), nor the DeathMetal band of the same name.
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11!This game shows examples of:
12* AncientAstronauts: Set, the evil Egyptian god, appears as the first of the game's three bosses, and appears to be an alien (in fact he strongly resembles a cross between the Cycloid Emperor and the Alien Queen from ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D''). The connection between the Kilmaat and ancient Egypt is unclear (Ramses doesn't seem to consider them legitimate), but most of their Mooks are themed around ancient Egypt.
13* AncientEgypt: Setting of the game. It takes places around Karnak.
14* AndThenJohnWasAZombie: [[spoiler:The "Game Over" screen shows Anubis-monsters mummifying the hero.]]
15* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: The console and remaster's good ending not only sees you granted immortality by Ramses, but also you becoming the god-king of the world for eternity, leading it to a bright new golden age.
16* BenevolentArchitecture: There's bridges, pots and all sorts of other bits and bobs just begging for the hero to make use of. Given that this used to be Ramses' kingdom, its likely this is as intentional as he can make it.
17* BlockPuzzle: Sometimes you'll have to push a number of blocks to progress, in the PC version.
18* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Known as ''Powerslave'' in the US and ''Exhumed'' in Europe, the remaster instead simply combines both titles to form ''Powerslave: Exhumed.'' Plus the pun always helps.
19* BossInMooksClothing: The Magmantis enemies are giant insect[=/=]crab-like enemies that pop out of pools of lava and spit giant fireballs at you. They're ''huge'' for a Build engine creature (larger than many bosses from other games), take a lot of hits, and can kill you with a direct hit. The first one you encounter seems like a mini-boss of sorts, but they quickly turn out to be regularly occurring enemies.
20* CatGirl: One the games enemies are the Bastet's. Buxom lioness headed women that are agile and come at you in groups.
21* CensorShadow: The Anubis enemy wears a short kilt, and in the PC version he falls over backward with his legs apart upon dying. In the console versions, he is gibbed instead.
22* CheckPoint: Even in the PC version, the game saves only automatically, at specific points, the beginning of the levels, and when you reach a golden scarab. In the PC version you also have a limited number of lives. To balance this out, the game is noticeably generally ''not'' NintendoHard, unlike many Build Engine games of the time such as ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' and ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior''.
23* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: Not exactly, but close. Dying in the PC version makes the player reappear next to the last checkpoint, with full life, all your inventory from when you died, and the killed monsters don't respawn. On the other hand the ammo and power-ups you previously picked up don't respawn either and you lose one life. (The console version has no lives counter, but also has no checkpoints - if you die in a stage, both the stage and your health/ammo counts are reset to how they were when you entered it.)
24* {{Determinator}}: The hero was the last survivor of his team after their chopper was shot down, and he braves all manner of unholy creatures in order to stop the Kilmaat.
25* DifficultyByRegion: The Saturn version lets you carry about twice as much ammo as the Playstation version does. ''Powerslave: Exhumed'' splits the difference by making your ammo reserve about halfway between that of the two different console versions.
26* DoNotRunWithAGun: The player can walk and shoot at the same time, but it is impossible for the monsters.
27* EasterEgg: The remaster's title screen will change when played on the dates that certain versions of the game released on. This not only includes the unique [=PlayStation=] port's title screen, but the original PC version's and the Saturn's. Even the game's title will change, either to ''Exhumed'' on the Euro version's release date, or even the Japanese ''Seireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu'' title on that version's release date. Occasionally, however, it may just change to one of those ones randomly.
28* EliteMooks: Kilmaat Sentries replace the Anubis as your primary enemies in the last few levels. They have nearly twice as much health as the Anubis, and their laser blasts hit harder and travel faster than the Anubis' fireballs.
29* EmergencyWeapon: The machete, which doesn't use ammo and is usable underwater (opposite to the firearms).
30* EnemyRisingBehind: Yeah, see those statues? Expect a lot of them to suddenly become animate and hostile the moment you turn your back on them.
31* EverybodysDeadDave: The beginning of the game. Put simply, you're the only survivor of your team, the rest seem to have died when the chopper got shot down.
32* EverybodyHatesHades: There are monsters that look like Anubis (this is their name in the manual). In Myth/EgyptianMythology, Anubis is the protector of dead people, not an evil god.
33* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Except rats.
34* ExcusePlot: Some weird stuff is happening in Karnak, go in there and shoot up some stuff.
35* ExplodingBarrels: Exploding skull vases in this case.
36* FakeDifficulty: No real saves and (in the PC version) a limited number of lives.
37* GameMod: There are 3 source ports available to get the game to run on modern systems with modern mouse controls and modern hardware accelerated rendering (similar to [=GZDoom=], [=EDuke32=], or the Nightdive Studios ports of various ''Doom''-era games). [=PCExhume=] (based on the [=EDuke32=] engine), [=BuildGDX=], and Raze (a continuation of [=PCExhume=] by the [=GZDoom=] team). Of the 3, Raze is the most recent and seems to have the least compatibility issues on Windows 10, though the opening movie doesn't play when running the game on it.
38* {{Gorn}}: The game is about on the same level of violence as ''Doom''.
39* HarderThanHard: ''Powerslave Exhumed'' has 3 difficulty settings; Normal (which is the single difficulty setting of the old console versions), Hard, and Pharaoh. On Pharaoh difficulty, enemies do twice as much damage, have a much higher attack rate, appear in greater numbers, and more difficult enemies appear earlier on (i.e. the Anubis appear immediately in the first level instead of being delayed until the second level). Still, it's not incredibly hard (especially if you can find all 5 [[HeartContainer life ankhs]]), and is more about bringing the game's difficulty balance up to modern standards, compared to the original game which was balanced for pre-dual-analog stick console controllers.
