When it comes to
action movies there are two different variants that I enjoy the
most - the James Bond 007 series, and of course Indiana Jones. I
actually lean a little more towards the Indiana Jones movies; simply
because there’s a healthy mix of action AND comedy within them. This
is especially true with “The Last Crusade” starring Harrison Ford
and Sean Connery that caused all sorts of laughs intermixed with
tons of action.
A few years back an
Indiana Jones game was released for the N64, but it didn’t interest
me at all, so I was stuck waiting for another game based off of
Indiana Jones to come along. Once “Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s
Tomb” was released on the Xbox and PC, I knew I had to give this one
a try.
Plot/Story It’s
1935, and as an archaeologist, Indiana Jones is on a quest to find
an ancient Chinese relic which is able to control minds. The relic
is a black pearl which is also called the “heart of the dragon.”
Indiana’s not the only one chasing after this artifact however. Indy
will be competing with other explorers, Nazis and the Chinese in
order to recover it first. The storyline is as simple and
straightforward as they come. Even the movies have fairly simple
plots, but it’s the action that drives the story. Sadly, The
Emperor’s Tomb doesn’t follow suit to the movie greats.
Gameplay TET (The
Emperors Tomb) had a very good chance at being an awesome game
for the Xbox. Its release was timely coming right after and right
before big releases. It’s too bad the clunky control and various
bugs throughout the game hindered this from being a quality release.
TET had all the right ideas, but the execution was just done so
poorly that it doesn’t seem like TET is very complete at all. It’s
as though the developers pushed the game out the door at the 50%
done mark before going through more testing.
The essence of gameplay
revolves mostly around puzzles and platforming, but there’s an even
amount of fighting thrown into the mix that shakes things up a bit.
The puzzles and platforming aspects of the game wouldn’t have been
so bad if the game wasn’t so boring. Controlling Indiana in tight
areas is almost impossible because of how clunky the controls are.
Many times you’ll just run right off the space you’re on, even when
barely pressing the analog stick to turn. The camera is also an
issue while controlling the explorer. Swinging Indy around often
induces a bit of a nauseous feeling as the camera constantly jerks
around; similar to Jedi Outcast. The puzzles are also more of a
chore rather than being an integral part of the game. This is due to
the lack of imagination and diversity within these puzzles. 90% of
the puzzles include pulling levers, pushing buttons, switching
switches, walking into the next area, beating up a few mixed enemies
here and there, and then repeating. This monotony lasts for the
whole game.
The sense of adventure in
Indiana Jones is as great as an anteater’s vision: - oh yeah, it’s
really poor. Indiana Jones is all about adventure and sadly the
levels in TET are very linear, so there’s no sense of adventure. If
you consider walking a straight line going on an adventure, then you
are in luck. As for the difficulty level, no matter what degree of
difficulty you use; the game is entirely too easy. This is
definitely not something I expected from an Indiana Jones game to
be. I do, however, like how the whip is used. The whip is a spitting
image of how it’s used in the movies. You can use it as a rope to
grab on to something and swing across pits and crevices that are
un-jumpable; as well as using it in tangent as a weapon.
Despite the serious lack
of any kind of skill needed to fly through the game with the puzzles
(actually it boggles my mind that Lucas Arts let the simplicity of
the puzzles in the game), the fighting isn’t quite as bad. The
fighting engine is reminiscent of the one used in the Buffy the
Vampire Slayer game that was released last year for the Xbox. Just
recently I had the opportunity to play Buffy and absolutely loved
the fighting system. I was anticipated TET to have an equally good
battle system, so I could beat the crap out of those heartless
Nazis. Instead, I was introduced to a fighting system full of little
bugs and glitches that didn’t make fighting fun. You can use almost
anything to fight with.
As mentioned, Indy’s whip
provides the bulk of the combat skills. It can be used to pull
weapons out of an enemy’s hand and even pull an enemy to you; a la
Scorpion in Mortal Kombat. There’s also a machete that really isn’t
useful in fighting, but its main use is to cut down vines and such
that often block an entrance to another area. Indy also has his
other trusty weapons, the revolver and a shotgun. The revolver and
shotgun are basically useless though, because the aiming system is
so difficult to use; not to mention it automatically targets your
enemies. What’s the fun in that? I personally skipped over using the
revolver and shotgun due to the greater fun in plain old beating the
crap out of people with your fists and using Indy’s whip to whip em’
into shape.
Another gripe regarding
the battle system: It takes one shot of the revolver to take a guy
down permanently and two or three to take them down with a
SHOTGUN. Now logically, the shotgun should have way more
“oompfh” in the impact to knock a person back 10-15ft. in ONE
shot. But then again any weapon could only take one shot to be
deadly, but lets not get too realistic here, it’s just a game, and
after all, two-three shots with a shotgun being the equivalent to
one shot by a revolver is messed up enough.
About the only thing that
I didn’t absolutely hate in The Emperor’s Tomb (but it was still
lacking) is that there are a few cool big boss fights. The
atmosphere in the game was, very surprisingly, actually kind of
creepy. It had the same ambience as the movies. For example: the
ritualistic worshipers in the Temple of Doom, the Grail in the Last
Crusade and the light streaming from the Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The atmosphere in TET engulfed me and I always anticipated a raunchy
monster to just randomly pop out and scare the crap out of me.
Graphics With the
power of the Xbox, I was expecting TET to have some really nice
visuals, but instead the game looks unfinished. The character models
are downright ugly. The only thing good that came out of the Indiana
Jones’s modeling; is that the weapons he carries are clearly visible
on his belt and back. This makes for a believable transition when he
pulls something out so it’s not being pulled out of mid-air.
The rest of the game
looks just as poor as the character models, including the
environments which are filled with glitches and look fairly bland.
The frame rate also runs at a sluggishly low rate, and at one point
it dropped so low that I thought that I had triggered some kind of
slow-mo event.
Sound The classic
Indiana Jones theme runs throughout the game, but it drowns in and
out as you make your way through each area. There was never really a
time where you could be able to listen to it without it drowning out
again. The theme will usually start playing when you enter or exit a
level, and it’ll sometimes start playing very softly for a couple
seconds when you’re near a place that you’re suppose to go. The
sound effects are just as repetitive. The same “sounds” are used
over and over again, and Indiana Jones doesn’t come close to sound
like Harrison Ford. If they’re going to make an Indiana Jones game,
they’re going to need to get Harrison Ford (or someone who sounds
like him) to do the actual voice-overs of Indy, because he is the
true heart of Indiana Jones.
Overall I was
quite disappointed in Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb. The
reason is dovetailed: On one hand I’m still looking for a game that
does the Indiana Jones Trilogy justice. On the other hand, I
question the integrity of Lucas Arts, as they produced a bug filled
and untimely release. When it is over, said and done; the Emperor’s
Tomb just wasn’t executed correctly.
