Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

"It's whip-crackin' good fun!"

Indiana Jones. If you haven't heard of him then your head must have been wedged in the ground for the last 23 years. And after 3 fantastic movies and many cruddy spinoffs (Young Indiana Jones.) They have finally released a game which gives the franchise justice.

THE BASIC PLOT

The game is based around 1935 (before any of the movies.) Indiana Jones travels across the world to many exotic locations finding rare artifacts and setting off traps (very cliched to the movies) and against the nazis. Once again the Nazis are attempting to gain ultimate power and this is held in the emperor's tomb.

GRAPHICS

Ahhhhhh, the graphics. They are a feast for the eyes. Many of the locations, such as the Amazon, Turkey and Germany are presented very nicely using vibrant colours and effects for each location giving you an amazing sense of realism of preoccupied countries of the time. Indy graphics are well done and enemies are reasonably varied for the location. There are nice touches, such as after you are hit, your hat may fall off. The lighting is fantastic. But unfortunatly, the same background textures are sometimes used too often.

MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS

The music is excellent in places and in others there is none. The world renowned Indy Theme Tune is used in many levels, but is given a different makeover depending on the style of the level, situation and location within the level.You may recognise various other tunes which pop up throughout the game.
The Sound Effects are above average (e.g. the occasional grunt by Indy and enemies.) Sound effects match their appropriate occasion well and are correct and well presented.It's a shame they didn't use Harrison Ford for the voice acting of Indy.But it works. Good.

GAMEPLAY

Ever played Buffy on X-box? Well they have used an extremely similar engine, but tweaked. It suits the game well.
When comes to the adventure part of the game there is a lot of climbing (ledges, vines, chains, etc) and perilous jumping. One particular feature I like about this area is the fact that you get to use the most useful item in your inventory. The whip. You can swing over gaps and attack enemies with it. To name a few.
Indy has quite a lot of attacks and combos when it comes to hand to hand combat. You can punch, throw and headlock enemies.But, if that's not enough, your whip can snatch weapons out of the enemies hands, trip them up and make them back off.You can use guns and chairs and table legs in your arsenal as well .Plus the occasional broomstick and machette. Also,when you kill them you can pick up their items and attack with them. In places the game does slow down. As the game doesn't give you much help you will find yourself running around in circles looking for an item which you've missed.

SUMMARY

All in all. Buy this game if you're a fan of Indy or if you're not. If you can't buy it. Rent it. You can't miss out on such an excellent Indy experience as this.The reason it didn't get top marks was due to the lack of help on certain areas.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/03