Indiana Jones and the Emperor
It’s Tomb Raider, but faster. A lot more combat and a great fighting system.
Tags: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Harold Foundary on Aug 10th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Indy is doing quite well in his old age. Despite George Lucas’ ability to molest the Star Wars franchise to near death, and Steve Speilberg’s talent for retroactively destroying his own movies (Radios anyone?), the Indiana Jones franchise has remained largely unfettered for a good long time now. The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles were really the last Indy related piece of major media to be released, and they weren’t completely awful (*cough* *cough* Jar-Jar).
And so, as it seems that the mass-production machine is gearing up for an Indiana Jones fuferella, thanks to the DVD release of the original movies, it’s only fitting that Lucas Arts would present a tie-in product. But things in The Emperor’s Tomb are not too bad! From every perspective, this game should suck, but Lucas Arts has really done an excellent job here. Eidos could even pay attention here and learn a few things for their next Tomb Raider game.
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This is a console game. Straight up, it is designed to be played on Xboxen, Playstations, and GameCubes. This works both for and against Indy: the controls are improved, but the menu interface suffers. Players use the mouse to control the camera, a completely Indy-independent view can be had from every angle available. You will never have a problem seeing what Indy’s doing or where he is. This does take some getting used to, though. Your first few fights may be lost due to poor mastery of the camera. It does end up being a boon; anyone who’s played a Tomb Raider game knows how tough it can be to see what the next jump looks like.
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Have no false ideals going in: this is Tomb Raider. It is Tomb Raider with many improvements, a great combat system, and a lot more interactivity. But it is still Tomb Raider. If you don’t like jump puzzles, switch activation hunts, and ancient ruins, you’re not going to like this game. But if you got more jollies from Tomb Raider’s gameplay than from it’s betitted heroine, Indy’s a great guy to help you get over Lara’s current binge and purging.
The combat system is excellent. It gets to be a tad repetitive after a while, but when that happens, you can always pick up a chair and give the whip a rest. Things move much faster here than in Lara Croft’s world, and the combat is typically against people, rather than dinosaurs and wolves.
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The graphics and voice work here is excellent. Of course, it’s not Harrison Ford, but Indy’s voice is good enough to satisfy the fantasy. level design is somewhat lacking in imagination, but provides good gameplay and entertaining puzzles. Naturally, the jumping puzzles can be extremely aggravating, but that’s par for the course.
The interface is obnoxious. it’s not a computer interface at all. Starting a new game, adjusting the controls and options, and all other GUI tasks are made obscenely annoying due to a console-like interface that has no mouse support. But the real draw here is not the menu’s, it’s the fighting. The combat is a blast, and Indy’s not above using anything he can get his hands on to beat bad guys senseless.
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Of course, you can always use the revolver if you’re sick and don’t feel like doing a big fight scene. But ammo’s usually in short supply, so you might just do better using your fists or a machete.
If you love Indiana Jones, this game will definitely satisfy your craving for some hot Harrison Ford action. While the voice isn’t his, the body and looks sure are. Indy looks better than ever, younger and more spritely than Harrison Ford ever was. For your $50, you could do a lot worse than The Emperor’s Tomb.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| Fight system. Weapons. AI. Camera is unique. | 8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| Camera is unique. Repetative gameplay. Not Harrison Ford's real voice. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| It's not quite the real thing, but Indy fans will have a blast. Indy makes Lara look like a school marm. | |
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Tags: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Posted by Harold Foundary on Aug 10th, 2003 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
