User Reviews
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 Indiana Jones |  4.3
0 comments |
by  Ever Faith
| Nov 22, 2004 |
I got the game late, very late. But for me it's still one of the BEST I've ever played. For me, it was platforming goodness, with out all that cute characters and cartoon style fighting. Although the puzzles and platforming part of it was short compared to just taking down Nazis, and other baddies.
The music, for me was decent. I had no particular problem with it, besides it sometimes got loud during conversations of the characters between levels, some times anyway. The graphics seemed good, a little rough, a bit gritty. Even for playing the game a couple years later, it looks better than some things now. It may not be a PoP but it's damn sure just as much fun.
Gameplay was simple. You swim, jump, swing, shoot and run. Hand to hand combat was a bit repetitive. You either pressed A or X and you'd punch or kick. You can make some what combos, with the grab move but not something too great. The whip was fun, weak, but fun as hell to use. You could disarm enemies, making fights easier, and pull them in close for a good punch to knock them down. I enjoyed every once of gameplay.
Camera, I see people having problems with it. I never did, or atleast not something that bugged me out too much. It was there, it was movable, and that's all that needed of it.
Artifacts are fun to go and fine. Some of them are obvious, but some aren't. They add that whole Indiana type of feel. Without it, the game itself would be less. The collecting part is fun, and at the end you can see every artifact you had collected. I haven't collected them all yet, but when I do I hope I unlock something for it.
Overall, this game is a huge buy. Even fr buying it now, it's worth it. Fun gameplay, Nazi killing and artifact find, what more is need for me too tell you to go and buy the game? |
| 6 out of 11 people found this review helpful. | Did you find this review helpful? YES NO |
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| Well where do you think Lara got the idea from in the first place? |  3.0
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by  moviebuff2002
from , , | Sep 28, 2004 |
OK I admit it, I am a big fan of the Indiana Jones series of films. Truthfully they played an integral part in most of my childhood injuries as I tried the "Don't try this at home" moments of those films. Thankfully I eventually found the love of a good woman and Lara Croft helped me to play out all of my archeological fantasies without the fear of death. Truth be told, once those games came along the world had proof that technology had advanced enough to create an Indy game that does justice to the films, it was just a case of whether the developers would actually bother trying. That is, of course, why I have avoided playing any of the Indy games for so long, but when I had a free rental spare I figured it wouldn't hurt to try out Indiana Jones And The Emperors Tomb.
The game starts as any Indiana Jones adventure does; the enigmatic archeologist is exploring an ancient tomb to find some sort of historical relic. Of course once this small adventure is over he returns home only to discover that this relic is simply a peace of a much larger puzzle that will open up the door to an artifact of great power. Needless to say this means an epic worldwide adventure to find the rest of the puzzle, and uncover the artifact before those darn Nazis beat him to it.
So basically it's just another typical day for the good doctor, and to be perfectly honest the basic design behind the game follows down the same path in emulating the movies successful formula. The basic design is a sort of less athletic version of Tomb Raider; you control Indiana through a series of exotic locations, with numerous ledges to traverse and chasms to leap. Along the way you'll find your progress slowed by a combination of ancient puzzles and gun crazed Nazis. However as this is Indiana Jones you can't be expecting to back flip your way through a location with infinite bullets. What you have instead is the simple ability to pummel your opponent to the ground, and maybe whip them with the butt of your empty gun. Again you're not controlling Bruce Lee here, you're controlling Indiana Jones and so fights will not be involving any mind bending combinations of fancy kung fu moves. What you do have though are a spectacular array of jabs, uppercuts, and of course the old favorite; grabbing a Nazi by the collar and head butting his teeth. I mean even with some of the worst A.I since the spectrums hey day this manages to remain genuinely fun and; when combined with the occasional blast of John Williams score, does manage a to go some way into recreating the atmosphere of the films.
Needless to say though you can not completely recreate the Indy atmosphere without that one essential element. The thing that made him an icon in the first place. No not the boulder!!! I am talking about that super cool tool for any trade, the bullwhip, and thankfully it's present and correct in the games best innovation. That whip can be used in any way that it would have been in films. You can use it as a handy tool for swinging over large chasms, to pull weapons out of an enemies hands, or even to grab an enemy and drag them to you for the perfect uppercut position. Of course you could just be boring and whip at them from a distance, but either way control over your whip is done in a nicely accessible way. Shame it's the only aspect of the control that's been done well really.
