Ankh is the sequel to a little-known game called... Ankh. Its predecessor won't be familiar to most of us, being available only on Acorn RISC machines. However, this new incarnation seems poised to bring itself to everyone's attention with what its developer, Deck 13, calls "a wild adventure in ancient Egypt which will make the adventure games of recent years look like a Teletubbies episode!"

The game centres around a young Egyptian man named Assil. As we learn in the introduction, Assil threw a huge party the night before in the grand pyramid built by his father, the Pharaoh's chief architect. This inappropriate choice of location for a shindig has understandably annoyed the pyramid's residents, one of whom — a long-dead Pharaoh — proceeded to curse Assil. As we take control of Assil, he's just been turned away from the gates of the palace (commoners of his sort are not welcome there), which seems to be his only hope of finding a cure. We must somehow find a way inside the palace to get an audience with the Pharaoh Iphenep, who can hopefully mediate and straighten out this whole curse business. In addition to this already bothersome curse, Assil has landed himself in even more trouble by acquiring from the pyramid the titular ankh. This treasure (which he uses as a bottle-opener, of all things) is one that a lot of unscrupulous types would like to get their hands on.