Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb
Is the latest adventure a licensed flop or does this do the franchise justice
Tags: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 18th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Translating an archetype from one medium to another can be hard. Movie versions of books don’t always work and videogame versions of films even less often. The success rate when dealing with a seminal character that is as beloved as Indiana Jones – well, let’s move on.
Many of you know this isn’t Indy’s first videogame outing. There have been a few previous releases, but none captured the spirit of what it is like to be Indiana Jones, none of them had the same feeling that the movies had. Thankfully, that’s changed.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb works as a great game on its own without the movie license. The addition of the touches of Indiana Jones puts the game over the top into the “must buy” category. The developers worked hard to strike a balance of gameplay to not only keep players from getting bored, but also to help represent the various actions Indy does in one of his film.
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It is in finding this balance that my biggest gripe with the game comes – too much platform style jumping and fighting. Indiana Jones is not a big fighter, so being able to sneak past a group of enemies instead of having to fight through them would have been nice.
There are places though where the player is given an option: In Prague, Indiana Jones comes across a group of Nazis in the room below around a large table. The player can either jump down and fight them, or find an illuminating way to dispose of them all at once from above without being seen.
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Fighting, while there is a little bit too much, works brilliantly. Indiana Jones has the ability to pick up and use nearly every weapon wielded by an enemy, as well as several found objects (table legs, chairs, bottles). Since he’s not a big fighter, Indy only has a few different moves, but they get the job done. Of course the trusty whip is always there (but doesn’t do a lot of damage).
The gameplay consists of several major fields – fighting, exploring (which can be further broken down into platform style jumping and puzzle solving) and shooting. The latter is the most useless of the styles, and serves no real purpose other than to break up the gameplay. This isn’t necessary, as the variety of puzzles and environments (not to mention the story) is enough to keep the player engaged.
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The other major problem has to do with the amount of platform style jumping, and how it relates to the PS2 controller. While the amount of gap-jumping is excessive, it doesn’t detract too much from the gameplay until you factor in how crappy it can be with the PS2 controller. The game is played purely analog, with inventory controlled by the Dpad, and indy by the left thumbstick. This combination will cause many needless deaths as it’s not always clear which way Dr. Jones is facing. This can be severely frustrating, particularly in the last few levels, as collision detection starts to break down.
While the platform jumping/collision detection and useless behind the machinegun gameplay problems drag the game down a bit, the rest of the gameplay, and story, compensates. The story seems ripped from the pages of what could have been a missing Indiana Jones film script. The voice acting is good (it’s not Harrison Ford, but it’s damn close). The level of immersion into the world of Indiana Jones is high.
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Throughout the game, as players traipse around the globe searching for artifacts that will lead to the Emperor’s Tomb, there are other artifacts to be found and obtained. These are not always readily seen – many will be hidden behind fake walls, or in secret rooms. Not only does this element of the gameplay help to immerse the player into the world, by collecting them all (you can replay a specific level if you missed one) you unlock a bunch of artwork from the game.
Visually, the game looks great. The different environments are immersive, and evoke the place that Dr. Jones is at. The different cities each have their own unique characteristics and ambiances.
A personal favorite is the Library in Prague – it is the perfect balance between a low level of platform jumping, a good amount of puzzle solving, a little bit of fighting, and the area is laid out superbly.
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The license of Indiana Jones has not been slapped on a game as if it were just a name being tagged onto another adventure game. Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb was built from the ground up as an Indian Jones adventure, and it shows through. This is a game to look to as a benchmark in the genre. There are some problems to be sure, but these flaws are easily correctable, not only in the coming sequel (there will be one, right LucasArts?), but by other developers as well. Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb is a wonderful example of what an adventure game can be.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
- It feels like a real Indana Jones adventure - Level design - Voice Acting |
8.7 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Too much jumping - Having to get behind a stationary machine gun - Framerate and collision crap out towards the end |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Live the adventure and become Indiana Jones | |
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Tags: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb
Posted by Daniel "monk" Pelfrey on Aug 18th, 2003 and is filed under PS2 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.