Sadly my initial thoughts about the developers effort have been proven true once again. Sure the game has all the right ingredients for a gourmet masterpiece, but since it's been prepared by a spotty McDonalds attendant then the end result is disappointingly adequate. Controlling Indy is reminiscent to controlling Lara after she's been drinking mid adventure. You can press forward to go forward, but this simple action requires more than half of your will power if you wish to avoid wondering to the side. This is infuriating enough when you attempting to leap from ledge to ledge, since accidental death is not uncommon, but you also have to factor in the jumps involving a whip swing. Sure this hardly needs to be pixel perfect but you do need to be; you know, facing the item you're supposed to be swinging from. Something that's not particularly easy when your character has a tendency to turn around mid run at the slightest hint of pressure on the analogue stick.
Of course this laziness is not entirely restricted to the decidedly buggy control system since the games puzzle system displays a similar lack of effort. One look at the puzzle design should tell you that much. I mean the films had Indy measuring a bag of sand to the exact weight of his artifact. Tomb Raider gave you a locked door with a picture of 3 gold bars, handed you 3 lead bars and a big Midas statue, the logic spoke for itself. Indiana Jones And The Emperors Tomb gives you a locked door with a lever 2 inches from the door and then repeats the same "puzzle" in the next room. It never once taxes your brain, and rarely sends you on any lengthy side quests for minor key items, and as a result the feelings of adventure and exploration that should be essential to an Indiana Jones game are completely missing.
The developers follow on further in the graphical department too. Like the rest of the game it should really be better than it is. Indy himself is an impressive high res recreation of Harrison Ford, but he just looks a little rough around the edges and his animations are horrendously basic. After that the exotic locations look like someone's done a bad paint job on a crumbling wall, and the enemies have been designed with as much attention to detail as it takes to make money out of a film license. Worst of all though is the obscene amount of clipping. It's like these guys have forgotten that collision detection was fixed a long time ago since in this game Indy's whip will float right through objects rather than rap around them; Indy himself will pass through objects (sometimes getting stuck and forcing you to restart a level thanks to the bug filled design) and the less said about punching an enemy the better. I swear it's like nobody bothered to employ any game testers before rushing the title out to make money.
Fortunately the audio department makes up for some of that. Indy's voice over sounds suitably like Ford to prove acceptable for a videogame adaptation, and John Williams score is as great as ever. To be honest I can't recall the rest of the in game sounds; they weren't particularly memorable but then they were nothing to complain about either.
Sadly that is the state of the game though, it's nothing obscenely bad but it's not too great either. Personally I'm disgusted at this; I mean the films had already provided the character design; Core had already designed most of the game mechanics, and the bullwhip/fist fighting sections speak for themselves. Yet somehow Lucas Arts laziness has managed to destroy even that guaranteed classic. Now since I went in expecting the worst then I am willing to recommend this as fun enough for a rental, just don't go expecting the game that you have every right to expect. |
| 6 out of 10 people found this review helpful. | Did you find this review helpful? YES NO |
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| Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb |  1.0
0 comments |
by LynH
from Swadlincote, Derbyshire, England | Mar 20, 2003 |
THE GOOD:
It's Indiana JonesTHE BAD:
Camera, gameplay. SUMMARY:
Like most other people I have waited for this game and when I saw it was by the people who did Buffy I was already hesitant. The collision detection, as mentioned elsewhere is abysmal, even non-existant, to the extent that when you have passed spiky rollers once you can walk through them next time.
The fighting is silly and tedious, how many times to I have to slash someone with my machete before they drop? Who knows, I lost count. The fighting is so repetitive and the moves are tiresome - swing, jump, climb. Swing, jump, climb.
