[b]‘General, in all the countries that you and your gang have put the finger on there are millions and millions of little guys just like me.’[/b]
[i]LEGO® Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures[/i] is a 3D brawler that affectionately parodies the first three [i]Indiana Jones[/i] films. While it may not be the deepest [i]Indiana Jones[/i] game on the market, it is charming enough to be a worthy addition to your collection.
The formula is as follows: explore levels, smash any foes your way, solve puzzles, collect studs, drive vehicles, defeat bosses, and unlock everything. Although I described this as a brawler, the combat consists of some straightforward button mashing against enemies who perish easily and work with simple A.I. There are weapons to pick up, but they don’t affect the gameplay too much: many of the mêlée weapons actually work slowlier than hand-to-hand fighting, firearms run out of munition quickly, and the only weapon that has a noticeable effect on enemies’ health (and yours) is the very hazardous rocket launcher. If you were expecting some complicated combat, you’ll be disappointed, but as far as simplicity goes it works mostly well. The only worry is how easy it is to hit your teammates, but for me this is a minor inconvenience.
The controls, for the most part, handle well, but there are noticeable occasions where they let you down. Aside from the aiming that I already mentioned, handling vehicles is trickier than it needs to be since there is no way to reverse, which can be irritating in the few puzzles that need vehicular weight. There are also moments when it is unclear where exactly your character is leaping, since the camera usually isn’t behind the characters, making their shadows of little help. These moments are exceptional, though.
Being made for a young audience, this is an easy game: the penalty for dying is just losing some studs, otherwise the difficulty if very forgiving. The only time that I was genuinely frustrated with this was in the level Motorcycle Chase, because the characters need to collect an obnoxious number of studs for the bonus and dying on that map is pretty easy. Likewise, hardly any of the puzzles is too cryptic; the only time that I got stuck was when I needed to transport an object across several platforms, until it finally occurred to me that I was supposed to bring it to each platform by whipping it. Aside from that, the puzzles are smooth sailing — though on a few occasions the friendly A.I. wandered off when it was supposed to help me with a puzzle, making it take longer than it needed to to finish a section.
The best part about this game is the exploration: it is enjoyable to see the designers’ take on the [i]Indiana Jones[/i] films, and every map that you finish unlocks a ‘free play’ mode, wherein you can replay it with any characters you have, all of whom have their special abilities, whether it be fixing machinery, crawling into small spaces, shrieking to break glass, and so on. There is a constant feeling of progression with all of the artefacts, characters, and elsewhat that you unlock. There isn’t really anything here that astonishes me, but I get a kick out of it all the same.
The sound is fine: nearly everything sounds like how it should, and it only gets annoying in Shanghai Showdown. There is voice acting, but it consists of incomprehensible mumbling, grunts, screams, and nonsensical vocalizations; there is basically no dialogue in this game. The music reuses John Williams’s and Laurence Rosenthal’s magnificent work on the [i]Indiana Jones[/i] series, which I don’t mind at all: I’ll admit upfront that some of their songs make me shed tears of joy.
As for the graphics, they aren’t anything special. The character models, backgrounds, and so forth all look fine, but lacking in complexion. This is excusable for the LEGO models, but a little less so for everything else unmade out of LEGO parts. Despite the low resolutions, in terms of variety there is a good amount of detail in the cities and countrysides and whatnot with every area resembling something from the films, so I would never call the graphics ‘hideous’ even if they do feel a little dated now.
In summary, I liked [i]LEGO® Indiana Jones™: The Original Adventures[/i]. It is a relatively simple game — maybe too simple for its own good — but I enjoyed playing it in short bursts and it held my interest from beginning to end. If you like [i]Indiana Jones[/i], pick this up when it goes on sale. With the possible exception of the sequel, this is the most unique [i]Indiana Jones[/i] video game ever published.
