Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

"The adventure and excitement returns....Indiana lives on"

The Game:

As the movie franchise was so is the game. You are Indiana Jones a teacher by trade and a treasure hunter extrodinaire for pleasure. You free lance your expertise to different people to find treasures so rare no other has even seen them. Your trusty whip is always by your side to help you escape those tricky situations. Thus is the game to hunt those rare artifacts and treasures and stop the villains also seeking them albeit for not the same reasons.

The Graphics:

Here is where there is a bit of controversy as some gaming sites and mags have heavily critiqued the game because of the overlapping of graphics for examble half your body will disappear in a wall. However the graphics as a whole are quite acceptable. The use of shadowing and light are evident and the fighting is quite well done with good looking choreographing. There is no slow down or lock up. This is not the best looking game to date but by far a lot better than the PS2 could do.

The Game Play:

Here is where the game excels. Using the same engine from collective soul's Buffy Indiana has a easy to use controls. This makes choosing weapoms to looking around easy and precise. Buffy a very underated game in itself has an excellent engine for this type of adventure game. There is so much you can do with that trusty whip of yours from swinging from edge to edge to knocking weapons out of your enemies hands. This is pure adventure fun bringing back to gamers the fun of action with puzzles. The puzzles are not as complex say as Resident Evil but not to easy either. I guarantee this game will please those who like to play with excitement.

The Sound:

Another great area where the producers take full advantage of the XBox's digital 5.1 surround capabilities. You can hear an enemy creeping up behind you or the ambience of water trickling or birds chirping. The score takes straight from the movie being actually composed from an orchestra with also new tracks as well. The voice over is another area that is so suprising you will swear that Harrison Ford is doing the voice himself it's not though.

The Controls:

Using the same engine from Buffy was also a very smart as Buffy has the best control scheme I have ever used. The use of the control sticks as control and camera angle to the pad to selecting your inventory and left and right triggers to view and defense. All simple yet adequate a perfect balance.

Replayability:

Well with any game like this the replay value is not huge however the game is long intense and won't be finished in a couple one hour sessions.


Over All:

Over all Indiana Jones is a very good game. Yes there are some glitches that perhaps shouldn't be there but it doesn't effect the over all game itself. I believe it unfair to give this game less than 8 just due to that fact. Indiana is an easy 8 perhaps a 9 if those glitches were non existent. If you are a fan of the action/adventure be sure to pick this game up it's the best one since Buffy and we all know the duds that have come are way.

This is a definite must buy.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/13/03, Updated 03/13/03