Yes, I'm a "girly" but my husband doesn't rate it either. If I had the choice I would throw this in the bin now. Borrow it, don't buy it. |
| 7 out of 13 people found this review helpful. | Did you find this review helpful? YES NO |
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| Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb |  4.0
0 comments |
by  BrodieMan
from Lakeland, FL, US | Mar 5, 2003 |
THE GOOD:
Action, Adventure and all you would expect to find in an Indiana Jones MoviesTHE BAD:
Too short, graphics could have been better, the camera gets frustrating and the music could have been done better. SUMMARY:
I have beeen dying for this game since it's anouncement way back when so of course i bought it the day it was out. Now for the good things, the fighting is fun once you get the hang of it. The game helps out in explaining how to move Indy, interact with objects and so on. You feel like your watching the movie as you play through the game showing cutscenes at good points during game play. The antics with the hat are quite funny as in if you take a beating you got to get the hat, a good thing is you won't lose it permanently, just till the end of the level. It's Indiana Jones so being a big fan of the movie it's fun to play, just like the movies are fun to watch. Now for the rest. The game was to short in my opinion, 10 levels for a total of around 10-15 hrs to beat the game. I basically played a level or two a night, bought it on tuesday and beat it friday night. It is a little to easy even on mormal they give you the icons of what needs to be used when you come across an interactable item, the manual says they don't appear on Hard. The puzzles took no longer than 10 maaaybe 15 minutes at the most to figure out, all it took was common sense. The graphics were pretty decent but iexpected way more being it is the Xbox, backgrounds were blurry and faces didn't have much detail but still looked WAY better than any Indy game thus far. As for the music sometimes when you completed an "difficult" objective or were traveling between levels the theme was hacked together just short of finishing, you only get the full theme song when watching the intro and while watching the credits. The only thing i have left to do is find all the artifacts which aren't explained well, i.e. how many total, but there are 3 per level for a total of 30 artifacts for the game. Overall it is a fun, faithful to the movies game, the replay value is low, i would suggest buying this game if you are a big fan and just got to have the game it is worth it for what it is and for the typical gamer i would suggest at least renting it before you decide to buy. |
| 8 out of 14 people found this review helpful. | Did you find this review helpful? YES NO |
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| The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly! |  3.5
0 comments |
by  razurkiel
from , , | Mar 2, 2003 |
THE GOOD:
The action, adventure, the fun and the locales.THE BAD:
Oh boy, ok first off the collision detection is horrible, and the sound(music) is terrible, and the painted backdrops...come on man I thought the Xbox was more capable than this! SUMMARY:
Ok let me just say that if it wasn't for the fun factor that this game displays for about 75% of the time(the other 25% is spent doing frustrating and repetitive jumps), I would honestly give this game a 2/5. Now this is 2003 right, and if Konami can perfect collision detection way back...what like 2 years ago with MGS2,for the PS2 than why can't these guys do it...I mean its embarrasing. I punched this one Nazi's lights out and he was jittering 3 feet off of the ground, then Indy was standing infront of the dude with his back turned, and the Nazi's body was sticking through Indy's, and still quivering...it was like watching Alien...ew! Now, another time I was on the tower of the castle in Prague, now the heights here are overwhelming but when I paused to enjoy the scenery...I almost jumped off for I was so pissed...it was a bloody painted backround...for those of you who played Enclave, know that when you are looking over the edge, looking down on that pouring lava below, you see lava, not a painting of lava. This is unacceptable...it is so obvious that this game is rushed. Finally the sound, and more importantly the music is freakin crapolla, I thought someone was playing an old 45 from the 20's, that kept skipping, really annoying...not to mention that the game itself skips like a drunken 8 yr. old...do these people not test their games out...I'm sorry people but I have to tell it like it is. I did however have a few laughs playing, like when I was duking it out with these two Turks...then one of them said something like "Yishish shish amin!"...man I couldn't stop laughing and they beat the crap out of me. So if these guys would have taken the time to really care about this game...it would have easily have become a hit...such a big dissapointment since The Collective did such a wondefrul job with Buffy! |
| 6 out of 14 people found this review helpful. | Did you find this review helpful? YES NO |
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| He's back |  4.9
0 comments |
by  crymsonmessiah
from Columbus, Ohio, United States | Feb 17, 2003 |
THE GOOD:
The game period.THE BAD:
some camera issuses SUMMARY:
this game is the shiznit!!! man when i got in a fight with this big russian guy, tell me why when i threw a punch he caught it and started laughin at me, BUT!!!
then indy kicks him in the balls, man that was the funniest thing in a video game ever. Graphics are tight! sound and control is on point, and the weapon selection is nice. so if ur getting beat up, u can turn it into a wwe fight and beat a guy with a chair or a glass bottle. puzzles are fun and swinging from place to place with ur whip is fun to. This the first best game of 2003 |
| 7 out of 13 people found this review helpful. | Did you find this review helpful? YES NO |
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forums
3.45/5.0
