GTA 4 had been keeping my Xbox’s disc tray company for quite some time. I kept telling myself day after day I had to stop, and put in Lego Indy because I needed to do a review. My loyal one or two readers (thanks mom) haven’t had anything from me in a bit. I didn’t though. I kept on playing GTA 4. I used excuse after excuse not to put Lego Indy in.  I’ll beat GTA 4 then play Indy. Beat it, but still kept playing GTA 4.  I’ll just get a couple more of those “easy” achievements. Got them, but still kept playing GTA 4.  The GTA 4 juggernaut was ruling my video game world, and that needed to stop (or at least be postponed for a bit), but how?

Cold turkey, Kuna, and the cover to an old Entertainment Weekly, that’s how.  I was cleaning out my message box on Live, and came across a message Kuna sent me a while back basically yelling asking why I hadn’t played Lego Indiana Jones yet.  Combine that with me cleaning off my computer desk, and finding an Entertainment Weekly issue with Mr. Indiana Jones himself on the cover.  My eyes immediately went to the Gamefly envelope containing Lego Indiana Jones.  I snatched it off my bookcase.  Opened my Xbox’s disc tray.  Put GTA 4in its box as fast as I could so as to not be tempted again, and quickly slid Lego Indy on the tray.  As the game started up the well known Lego logo, the famous Indiana font, and the amazingly fantastic Raiders March all resonated from my TV and speakers.  It brought a smile to my face and I immediately forgot about GTA 4.  Alrighty then, now that I’ve bored you to death with a pointless story, I should get to the point for those that actually stuck around (this is a review after all).

If you’ve played any of the Lego Star Wars games then you’ll feel right at home with Lego Indiana Jones.  If you haven’t then here’s a brief run down on how they work.  You and an AI (or human) partner run around the level smashing pretty much anything in site that’s made out of Lego pieces.  Meanwhile you also build objects out of Lego piles you find scattered throughout the level(it really wouldn’t’ be much of a Lego game if you didn’t build things right?)You also collect silver, gold, blue, and purple Lego pieces, and use them like money in order to “buy” characters, unlocks, etc etc all the while being attacked by Lego baddies.  Said baddies blast apart into Lego bits when you defeat them.  No blood, no guts, but a fair amount of fortune and glory if you’re into that sort of thing.  Right off the bat you should know (if you can’t tell already) it’s a kid’s game start to finish.

Graphics.  I’ve only played the Xbox 360 version.  That being said they are surprising decent.  Everything that isn’t made of Lego pieces (mostly backgrounds, random boxes or crates here and there) is clear and sharp.  Nothing ground breaking, or an aspect anyone will really be talking about, but it was a surprise to me so I thought it worth mentioning.

Controls.  Unfortunately this area of the game should of been looked at more closely.  The X button is used for punching.  The B button uses your whip, hold it down near Lego piles to build the pieces into something, hold it down while holding say a wrench or shovel and you’ll use said tool as a tool, and it’s also used to pick up objects.  While holding said tool and pressing X you’ll swing the tool as a weapon instead of just punching.  Pressing A will make you jump (female characters jump higher), and finally pressing Y sends your Lego soul into your AI partner.  You’ll notice the B button gets lots of play.  Why they choose to apply so many actions to one button is beyond me.  Case in point, imagine you’re fighting a group of bad guys and you’re near a Lego pile just waiting to be built into something.  You press B because you want to use your whip, but instead you start building that pile of Lego pieces meanwhile the bad guys are shooting, punching, and slashing you to death.  Something that could have been easily avoidable by just mapping that action to one of the unused buttons.  One simple solution would be to use the X button to punch, but the whip is so cool because of its many “features” I liked using it instead of your generic punch.  The whip allows you to grab an enemy’s weapon and plop it into your hands, it can grab enemy’s legs which cause them to fall over, it can spin bad guys into dizzy states, and it can act like a hammer against Lego objects.  I’m really glad they gave the whip so many options, BUT the downside comes when trying to get the right option to work when you want it to.  Instead of implementing any kind of manual targeting system, a-la holding a certain button, etc, Traveler’s Tales has opted to use a simple auto tracking system.  I imagine they went this route due to the fact that the game is aimed at a younger, more casual crowd of gamers.  If that was the case, then shame on you Traveler’s Tales.  If you’re going to give us things like the multi use whip then could you give us the option for having a better targeting system?  The auto aiming works decently when it comes to the firearms, but half the time your AI partner ends up taking most of your bullets instead of the bad guys because he or she is swinging away at them as well.  Platforming can be a challenge at times too.  Mainly at some points it’s hard to tell the depth per say of where you need to jump, but you get the hang of it.  I know it sounds like the controls are unbearable, but truth be told they don’t ruin the gaming experience by any means.  I just hope Lego Batman’s controls get a good look over.

