Indy Timeline: 1935
Released in 2003 for the original XBOX, PC, and PlayStation
2 (I played the PS2 version for this review), the Emperor's Tomb sought to
build on the momentum of the previous 3-d platform adventure, Indiana Jones and
the Infernal Machine. With complete
rights to the franchise- using Harrison Ford's likeness, rights to the music
and other movie related material, did LucasArts take advantage of the
technology available at the time and deliver a great product? Does the game hold up in spite of its age?
Well, the answer is mostly "yes," but there are (unfortunately)
some major caveats. To begin, my overall
impression is that the production team had a great deal of love and
appreciation for the movies. The plot and
characters are solid- after discovering an ancient artifact in the jungles of
Sri Lanka, Indy is recruited by a mysterious Chinese benefactor to track down
additional clues to discover the long lost tomb of the first Chinese
Emperor. Along the way, Indy encounters
fierce resistance from a rival gang of Nazis, led by the notorious Colonel Von
Beck. Fortunately, Indy is aided in his
race against the Nazis by the beautiful Chinese secret agent Mei Ying. This globetrotting adventure, filled with
fast and furious action, takes Indy from Sri Lanka, to New York, Prague, Istanbul,
Hong Kong, and various Chinese locales.
Wu Han, a key character from Temple of Doom, is also helps Indy along
the way.
All of this is great, and the voice acting is pretty solid
throughout. While Harrison Ford does not
do the voice acting for Indy, the substitute does a surprisingly good job. There are a number of nods throughout the
game to all three films in the original trilogy. The opening sequences in the jungles of Sri
Lanka are play homage to the opening of Raiders, the Prague sequence is very
"Last Crusade", the Hong Kong sequence is directly out of "Temple
of Doom." The game also matches Indy's wardrobe in
these various sequences - jacket and tie in castle, white suit with red
carnation in Hong Kong, and at one point Indy wears a Nazi officer uniform to
disguise himself like in Crusade. Even
the "supernatural" elements of the game draw on all three films- the
spirits Indy fights are directly out of "Raiders," the invisible
platforms and booby traps are "Last Crusade," and the cult human
sacrifice sequence is very "Temple of Doom." These are just a few of
the many references to the original trilogy that spring to mind right away- the
game is filled with them.
So what went wrong? While
the game does feature a strong plot, great characters, as well as lots of
action and adventure, these ideas are not always well executed. Playing on the PS2 was problematic on a
couple of levels. Obviously, the
graphics have aged - anyone who is used to playing Uncharted or other
contemporary games will be stunned by how blurry everything looks. I tried not to let this bias me too much. However, the hardware was a serious problem
when it came to frame rate issues. This
was particularly egregious when it came to the swimming levels (of which there
are many), but also occurred often on certain maps (such as Istanbul) or during
certain sequences (such as the car chase in Hong Kong). When there were multiple baddies and Indy was
under water, the game chugged to just a few frames a second. This seemed to increase the chance of
glitches occurring. In one memorable
sequence on my play-through, Indy got "stuck" in the floor and wall
of an underwater cavern. I struggled
mightily with the controller as his oxygen bar slowly depleted and Indy began
to drown. At the last second, I was able
to free him, but this was an exception.
There were other clipping issues as well- one time the cable cars I got
stuck in a mountain and was unable to move.
I had to restart the PS2 in order to resume playing.
I also should comment on the music- while I was excited to
hear the Indy theme at the start of the game, the sad truth is that the main
theme song (and various permutations of it) make up 90% of the game's
music. My wife hated this game because
the theme song was basically on loop (sometimes it was played softly, other
times more loudly). Even if you like the
music from the movies, prepare to have your patience tested.
The controls of the game were OK, and the fight mechanics
worked pretty well for the most part.
Indy uses a wide range of weapons besides his fists (Webley, shotgun, machetes,
speargun, MP-40, etc) and the game makes good use of the whip with various
swinging puzzles. Indy can execute a
number of moves when fighting, including grabs and different combos. This makes for some solid comic-book style
action fighting. My most memorable
"Indy moment" took place fighting on the castle in Prague. I got punched off a ledge and thought for
certain I was dead- only to have Indy grab on at the last second to a ledge on
a lower level. Indy pulled himself up and
sprinted back up the stairs before kicking the crap out of his Nazi attacker
(then recovering his fedora, dusting it off, putting it on, and pressing on).
Again though, for these positives, there were also negatives. There were far too many
"insta-kills" in the game- situations in which a small misstep would
kill Indy and send you back to the start of the level. The difficulty of the game ramps up pretty
quickly. While I do like a challenge, there
were many times when I got frustrated and angry with the game. After fighting through a long level (20
minutes+), it seems unfair to kill Indy when he misses a jump at the end of it,
forcing the player to repeat the whole thing over again. These "insta-kills" are all over
the place, particularly as the game advances, so players must brace themselves
for a lot of trial and error. I also had
a lot of trouble with the "Kraken" fight, in no small part due to the
frame rate issues making the controls extremely choppy and unwieldy. My notes for this section simply read:
"remember the anger."
In sum, the Emperor's Tomb is a good game that borders on being
"great" but is done in by frame rate issues and punishing level
design. I suspect that a lot of these
issues would have been improved if I played the PC version rather than PS2, but
this would not alleviate the frequent "insta-kills" and the
repetitiveness of the gameplay. All in
all, the game goes on a bit too long. While
I liked this game, my frustration and anger with certain sequences kept me from
loving it.
Indy Rating: 7.5/10
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