Video Games : Lego: Indiana Jones (PC DVD)

Rating: - Indiana - Surely Not Named After The Dog?
Excellent title, ideal for adults and kids, maybe too 'gentle' for the hardcore gamers. I ran this on two PCs, one with a 7600GS card and it ran well, but slowed down at some points, but it performed well on a 8600GT.

Some great cut scenes, and a few 'changes' to the story to make things more interesting (Indy catching up with the truck in the first Raiders on a motorbike, for example, not a horse).

The first three films are all here and you will need to go back to each level to get every secret and treasure. Lots of replay value just like the Lego Star Wars games.

Indy fans will LOVE the music, adore the cut scenes and find great delight in getting reminded of the bits of the films they loved.

Don't expect anything other than a really good kids game and you will not be disappointed. Big kids will like it too!

---

Rating: - Lego: Indiana Jones (PC DVD)
Great follow on from the Star Wars Trilogy (SWT) but this is way too easy.

There is not enough replay value you only need 'True Adventure' Status (equivalent to true Jedi in SWT) once. There are only three bonus levels and that's it.
Treasure (Mini Kits) and red bricks are easy to find and only two levels could be described as hard as they involve outrunning the boulder and a flood.

Altogether rather pedestrian but still fun.

---

Rating: - oh dear
We couldn't use a joypad as the setup menu demands you assign more buttons than actually exist on the pad even though the game doesn't require them. We don't know why you need more controls with a joypad than with the keyboard and the online support didn't tell us. They did say our dual-analog joypad was not supported and we needed a dual-analog joypad with enough buttons!

The game kept crashing especially when traversing hand rails which has meant any scene with hand rails can't be completed. Quitting then takes forever through several menus and frustration has finally consigned it back to the box.

Best thing - we didn't buy another joypad before we binned it.

---

Rating: - If you're an Indy fan, you'll love it
These Lego games really live or die according to your taste in the underlying subject matter. The original Lego Star Wars was new and fun and exciting, but was ultimately let down by the poor quality of the underlying movies. Conversely, the Original Trilogy was a triumph, again because of the quality of the subject matter - in this case, how could a Lego game based on the original Star Wars trilogy be anything other than perfect? When I heard about the Indy Lego game, I was initially very excited, but as the release date approached, I was filled with growing apprehension. Would it be any good? Would it do justice to a wonderful movie francise (2 great films + TOD)? How exactly does a Lego whip work? Release day arrived... The first problem was getting it to work properly. On a 2.6GHz P4 with 1Gb RAM and 256Mb GeForce 6200, the frame rate was apalling, even on the lowest graphic settings. However, once I disabled SpyBot Resident, it worked fine with most of the graphic options turned up - strange, since I've never had such a problem with SpyBot in the past. Anyway, the game itself is a treat, although I'm not sure whether those wbo are not fans of the series would enjoy it much. Ultimately it doesn't matter - like I said above, the success of these Lego games depends on the quality/popularity of the underlying francise - if you love Indy, you'll love this game; if you loathe Indy, buy something else (and get your head examined). The cutscenes in particular are genius, for the most part sticking closely to the movies, but knowing when to break the movie mould in the interest of humour. An early cameo by the head of C3P0 is a fine example. The gameplay is generally good, with the usual problems related to geometry of the landscape, computer AI, etc. This is a game for all ages so, like the Star Wars version, you can't lose. However, here are enough hidden puzzles and areas to amuse even the most dedicated gamer for a few weeks. Overall, as a heavily-biased Indy fan, I highly recommend this game. But if you don't like Indy (or similar movies) then you may not enjoy the full experience and should possibly look elsewhere (or wait for the Lego Batman game).
Two final points...
1. The Lego whip works just fine
2. My suggestion - what about a Lego Transformers game?

---

Rating: - Good game (just not as good as the Star Wars ones)
Again, I cant agree with the first reviewer, I have had no issues at all with the game in terms of load times or anything else.

The game is very similar to the lego star wars games (obviously) though the difficulty is definetly turned up a notch with a few head scratches in places trying to solve the puzzles (though I dont say this is a bad thing).

The graphics are an improvement over the star wars games but the thing which stops it getting a 5 is not really a fault of the game more the universe in which it is set.

I love the Indiana Jones series but the problem is that there is just not the supporting cast in Indy compared to star wars. There are 60 characters to unlock but about 30 of them are just the female characters in different forms of dress or a load of generic bad guys with slightly different hats or weapons.

Its still a great gmae play with kids and very entertaining, and I cant wait to see what the same team do with Batman which is due out in October (I saw some previews of the game and it looks great) as there are so many more interesting characters.

Please do an X-Men one next :)