Mood/tone/style/fun.  Perhaps the controls aren’t as sharp has I’d like them, but this is where the game shines.  Traveler’s Tales brings their wonderful humor and tone to the Indiana Jones world.  The cut scenes are great, although not as good as the Star Wars ones.  I can’t blame them because the source material they’re working with can only lend them to so much.  The Star Wars universe has so many characters to use compared to Dr. Jones realm, but I still give them two thumbs up.  The music is straight out of the films which pulls you right into the moment.  They get the same music that played during that part of the movie during that part of the game.  It’s a great touch.  All the different characters even have their own mannerisms.  When Willie (Temple of Doom) fights her “hands” flail at the last moment of the combo.  This might upset female gamers, but it’s true to the character so I appreciate that.  Speaking of Willie, Traveler’s Tales turned something that many found annoying in the film (her screaming) into a useful ability.  Her scream can break items, and once you unlock the Super Scream ability it can destroy enemies.  I like using this ability because right before the Lego baddies die from the scream they grab their “crouches” then break into Lego bites.  It’s awesome.  They even give Indy his fear of snakes.  If Indy gets close enough to a snake he immediately puts his hands over his face, whimpers like a frighten puppy, and can’t do anything but slowly move away.  Willie does a similar thing when you come across spiders/bugs.  The attention to detail even follows into the 360 achievements.  They’re all lines from the movie, and this will be embarrassing, but when I unlocked the “the best digger in Cairo” achievement I kept shouting it randomly while playing the game.  I don’t know why, but yeah I’m weird like that.  Getting back to something less embarrassing, because the game is designed for the younger crowd the difficulty level isn’t terribly high.  Death really isn’t much of a hindrance in the Lego games.  If you die you just pop back right next to where you died.  No having to restart a level, etc etc.  This is good and bad.  Bad because, unless you’re trying to get unlocks, the challenge isn’t really there.  Good though because it lets you just sit back and go along for the ride without having to redo areas you don’t want to.  The only real complaint I’d say I had with any of the levels were the boulder rolling from Raiders, and the mine kart racing from Temple.  They’re not bad, just not as exciting as they were in the actual movies.  Overall though If you’re a diehard Indy fan like myself this area of the game (mood/tone/style/fun) will make you overlook a lot of the imperfections.  It’s what keeps me plugging away to get all the “stuff” scattered throughout the game.

Multiplayer.  There’s co-op.  local only.  That’s o-kay, but that’s all the multiplayer has.

Lego Indiana Jones is a tough sale to anyone not enthusiastic about Lego and or Indiana Jones.  If you fit those bills though then you’ll have a good time (not as good as Lego Star Wars) with this game.  It’s not worth buying unless you’re a diehard fan of Indiana Jones and must have everything related.  You can easily rent this game, and do just about everything you’d want to do over a weekend.  If you want all the achievements then you might need it a little longer, but just to play through the game itself won’t take you very long.  The controls are simplistic which at times brings about frustration when trying to do certain tasks, but because the game captures the look and feel of the Indiana Jones realm so wonderfully it more than makes up for any real extreme faults you might find.  A fun rental for fans of Indy, and or Lego’s, but only a mildly entertaining experience for anyone else.

Indiana Jones fans: 84 out of 100

non-fans: 70 out of 100

-Gamin

UPDATE: Watch all three films (unless you remember them REALLY well) before playing the game cause a lot of the puzzles follow situations from the movie.[Kuna brought this to my attention in her comment.  Thanks.]  Also, there’s a demo on Xbox Live and Playstation Network.

---

Fellow Procrastinators:
Kuna: A-

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 9:21 am and is filed under Games, Gamin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.