Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine

"Where have I seen this before?"

Indiana Jones is back. And he's brought his usual characteristics with him. His tough guy attitude, touched with a Mr. Nice guy-ness, his unshaven shenanigans, the cool hat and even cooler whip. And if you haven't heard of Indiana Jones, then truly you have been living under a rock for the last 15 or so years. Indy has previously graced our PCs twice before with two graphic adventures – The Last Crusade, an above average spin-off of Indy's last movie outing (which may not be his last outing if George Lucas and Co. has anything to do with it). And Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, which is still a classic example of adventure gaming at it's best. And now Indy returns for another crack of the whip (groan, pun fully intended and apologised for) with his newest game Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.

Now, a new Indiana Jones game is something to be excited about. And although I dreaded it ever happening, Lucasarts has gone and done something stupid and made it…. * sigh * a Tomb Raider clone. Now many would argue that this is not a bad thing. But, I'm afraid, it is. I will explain why as and when necessary. Also, people would argue that it is only fair, because Tomb Raider basically ripped the premise from Indiana Jones with the archaeologist, artefact finding adventures all over the world, which I suppose is a fair point.

But first things first, the story. The story and plot of the game is not immediately evident at first and things unveil themselves as they go on. And this is one of the good aspects of the game. You know what Indy knows. World War II is over and Europe is in the process of rebuilding itself and those naughty Russians (who are the games predominant baddies) are attempting to throw an iron curtain over Europe. The game kicks off with Indy at one of his digs searching for some god-knows how old artifact or something like that. And the first level consists of getting Indy over to his dig site, only for him to meet up with his one time flame Sophia Hapgood, who is now working for the newly formed CIA who are attempting to follow a Russian scientist attempting to find and put together all of the parts of, as you have guessed by now, The Infernal Machine.

All of this part-finding take Indy all the way over the world to all manner of different locations of which are admittedly very, very, very large locations. All of which look very nice indeed. Very nice. Places like Tibet and Egypt all looking very nice in their 3D-ness. And Indy and co look pretty good too. And the sounds are all very Indy authentic, with the crack of the whip and Indy's voice is very good too, although, sadly, it is not Harrison Ford, and is very much the Smart-ass. Presentation-wise, it's pretty much business as usual from the Lucasarts boys.

Basically, if you want to get the overall feel of the game, just think Tomb-Raider and take away the big-breasted Lara Croft and replace her with the unshaven, unwashed Indy. Although that may be a * little * harsh. The puzzles, if that's what you want to call them, are a little more mind flexing than most from the Tomb Raider series. But overall, it's the same, mind-numbing, repetitive block pushing, button switching “fun” that you can experience from Tomb Raider 1,2,3, or 4. Picture this: run, shoot, jump, push, swing, climb, push, shoot, swing, jump, climb, fall, die, fall, die, fall, die, fall, fall, fall, die, die, die, climb, climb, climb, yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn. Admittedly it's fun for the first 3 or 4 levels, but then again so was Tomb Raider, then it becomes so samey I begin to wonder how I managed to make it to the twelfth level before uninstalling it. Probably wanted to see how it ended maybe. Maybe.
Unfortunately, the repetitiveness of it all is not the only thing that it has going against it. The controls are dodgy too. Indy's animations are all very nice, but the way they are implemented are well, pretty disjointed. Lara Croft's latest outing at least has some decent controls. Indy can't even sidestep when standing right up next to the wall, which in the Tomb Raider games is the main reason why I use the sidestep! Also, when going from hurdling up onto a wall, he goes from standing to having his foot on the wall all in one go, it's like they had taken out several frames on animation. And to top it all off, Indy can't bloody catch onto a wall in mid-air. You'd think with all the adventures he'd been on he could at least ATTEMPT to catch a wall, but oh no!

I really wanted this game to bring something new to what is becoming a very tired genre, thanks to Ms. Croft and co. And for a while it is a bit fun. But when it boils down to it, it becomes the usual same-old repetitive shoot, jump, push job that bores me to tears. However, if you can't get enough of Tomb Raider and it's various spin-offs and you like Indy too, then don't hesitate to pick this up. But if you are getting tired of the TR formula, then well, steer clear I think. Sorry.

Graphics: 8 – Good looking characters and very large and awe-inspiring levels. Good stuff.

Sound: 8 – Authentic Indy sounds, and Doug Lee does a very good job as Indy. Good stuff again.

Gameplay: 6 – Oh bugger. There's the soap and it's slipped up. It's the old push, jump, shoot formula and it really does get very repetitive. Fun for a while, though.

Lastability: 6 – If you make it to the end, then you probably won't want to do it again. But I didn't and probably won't either.

Controls: 5 – Disjointed and rather disappointing. This probably could've improved the game a lot. But, er, it didn't, so there.

Originality: 1 – Never seen this before. In 1995! Same old, same old.

Come on Lucasarts, you can do better than this. How about another Graphic adventure?

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/00, Updated 03/01/00