It's been a long time since we've seen an Indiana Jones game. Well now he is back and kicking Nazi ass! LucasArts continues its streak of delivering excellent games to consoles with the release of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb.
The story puts you in the year 1935, when an underground Asian society, the Black Dragon Triad, and a German mercenary, Albrecht Von Beck, form an alliance. Their goal is to acquire the Heart of the Dragon, a black pearl that gives its possessor the power to brain wash people. This so called Dragon Heart is rumored to be buried in the crypt of China's first emperor. Now you can't have a bunch of evil thugs and Nazis searching for a mind-controlling pearl now can you? That is where you, Indiana Jones, come in.
Marshal K'ai, an Asian businessman asks you to retrieve the pearl and return it to the Chinese government. In order to retrieve the Heart, you must traverse the world to find the three pieces of the Dragon Seal, the key to unlocking the emperor's tomb.
And so your adventure begins. The Emperor's Tomb is a 3rd person action/adventure game which means you take control of Mr. Jones from behind. While you play you will have lots to do. Walk, run, jump, roll, fight, swing, sneak, pick up objects, use weapons, and so much more.
With all this to do I bet you are just dying to know how the controller is set up. Well all in all it isn't that hard to get the hang off. The Left Thumbstick is used for movement while the Right Thumbstick is used to rotate the camera. The Left Trigger is used to switch to Look Mode which gives you a first person perspective so you can study your surroundings before you go and jump to your death. The Right Trigger is used for blocking while you are fighting, but come on, you are Indiana Jones, do you really need to block? :) The A button is your primary attack while the X button is your secondary attack. B is used to jump, and you'll be jumping a lot... trust me. When you need to interact with an object you press the Y button. As far as your inventory is concerned, that is all taken care of with the good ol' D-Pad. Left and Right on the D-Pad navigates through your items such as your whip, pistol, and canteen. When you come to the object you want to equip, you press Up on the D-Pad and that's that. So simple yet so effective.
Indiana Jones is a 100% adventure game. You will be exploring your surroundings in search of items in order to continue. Progressing through the game won't always be easy, you'll sometimes have to search for a solution but when you find it, it is very rewarding. If you think that this game is just about finding a key and opening a door... boy are you wrong. You will be swinging from chains, climbing chains, using your whip to cross crocodile infested areas, using bombs to make an exit, sliding from ledges in order to reach an area, and fighting off a unique mix of bosses. The action and enjoyability never lets up. Kicks ass from beginning to end.
Let's talk about a few of Indy's items. Probably the one that you will use the most is the canteen. This is your life in a bottle to put it in metaphoric terms. As you progress through the game you will no doubt fall or get shot and lose life. That is where your trusty canteen comes in. Just pop it out and chug some good ol' H20 and magically your life meter is full again. Won't the water run out, you ask? Yes, yes it will. That is why you will be on the look out for fountains where you can fill up again.
The other item you will use a lot is your whip, not surprisingly since the whip is Indy's trademark weapon. You can use the whip to attack your enemies, such as the Nazis or the 'Men in Black' ... men wearing black suits that is. The other obvious use of the whip is to get to an area that you cannot jump to. Just take out your whip and swing across.
Speaking of attacking enemies. Let us move on to the action in the game. As I just mentioned, you can use the whip to kick butt but you can also use your most trusted weapons... Mr. Left and Mr. Right... your bare fists. To fight, you use the X and the A buttons. Indy will punch and kick and also throw the enemies. If you are not in the mood to get into a fist fight you can always use the coward's way of 'fighting' and use a gun. Oh, I almost forgot, you can pick up chairs and crack them over the skulls of those stupid Nazis. Chairs aren't your thing? Well you could always use a table leg or a shovel. How about nice hard bottle to the head?
It is not all action. There are puzzles to solve which are unique and just the right amount of difficult. An example of a puzzle is a room with four images on four different doors. They are cryptic images though and you will have to figure out what they mean by turning a wheel with horoscope signs on it and the roman numerals all the way around. In the center, there are two legs like a clock with a sun on one and a moon on the other. According to what door you are focusing on you will have to transfer the image's meaning to this circle. It may sound weird but you will see what I'm talking about when you play the game.
Visually, Indiana Jones and the Emperors Tomb isn't going to give Splinter Cell a run for its money but it is above average in the graphics department. The environments are old temples, desert cities, jungles, etc. Every environment is nicely detailed with pretty good texturing and are full of color. The game has an equal amount of inside and outside levels. The game also has little 'treats' such as flying birds, crawling rodents, and a variety of fish underwater.
Indiana Jones himself looks awesome. For everything that he does, the animation is spot on. The details on him are great. There are some issues with the collision though. If you go up against the wall, a big percentage of the time, part of his body will blend into the object. Indiana Jones isn't a ghost... his hand shouldn't be going through walls! Although this doesn't really affect the gameplay in anyway it is still something that should have been fixed.
As far as sound is concerned, it shines. Who doesn't know the Indiana Jones theme music. It is one of the most recognized film music ever right along side Star Wars. Dolby Digital 5.1 enabled, the sound is awesome. The voice actor who did the voice of Indiana Jones did a great job of sounding like Harrison Ford... I wasn't sure if it was him at first, but eventually you figure it is not. Nazi accents are funny... its German, one of the languages that is ridiculed the most. But we're not laughing at the Germans... we're laughing at the Nazis. And we all hate Nazis right? Overall, the sound is good. The music is awesome, voice-overs are done well, and environmental sounds are good.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is a solid game that offers virtual adventurers a chance to step into the well crafted and visually pleasing shoes of Mr. Jones himself. With great graphics that can stand up to almost anything on the Xbox and sound that sets the mood quite nicely, you’re for a good time with this title.
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