40* HeartContainer: In ''Powerslave Exhumed'' and the old console versions, there are 5 life ankhs hidden around the world, which will increase your life meter by 100% each. Most are at least visible along the level's main path, although they may take some puzzling to each, with only one (in the Caverns of Peril) actually being in a hidden area.
41* HistoricalDomainCharacter: The spirit of King Ramses shows up in the first level; he's basically a limited form of MissionControl, periodically directing the player toward where they next need to go. And voiced by Creator/DonLaFontaine, no less.
42* HitboxDissonance: In the console version your hitbox is noticeably wider than in most other FPS games, causing you to be hit by projectiles that seem like they should miss you and also making you unable to fit through what seem to be human-sized gaps between walls. It also makes the laser maze in Kilmaat Colony one of the most frustrating parts of the game (thankfully there's a checkpoint just before it and it's not too long).
43* HyperactiveMetabolism: One of the health {{power up}}s in the PC version is a kind of berry-carrying plant.
44* LudicrousGibs: All enemies explode into these when they die in the console versions. In the PC version, they have individual death animations, some of which involve gibs. (All enemies still explode when killed with grenades.)
45* MarketBasedTitle: ''[=PowerSlave=]'' was known as ''Exhumed'' in Europe, and ''Seireki 1999: Pharaoh no Fukkatsu'' in Japan. The Nightdive remaster uses both titles, possibly to avoid copyright issues with Iron Maiden.
46* {{Metroidvania}}: The Platform/SegaSaturn and Platform/PlayStation versions are possibly the earliest first-person example, predating ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' by several years.
47* MiniGame: The Saturn version features a delightful ''Scorched Earth''-esque game called ''Death Tank'' which you could unlock by obtaining all of the Team Dolls dotted throughout the game. The mini-game was unfortunately excluded from the remaster, mostly due to the ''Death Tank'' IP being owned by Snowblind Studios.
48* MultipleEndings: Depending on the version:
49** In the console version it depends on if you're able to reassemble your transmitter and send a distress signal. In the bad ending, though you beat the Kilmaat Queen, you failed to repair your communication device and have no choice but to join Ramses in the afterlife. Years later, [[TheBadGuyWins the Kilmaat return, end the human race, exhume your body]] and [[DeadGuyOnDisplay put it up for all to see as a relic of human past.]] In the good ending, Ramses rewards your heroic efforts with immortality and lets you go home, [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning where you become leader of the world forever]] and presumably foil the Kilmaat's second invasion that happens in the other ending.
50** In the PC version, the endings involve how well you do on the Kilmaat mothership. Run out of lives or fail to disarm the super powerful nuclear bomb aboard the ship and the Earth gets destroyed. Succeed and while [[BittersweetEnding you drove the Kilmaat off, you're basically stuck on the ship as it rockets back out into space.]]
51* OneManArmy: You. You're able to take on vicious animals, the undead, and other evils by yourself.
52* PoisonMushroom: The poison cups.
53* RecycledInSpace: This is ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' (for the plot) and ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' (for the MediaNotes/GameEngine) in Egypt.
54** [[AvertedTrope Averted]], engine-wise, for the console versions, which use Lobotomy Software's own Slavedriver engine instead. Ironically, the Saturn port of ''VideoGame/DukeNukem3D'' uses Slavedriver instead of Build (as does the Saturn version of ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' instead of ''its'' own engine), presumably because Slavedriver is a rare case of a 3D engine that can leverage the Saturn's complicated architecture to great effect.
55* SequenceBreaking: In the console version, you can grenade jump to jump much higher than intended, allowing you to skip many sections of the game. Grenade jumping is necessary to find some of the hidden Team Dolls collectibles that unlock the Death Tank bonus game.
56* SetAMookToKillAMook: Like ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'', ''Powerslave'' has monster infighting, with monsters attacking each other if they damage each other with a stray projectile. Unlike ''Doom'', monsters of the same type will still attack each other in this way.
57* ShoutOut: At the end of the game, after you take over the alien mothership and thwart the invasion, as the ship rockets into space your character exclaims [[VideoGame/DukeNukem3D "Damn, those alien bastards! How the hell do I get off this ride?"]]
58* StandardFPSGuns: There are seven weapons. A [[MacheteMayhem machete]], a [[RevolversAreJustBetter .357 Magnum revolver]], an [[MoreDakka M60 machine gun]], a [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]], some hand grenades and three magical Egyptian weapons (two with the PC version).
59* SuperNotDrowningSkills: The Hero can swim for a few dozen seconds underwater before seeing his health drained. He can make it last longer by catching big groups of air bubbles.
60** SuperDrowningSkills: In the console versions, he can only do this once he has the Sobek Mask. Before then, he can't hold his breath at all and starts drowning immediately after going underwater.
61* TheUndead: Mummies.
62* UniversalAmmunition: A variation in the console versions. Ammo pick-ups are all generic blue orbs and will refill the weapon you are currently holding when you walk over them, but each gun has its own ammunition pool.
63* VideoGameLives: The PC version; the player begins with three lives and can have at most five. The console versions, meanwhile, have infinite lives - you just have to restart the stage if you die, not dissimilar to ''Doom'' (albeit unlike ''Doom'' you retain the weapons/ammo you had when you'd entered the stage).

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