[title]LEGO INDIANA JONES REVIEW[/title]
Publisher – LucasArts
Developer – Traveller’s Tales
Release Date –
Genres – Action, Platformer
Rating – E 10+
Summary
-Queue Indy theme song-
LucasArt, and Traveller’s Tales, work hand in hand to once
again, bring us a new game full of shiny plastic bricks, but this time the
lightsabers have been taken away, and the force is no longer with us, but do
not fret, the worlds greatest adventurer is here to save the day, equipped with
his infamous whip, Indiana Jones.
This new LEGO game follows the adventures of Indiana Jones, and all of his
sidekicks and acquaintances, throughout the first three movies, “Raiders of the
lost arc”, “The temple of doom”, and “The Last Crusade”.
This LEGO game dose not stray far from the formula that the
LEGO Star Wars games have set, you still have to collect studs (used for
purchasing characters and unlocking special bonus’s), a central hub is present
for choosing the three different movie episodes to play, and also many rooms
for you finding, the cut scenes and the overall game are still hilarious, as
LEGO’s put a neat humorous twist on the original storyline.
The game starts you off adventuring through the prologue of “Raiders of the
lost arc” after you have completed, escaping the giant LEGO brick boulder, and
running away from the angry tribesmen, you may rest back in Barnett College (used as the main hub), were you
can now choose to continue on “Raiders” or you may start any of the other two
movies.
Story
LEGO Indiana Jones, stays true to the original movies, and many memorable
scenes are recreated through the LEGO universe, such as the giant boulder, the
spining swordsman, and the face melting from Raiders, the monkey brains, and
the bridge battle from The Temple of Doom, and the natzi motoricle chase, and
the choosing of the holy grail form The Last Crusade, but to dissapoint many
Indiana Jones fans, there is no hint of the new movie (Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull – 2008 Release), but those who have played the LEGO Star Wars series,
will find some refferences, to the game and the movies.
The Cutscenes are well portaited through hilarious pantamimes, with a humourous
twist on eveything, even the decapitations, and other such brutal bodly
injuries, and distubring imagery.
Gameplay
Not much new has been added from the original formula, but with the Indiana
Jones universe, it mixes things up a bit.
Combat is a bit harder as you are unable to deflect bullets, with a lack of a
lightsaber, but a nice variety of weapons have been added to the mix, such as,
pistols, rifles, machineguns, scimitars, spears, crossbows, bazookas, swords,
spades / shovels, wrenches, and torches, although gunned armed enemies feel a
bit over powered, you can always use your trusty whip to perform a comical
disarming. Your best armament is your good old fists, they are nice and fast, and
occasionally perform some comical wrestling moves such as dropkicks, and a mean
noogie
Now the whip is not all what you would expect, its most practical use is for
swigging, but all its other uses are not as good as we would hope to be, you
can destroy objects, disarm enemies, perform funny takedowns (my favorite is
the grab and kick in the groin, then watching them wiggle and explode, its
pretty funny), grab objects from a distance, and my personal favorite, grab any
of the three women from the movie (Marion, Willie, & Elsa) for an camera
worthy kiss.
Since the force is no longer with us, it has been replaced by new game play
elements, such as digging, fixing machinery, swigging from the whip or from
vines and ropes, lighting fires, decrypting hieroglyphs, and random puzzle
solving, the LEGO building is still present, and the small characters still
play a small (pun intended) roll, by fitting into trapdoors, high jumpers have
been replaced by women (Woman power ftw), and dark force users have been replaced
by thugees, and natzi troops used for entering secret areas in freeplay. (With
a cast of around 60 unlockable characters)
The Collecting Elements are still there, minikits are now treasures/ artifacts,
which pile up in the museum room of the college (once you have gathered them
all a secret is unveiled), studs are still studs, and used for purchasing many
characters that you have defeated throughout your adventure, and red bricks
(used for secrets such as invisibility), have been replaced by mail parcels,
but this time with a very neat new twist, once you find the parcel you must
also locate the mail box, which then you must carry the parcel to the mailbox,
for it to be properly delivered to the college, were you can rightfully
purchase that secret.
I strongly suggest that if you have someone to play with, invite them! I completed the games story twice, and I found myself enjoying playing the game with a partner rather then the computer controlled one, because let me tell you, the AI partner, is as dumb as a LEGO brick, it feels like it was designed to follow you, and will mindlessly walk into traps, that are easily avoidable, and constantly get stuck, and occasionally glitch into surfaces, forcing you to restart the level, but one thing I enjoy about the AI partner that was not present in the previous LEGO games, is that this time your partner stuns enemies when attacking them, which makes for less frantic fights when faced with multiple enemies (who will gladly blow everyone up including themselves and their peers).
Presentation
In the world of LEGOs everything is shiny and colorful, but Traveller’s Tales
did a nice job, in making Indy’s world into LEGOs, the colors fit almost
seamlessly with the environment, and the best part, are destructible, the
lighting and bloom effects are few, but well integrated to create a nice fun
plastic feel, the only drawback is that not the whole world is made out of
LEGOs, some backgrounds feel bland and out of places sitting next to LEGO
bricks, but is almost forgiving, when playing the game.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- Fun, Simple Gameplay
- Great to play with someone
- Funny & Charming
- Short Missions for people who don’t have a whole lot of time to spend playing games -_-
- Stays true to the fun simple formula of LEGOs
- Easy to pick up and play
Cons:
- Bad partner AI
- Occasionally bad camera angling
Conclusion
LEGO Indiana Jones, is more focused for its fans, and people
who have seen the movies, but overall is a nice game, its forgiving and
simplistic, which encourages people to play, it has a nice welcoming charm to
it, all of these elements make it a semi casual game (I’m saying its not a
casual game, but its not a hardcore game either) but it still has a great depth
to it, with all the unlockables, and collecting you can do. It is very
enjoyable with many movie related puns, that will keep players enticed to see
how Traveller’s Tales, and Lucas Arts have transformed a beloved movie series,
into the fun loving LEGO universe
I recommend this game to:
- Indiana Jones Fans
- People who have seen the movies
- New comers to videogames
- Fans of the LEGO Star Wars franchise
Why I do not give rating scores
I don’t like giving a game a scored rating, because everyone has a different
opinion on the game, so no game is better then another, I rather recommend the
game to people, who I think the game is aimed towards, or people who will enjoy
it.