Powerslave is a fun and innovative first-person shooter whose excellent graphics and level design are unfortunately overshadowed by serious interface problems and bugs (which are probably related to the fact that the game was converted to PC from the original PlayStation version).
The premise is quite promising, and is a far cry from "shoot aliens, save Earth" plots of most first-person shooters. You play a covert operations specialist who's been ferried into the Egyptian city of Karnak to find out who or what has sealed off the town from the rest of the world. The only information you have is from a villager who somehow managed to escape: before he died, he said someone had invaded the city, stolen the mummy of the Pharoah Ramses, and was attempting to bring him back to life. The intruders are also embalming and mummifying live villagers to keep the populace in line....
For a 3D shoot-'em-up, Powerslave offers a couple of nice twists. Similar to another underdog Strife, some areas aren't accessible unless you push objects around, either revealing new doorways or providing a stepping stone to jump over a wall. Because there are several places where you have to perform some accurate leaps, the inclusion of a third-person perspective can be a big help in calculating jumps. In addition to real-world weapons such as an M-60 machine gun, hand grenades, and a flamethrower, you can also use a slew of magical items that do everything from making you invincible to replenishing your life meter. These magical items add depth to gameplay because you have to decide what to use and when to use it, not to mention collecting enough "magical essence" to enable you to unleash powerful spells similar to Shadowcaster.
The training mode allows you to get used to the interface and various commands without worrying about enemies. Powerslave also boasts excellent graphics that far surpass your average Quake clones. The enemies are nicely textured and shaded, and pixellation is minimal. The level with the giant Sphinx in particular almost evokes the same breaktaking "wow" effect of the last level in the first Tomb Raider game.
Despite all its strengths, Powerslave has a few glaring errors that prevent it from being a Quake contender. Probably the most annoying is the game's terrible save-game feature, which reveals its PlayStation's origins. Instead of being able to save a game at any point during play, you have to give a new game a name and then save it at certain points within each level; your progress is automatically saved at the end of a level. What this means is that if you quit and load a saved game, you're forced to start at the beginning of a level regardless of how far you progressed in that level the last time you played. Two other unforgivable omissions in the game are the complete lack of joystick or gamepad support (yes, it's keyboard or else), and lack of an "always run" button that is common feature in most first-person shooters. Strafing is also painfully slow, and the weapons (numbering only seven) are all quite mundane.
All in all, though, Powerslave's solid level design, interesing plot, and puzzle elements (even if it's mostly just "how do I get from point A to B" variety) makes it a refreshing break from numerous Quake clones. If you hate first-person shooters in general, there's nothing here that will make you change your mind. For fans of the genre, though, Powerslave is highly recommended.
Review By HOTUD
Unofficial Patch DeHacker
You'll find in the download the unofficial patch made by -=CHE@TER=-, making the game much more enjoyable to play, you can read all the details on the english mirror page.
English 
Comments and reviews
the egyptian theme and the violence theme, like that iron maiden album??
"PowerSlave" aka "Exhumed" (my only guess it was name changed in Europe was to avoid confusion with the Iron Maiden band Album) an underrated fps build engine game, the unofficial fourth member of the build engine big ones after "Duke 3D", "Blood" and "Shadow Warrior".
a unique egyptian themed fps about a unnamed solider that was sent to Egypt to save the world from an alien invasion. Very straight forward, nothing special. i think it's a bit more linier and shallower then the other build games, but still and fun game. the dos version is more basic and focus on key haunting then exploration then the version that was made for PSX/Saturn, that is more immersive with its Metroidvania/platformer gameplay.
