Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (PC)

GAMEPLAY: This is so cool! It tops that of the Infernal Machine (Indy's previous video game) as a result of the super hand-to-hand fighting system. It allows you to control over 100 martial arts moves with just 2 mouse buttons. Where the guns are concerned, I love the way Indiana can lean from around a corner and fire off a few rounds. The shotgun is almost unbelievable as it causes enemies to leap several metres through the air. Shooting a baddie into water will cause him to drown instantly (or get eaten by crocs depending on the location). This allows you to recreate the finale in the 'Temple of Doom'.

GRAPHICS: Excellent, but demanding. Indiana Jones needs at least 512Mb Ram and a 1200MHz processor, so if you have out of date hardware I would recommend an upgrade simply to allow you to play THIS GAME. The engine handles the fight scenes brilliantly, though the cut scenes could be improved.

SOUND: The voice acting is where this shines above the rest. I don't know who did Indy's voice, but he does it too well! The weapon sounds are pretty realistic and the sound of a good uppercut (which is heard too often!) causes you to shiver.

APPEAL: Good, thanks to the girl Indy teams up with!

CONTROLS: The camera takes a few minutes to get used to, but its angle allows you to see all the action as it happens. The controls are perfect as they are and do not need remapping.

OVERALL: Plot (10/10, typical Indy story), Models/graphics (9.5/10, almost cutting-edge), Harrison Ford-ism (10/10, Indy looks like Harrison and makes snide and sarcastic comments!)
BUY NOW AND ENJOY!

Gameplay
Superficially, the game is very similar to Infernal Machine (IM); Lara-like 3rd person perspective and lara like gameplay. One major addition is that, unlike IM, combat is now far more dependant on Indys fists and whip : this is probably the highlight of the game, as the developers have clearly spent a lot of time modelling against Harrison Fords movement in the films and the dynamics of the fight scenes. The story is very authentic, and very Indy (although not up to the standard of classics like Fate Of Atlantis or Infernal Machine - bring back Hal Barwood!)

Graphics
The graphics are stunning, and VERY Indy : - it's clear that an awful lot of research has gone into the game, whether it is from the angle of the actual modelling of Indy himself (very authentic) or the graphics of the levels themselves (clearly the designers spent a lot of time with cameras in the locations (Prague, Istanbul, Hong Kong).

Sound
One of the highlights of the game : LucasArts commisioned someone to write up 33 cues in the style of the music for the films (complete with the Raiders march at regular points), and that effort shows. The music and sound is excellent and highly immersive throughout.

Level Design
Broadly speaking the levels (whilst disappointingly linear at times) are designed very competently; however in honesty they are not nearly up to the standard of IM.

The flaws
Sadly there are a number of major flaws with the game. The most immediately obvious (and annoying) of these is that it is abundantly clear that the game was developed for XBox, and it shows : the controls are overly simple, the puzzles are clearly designed for those with a limited control mechanism (i.e. a joypad). One of the most annoying (and frankly amateurish) flaws in the game is that, at certain points, you are told, for example, 'use the X key to move the clock'. All very well, until you release that these prompts completely ignore the defaults you may have set up. This pales in comparision however to the fact that the up and down arrows are mapped to making indy climb up and down ropes : if you have mapped Forward and Back to the up and down keys, you have to quickly remap your controls just to allow Indy to swing on a rope! A very poor oversight which, given the amount of time LA have clearly spent on the game, does it no credit. Also, the puzzles, quite frankly, are far too easy, almost childlike in the earlier levels, and the levels are in many cases overly linear.

Summary
In summary, the game is incredibly well designed in terms of motion dynamics, graphics, and sound : the engine is a good fit, and the hand to hand to whip 'action' is worth buying the game for in itself. But the game falls on a few key points : the control method is difficult to get the hang of at first (left and right should rotate!), linear levels, overly simplistic gameplay and puzzles (LUCASARTS :- OF YOU ARE GOING TO BRING OUT A PC GAME, DON'T ASSUME IT SHOULD BE AIMED AT TEENS JUST BECAUSE IT IS ALSO OUT ON XBOX!) and ultimately the comparision to the classic IM does it no favours. All that said, if you like Indiana Jones buy it and you won't regret it : just make sure you buy Infernal Machine as well (it may not look as good, but if they had taken the IM engine, updated the graphics, designed a new game, and added the hand to hand combat from this game it would have been TOP NOTCH. AND PLEASE LUCASARTS MAKE SURE HAL BARWOOD IS INVOLVED ON THE NEXT ONE!

The downers:
-Voices: The guy who does Indy's voice is pretty good, but not as good as the guy who used to do it. The woman who does the voice of Mei Ying sounds likes she has a head cold and is trying too hard. "Becawful Indy, da Black Dwagon knows we'rah heah!" I'm not convinced by her accent (or the Germans, but oh well, they're still fun).
-Someone mentioned what happens when you reassign keys - you can't climb ropes! I found that really annoying.
-It's fun to play, but it's like following the yellow brick road, It's really freakin' obvious where you're supposed to go. There are even short video clips highlighting the 'answers' to puzzles, ie, nice shot of a ledge? Gee, if you show the ledge leading across the spot of danger should I use it?
-Could have a better facility for shortcuts, ie 1=revolver
-Is going to the Underworld a little too out there, even for Indy?
-Indy's a little square...meaning he has to be precisely lined up with an edge or he won't really climb up it.
-Who took Indy's chalk away?
-It's hard to believe Indy can heal with just water (the medkit makes sense). The man has to have a bladder the size of Sallah's head.

Not all is lost, however, and the 'ups' outweigh the 'downs'

The ups (some will make more sense once you play the game but I don't want to be too explicit):
-The music is great!
-You can search the levels for hidden artefacts.
-The levels are absolutely gorgeous... there is a high degree of detail and much thought involved, which shows. This is one of my favorites about the game.
-There are diverse tasks- even if it is easy to understand how to complete them, actually completing them is another matter.
-The variety of tasks is good, ie, shooting from a moving rickshaw, trying to take down various bad guys.
-The glass bottles make a cool splash - you can chuck them at enemies. I find it's fun to take their guns, put them in my rucksack, and just resort to fisticuffs!
-Related, you can pick up various objects and use them as weapons.
-The bad guys are smarter - they come after you, pick up dropped guns, throw things at you (though the spiders and scorpions had their advantages in the old games).
-The spear carrying bad guys are butt-kickers. I haven't figured out how to be that cool.
-The flamethrowers guys creep me out, but glad they're there.
-The conversations the bad guys have are really funny.

Overall, it's got a good spirit of Indy, the fighting is fun, it's quirky, and the locations for the levels are beautifully rendered. If you don't mind a little hand-holding guidance the game is a fun way to pass the time. There are no quicksaves, only at the begining of each level so that adds to the difficulty a bit. I really enjoyed playing it, and replaying it when the mood strikes me!