Indiana Jones & the Emperor's Tomb (PS2)

However.... this game is great. Clearly it is aimed at those who picked up and played the Tomb Raider games. Accept Indy doesnt have square nipples or long hair. As far as I go, this game is everythiung that Tomb Raider should have been. It is really playable and very easy to get into. The controls are a bit of a faff at first, and trying to change between items when some geezer is coming at ya with his combat knife is a bit tricky!

But on the whole the game is very easy to get used to. The graphics are pretty decent, and the sound track is out of this world. The combat on the Tomb raider games was a real wash out, but the combat here is totally like the movies. You can grab and scuffle with Nazis, Crocdiles, Walls (think thats just me being bad at the game though). It is so easy to get into the combat on it and it simply has ya running around trying to find the next best thing to beat up.

The game is faithful to the whole ethos of the movies. But furthermore it carries its own movie like plot, with great enemies, associates, action scenes and twists and turns in the stories. You go all over the wolrd (Indy style - in ya little plane) and each level is really unique. You have to take all sorts of approaches in the game, such as stealth, action, blow everything to bits, run away from big beasts and also running and jumping great ravines.

I recommend this game without reservation. Got mine in a sale. But best not say where, Mr Amazon might av something to say. Either way its a good buy for the price these guys have it at.

Seany

The game play itself is ok, but the control of Indy is a little torturous...try getting him to flatten against a wall in a hurry...three or four minor adjustments later and there he goes. The levels, whilst a good size are far too linear, as a previous reviewer has said. The puzzles...well, ARE there any puzzles? Or just a bunch of minorly annoying holdups to the action elements whilst you rotate, push and generally solve the problems. There is no element of real brain work here, the puzzles are so weak that generally you can suss out what to do in about 20 seconds.

I found it intensely annoying that the game only saves at the end of each level, so on some of the longer sections death can have you hurling the controller around the room in frustration! This also has the added benefit that you can quite easily start the next level with no life and something nasty to beat (I had to do the Kracken with a smidge of energy left), leaving your only option to quit out and redo the last x many levels, but a bit more carefully.

In summary, I'm massively disappointed with Lucasarts for producing this. They have done so many excellent titles that you feel certain you're going to get something ok. If the earlier Indy titles and the Monkey Island games had been this weak, I don't think we'd still have Lucasarts, it really is that bad (in comparison to their normal standards I hasten to add). I much preferred the old Indy and Monkey Island style adventures to the currently-in-vogue 360 degree first person environment and I think it's very sad it's become the ONLY way of doing an adventure now.

All in all, it's ok, but not the cutting-edge-hyper-playable fayre you (or at least I) expect from Lucasarts. It seems they have just decided to cash in on the incredible saleability of the Indiana Jones name without thinking too hard about the substance.

I would say if you're only going to buy one adventure game, get Lara Croft: Angel of Darkness. Much harder game, but at the same time less frustrating and much better executed.