Playing it natively on my vintage Windows 98 pc, because it runs and plays like crap in dosbox (even after few tweaks and changes in the settings) it’s a bit awkward to play and control at first. Unlike “duke 3d”, “blood” and “shadow warrior”. PowerSlave is made on an early build of the "build engine" before it was iron out/flexible around 1997 with better control scheme and other options.
the best version to play is the european version. It’s a later release that fixes some minor bugs that were present in the US version. However it doesn’t mean this version it’s bug free (no pun intended) the game did crash on me on level 4 ("El Subua") after defeating the mini boss and going through the circle-like hallway it crashes and sent me to the desktop, tried again it crashed at the exact same spot. At first I thought its PCI sound card bug (since my pc is using a “Soundblaster live!” PCI card), I had something similar with Shadow Warrior (it also crashed on me on the first level inside the pool) but there's an official patch (made by Ken Silverman himself) that fixes that. PowerSlave/Exhumed there was no official patch as far as I know
But thankfully there's unofficial patch called "DeHacker v1.5" that fixes almost all the issues with this game. Fixes the broken control scheme that came originally (the auto run, strafing and C button actually working now), bugs and improvements to the game. Also this patch did fix the game from crashing on level 4 "El Subua". The Game is actually playable now and functional after the Patch.
If you’re want to play this DOS game natively/dosbox without using open source, get the european version with the Dehacker patch.
This game is underrated. It is much better than Doom or sort of. Just more than run-and-shoot type, with exquisite graphic and level design at that era.
This platform has a patch file under "Game Extra". That will fix the control issue. Salute to those who spent effort to make this game more fun (you will find cheat code by Google anyway).
Any one who wants to play in modern hardware. Use BuildGDX, its a source port supporting few build engine titles including powerslave.
I want my mummy.
Game ran pretty well on dos version, framerate got chopped to hell in CD version. Anyone have any tips? I tried all different kinds of resolutions and dos32a which I am not even sure how to run properly(I get fatal syntax error) I don't know what to do.I really wanna play with CD audio but the game runs pretty rough.
This is depressing man :(
Nevermind, found the cue image here: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Powerslave_1996
Take both the cue and img file, mount it as an iso. Also some cool mods, tips and tricks for this game can be found here: https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/PowerSlave
Anyone got the CD audio for this thing? Been looking all over the internet for it.
I remember playing this at a friends house a long time ago but never been able to find it under the name "exhumed"...I know why now.
Also considering the timing and the name "power slave", it must be a Iron maiden reference. At that time they where big but not maybe not big enough for yanks to get it....it's just a theory
game is ok, running a bit choppy though, I am stuck on the very
first level, I hope there is a level select cheat code b-coz I don't
know where to go, I hate when game designers do that, confusing-ass levels.
keep it simple, use the KISS approach(keepitsimplestupid).
If you're running the the game in 320x200 res, try running the "SETUP" batch file through dosbox. With it you can change the resolution to the game. Works fine for me other than some key binding quirks. Looks like a good game.
320x200 res and game is very UP and DOWN with
framerate , textures are yukkie compared to heretic/doom.
not impressed but was probably a good game back in the DOS era
with a consistent framerate.
It looks a hell of a lot better than the Playstation version .
Its called exhumed in australia in usa is powerslave Read the wikipedia.
lol im gonna played this like strife and Doom II eventually some of this kind with 3 hundred years ago i played hahaha :)
This seems awesome! Gonna try it out!
looks good. ill give it a try
Actually you are not wrong. The game is called Exhumed in Europe and Power Slave in North America.
Ok, i just played it, and found out that it IS called powerslave!
sorry about that, i have NO IDEA where i got the name exhumed!?
Much love!
THIS GAME IS CALLED "EXHUMED" !! Not Powerslave...
Jus Sayin! :))
The best 3D shooter ever made, nothing else of the type has this many secrets or hidden items!
Huh, this looks pretty cool... Wonder why I never heard of it. I was probably too busy playing Descent, HeXeN, and Quake :)
Powerslave is the best game I ever played, and when l find all of the team dolls,then i will be the best.
Thanks a lot I used to PLAY it since I was 6
I never finished the last 3 levels... my OLD OLD computer died on me when i got to that HUGE level with floating platforms and high tech... maybe i'll get a chance this time...
This is one of the best games ever made. There's a weapon for every situation, the M-60 sounds awesome, and the story is good and engaging. 6 out of five.
No comment nor review for this game at the moment.