Publisher: LucasArts

Developer: The Collective

Release Date: 02/24/2003

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I’m not a huge Indiana Jones fan. The only one I remember is the fourth movie, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. When I was a child, I watched bits and pieces of the original trilogy when my parents would put it on, usually when it showed up on a cable network, but that was it. This is my first ever Indiana Jones game, and I have to say that I came away quite surprised with people giving it such high praise and holding it as the best Indiana Jones game to date. The story is cheesy and corny; the dialogue is terrible, and the characters lack depth. Indy himself has no backstory or context. You clearly must already be a fan of the movies, and the developers anticipated this. The storyline suggests that Indy finds himself in the midst of a task for a client and encounters obstacles. Then, the Chinese government hired him to find the dragon’s heart. He eventually encounters Nazis who are also in pursuit of the same object. It’s pretty pointless, and there are so few cut scenes that it really doesn’t matter.

The first half of the game is actually the worst. Stiff animations, clunky combat, and terrible platforming plague the entire game. The puzzles themselves would be neat in a Tomb Raider game, but here they showcase the poor level design. Indy either climbs things, pushes levers, does hand-to-hand combat, or shoots guns. That’s all there is to the entire game. Levels in the first half mostly consist of hand-to-hand combat, as ammo is very scarce. You can replenish your health by using medkits or drinking from your canteen, which refills at water fountains, a resource that becomes increasingly scarce as the game progresses. The canteen upgrades only work for the level you’re on and don’t carry over. There are also artifacts that need to be found in order to unlock concept art, which, to be honest, is a lame idea.

The stiff animations contribute to the clunkiness of platforming. Indy is really jerky or just doesn’t respond instantly to button presses. Because of this, I ended up falling off cliffs or missing jumps more times than I can count. You can also whip-swing, but the stiff animations feel sped up during the swing compared to the rest of the jumping. Having to cold jump to a ledge right above you is a chore. Indy must be precisely aligned to secure a grip. There are ledges you can shimmy across with a dedicated wall hug button, but the combat is even worse. Idy auto-aims and works most of the time, making shooting the best part of the game, but ammo is scarce in the first half. Melee combat just drags on forever. Enemies are fist sponges, and even with a melee weapon such as a sword or bat, opponents would take 20-30 hits to die. You can use your whip to knock weapons out of their hands, which is mandatory if they have a gun and you don’t. When more than two enemies gang up on you and back you into a corner, it becomes a chore to fight them off. 

The level design is generic; even for 2003, it’s pretty bad. The game is bland and void of character, with a lot of rectangular empty rooms and hallways. The game occasionally shows something more when you are outdoors, but this doesn’t happen until mid-game. The game accelerates by letting you play one of the two on-rails sections, which it needed more of. The Nazi base is less puzzle-solving and more platforming and combat, which is what I prefer. The temple level proved to be the most challenging, primarily due to its underwater nature and poor swimming mechanics. Indy can only swim fast underwater, and there are sharks that can kill you. Boss fights are also a rare occurrence, but they were one of the few more intriguing elements of the game, as each boss fight needed something in the environment to weaken them before you could take them down. They were almost a mini-puzzle themselves.

Overall, the game is a mostly frustrating and overly long affair. The game can take up to 8 hours to finish if you don’t die frequently, but the devs could have completely eliminated the first half of the game. It’s the weaker half anyway. The unfair checkpoints also don’t help; you have to restart entire long sections every time you die. There are a few fun moments, such as the boss fights and on-rails sections, and the platforming is more enjoyable than the puzzle-solving, but the generic visuals, paper-thin plot, and cumbersome controls and animations hold this game up quite a bit.

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