Game review - Indiana Jones and The Emperor's Tomb

by Keayn Dunya

As Indiana Jones, you'll travel to China in the year 1935 to prevent a powerful artifact from falling into the hands of evil. This globe spanning adventure pits you against evil Nazis and the Asian underworld. It'll take more than just your trusty whip and pistol to avoid the peril of the Emperor's Tomb.

The great Dr. Jones is at it again. As with the release of the DVD box set everyone's favorite adventurer puts Nazi's and the doers of evil in there place. The Heart of the Dragon, an ancient Chinese artifact that endows its possessor with unspeakable powers, is being unearthed by an evil warlord. It's up to Indy to find this relic before it can be put to use.

Available on all platforms, The Emperor's Tomb is a solid performer in all aspects. The graphics, while not great are better than most and retain a gritty feel that suits Indiana well. Backgrounds are lush but not inspired. The controls are responsive and intuitive. Indy is easy to control and the learning curve is relatively slight. But it does take some getting used to in order to move Indy in the many in which does the good doctor justice. In an era where games are plagued by bad camera controls, The Emperor's Tomb is above other exploration games. But it's the little things that make The Emperor's Tomb a great game to play. The fact that Indy can drop his hat, circle around after a fight and pick it up is great. If you don't he'll be without it until the end of the level. Indy is shown as the brawler he has always been. No weird acrobatics, no funky martial arts, just Indy's ones and twos. With the correct (and easy) series of buttons Indy does some pretty effective combos. There are also plenty of items to pick up and use as weapons from Indy's trusty whip to shovels and even bottles.

Don't make the mistake of thinking that this is just another run around and fight game. The Emperor's Tomb is decent in the amount of challenges it has to offer. There aren't too many complicated puzzles but there are more than a few to solve while not getting shot. The only thing that hinders the great Dr. Jones is the relatively short levels. The Emperor's Tomb won't need a massive amount of hours to complete and its replay value can be questioned. All in all this makes it a solid above average performer.

This game is somewhat of an anomaly for Lucas Arts. It's good. In fact it's worthy to carry the Indy name. It's refreshing to have a game of this caliber that cast no aspirations. There are few movies to cart titles that actually carry the spirit of the movie from which they came that are fun to play. Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is a perfect compliment to the Indiana Jones universe and is a great addition to fans of the series.