[b]‘A mighty story of undying heroism to thrill the world!’[/b]
[i]Indiana Jones® and the Emperor's Tomb™[/i] is a platformer and a brawler about adventuring throughout Eurasia — especially China — to stop the Fascists and their accomplices from obtaining artefacts that hold the key to ultimate power. While platformer aficionados are unlikely to be impressed by its offerings, for the most part is succeeds at what it does, and Indiana Jones fans in particular shall find it quite serviceable indeed.
Roughly half of the adventure consists of platforming: leaping across platforms, whipping across platforms, climbing, grabbing ledges, sneaking across ledges, and so on. If you are familiar with the [i]Tomb Raider[/i] or [i]Prince of Persia[/i] series, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect here. The controls aren’t awful… but they aren’t great either: while most of the time they do what you want them to do, there are more than a few instances where they’ll let you down, usually resulting in a cheap death. This game can be somewhat strict about climbing down ladders, creeping along walls, whipping architecture, and occasionally something as simple as gently dropping off of a platform. Sometimes Indiana will perform the wrong action when you only wanted him to pick up something. You also can’t steer him when he somersaults (resulting in at least one accidental death in my case), selecting certain items during combat is tricky, and trying to control him while he is underwater feels like trying to control a bucking bronco, in part because he always wants to swim downwards, for some reason. You’ll also be wrestling with the autoaim feature while fighting multiple enemies, and there were a handful of moments when I had to wrestle with the camera in tight corridors. In short, the controls could have been better, but for the most part I found them tolerable.
The other half of the adventure consists of combat, and lots of it. Brawling is fairly straightforward: there are a few hand-to-hand moves that Indiana can perform, and he can pick up mêlée weapons, but otherwise the combat is only slightly more complicated than button-mashing. There are firearms that Indy can handle, but since ammunition tends to be scarce, it is better to save the firearms in case of emergencies. Honestly, I feel like the game would have been better off with less combat, because while it is enjoyable at first, eventually it gets kind of tedious — even with the little challenges that they gradually throw at us — and I had more fun peacefully exploring certain areas. A few turret sections exist, and while they do help break up the monotony there is one that wears out its welcome. Overall, the combat feels average.
Thankfully, this game has several puzzles to break up the monotony. A few of them are charming, like trying to align a clock with something on a door. Others are less interesting, like jumping onto a highlighted platform in time. Sometimes failure means death. I suppose that you could argue that evading traps also counts as solving puzzles, and there are certainly more than a few traps in this adventure that vary wonderfully in substance.
The only time that I got ‘stuck’ in this game was during a chase sequence wherein Indy has to hastily leap and whip across platforms while being careful of collapsing floors, and I feel like this otherwise cool sequence would have been funner if the controls were snappier and the floors took longer to collapse. While I did not have to consult a guide, I died here more than any other time in this adventure and it was only through sheer willpower that I eventually finished it. This is definitely a game that becomes a little harder the more that you progress, which is great for some people but in my case it meant that by the time I finally finished, I was too exhausted to go back and get all of the artifacts. This game uses a checkpoint system, meaning that you can’t save whenever you want, and that inability to save freely can become irritating later in the adventure. The good news is that there are no monstrously long levels in this game, so the checkpoint system [i]per se[/i] feels fair.
The sound is good. Weapons, foes, traps, and elsewhat sound pretty much like you would expect, and the voice acting is adequate. The actor who voiced Indy here does not sound quite like Harrison Ford, but you can tell that he tried his best. Clint Bajakian did a great job providing the music for this game, which really adds to the intrigue and swashbuckling excitement that you’ll get in this adventure. It is a little unlikely that you’ll mistake his score for John Williams’s, but in terms of spirit Bajakian came pretty close. The only issue is that sometimes the action pieces play longer than they need to, sounding somewhat awkward in a calm situation, but they stop eventually.
Unsurprisingly, the graphics have shown their age: the textures feel low in resolution, the (often repetitive) models slightly blocky, and the animations unimpressive. I also noticed graphical glitches, such as a ladder spawning incorrectly in a crane, and there were more than a few times when I noticed clipping issues. I even had to fix one of these visual glitches myself — white lines randomly appearing — because it was so distracting. On the plus side, the art direction is good: I really felt like I was exploring ancient ruins and elsewhat as I was playing. So while this is not a great looking game by today’s standards, the important thing is that they nailed the tone of the films.
To sum it all up, if you like Indiana Jones and have no grudges against either platformers or brawlers, pick this up as part of the Indiana Jones Collection when it goes on sale. Yes, it does have some annoying quirks, but my feelings about this platformer are more positive than negative since it gave me a good deal of the fun from the films; overall it is another worthy addition to this beloved series.
