LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

[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.