Well, for the past three days if you seen me on AFK on AIM, IRC, or Yahoo! Messenger, then I should now tell you, that I've been watching the Indiana Jones movies. In keeping with my trend that there are too many Star Wars games in the world, I find Indiana Jones quite a refreshing game after reviewing Rogue Squadron. The graphics are by far better, and the only thing that restricts this game on the PC platform, is the difficulty of playing it on the keyboard. The controls are something like ctrl is function (pick up object, shoot, etc), alt is jump, and to run you must hold shift, all of course while using the directional pad to move. As in most lucas arts games, the number pad on the side and top provides quick access to guns, but all the same, this game is really made quite a bit more difficult by the simple fact that one must play using the keyboard. Is that perhaps why Lucas Arts made another version for the N64? I dont know, but as soon as possible Im going to get my hands on the N64 edition, and see if it is any easier.
As you can see from the screens above, the game has really good graphics. I also like how the minds at lucas arts came up with the loading screen being a map (with the red line as the loading bar, duh) as that fits so well with the theme of the game.
The gameplay itself, (as I mentioned) is hindered on the PC by the fact that the controls are so difficult, and while it is possible to make your own control set, in my experience the game crashes once that dialog has been brought up. I actually broke down half way through the second level of this game and went out to buy a $30 Gamepad. It worked a little better but the only thing I have to say is, if you get a gamepad, dont get the Sidewinder unless your positive your game supports it, Infernal Machine supports it, but doesnt support remapping of the Gamepad's buttons for different functions, and as such you are really stuck with whatever you can get. In the other aspects of the gameplay I like the animations Indy has for jumping, pushing, pulling, and picking up objects. Of course we cant forget the senseless violence, in the second level alone you get to kill at least 15 Communists (I guess they figured the Nazi aspect was getting old after a while) And of course the death animations and guns you pick up from them are always worth it :-p. As I never played many of the Tomb Raider games Im glad Indys finally got another game out. Its only been what, 4 years?!
As far as the story goes, I think it evolves fairly well, and the game certainly offers a wide variety of locations which you visit on the adventure. Off the top of my head I know that three of the locations are Arizona, Nepal, and Babylon. The basis of the story, is that your friend, Sophia Hapgood (former mind reader for those of you who played Fate of Atlantis) Is now a member of the CIA, and has discovered that the communists in russia are trying to un earth the "Infernal Machine" which gives them some sort of power blah blah thats always the catch. Anywho - Indy must recover the peices of the machine before the russians can get them, which sends him to all different locations across the world. As far as character modeling goes.... Well, Indy's player model is the best out there, the rest kind of share his proportions with a different appearance. The only model that really looks different is the Soviet leader (whos name I forget) who is very, very out of proportion as you can see above.
As far as the sound in this game goes...eh..its satisfactory. Its nothing really all that special, but Lucas Arts seemed to have thought they could actually make the player models look like their talking. Riight. Really all it looks like is a poorly dubbed japanese horror film (in most cases). In other cases their mouths just dont move at all. The music, is good, although in most cases there isnt alot to speak of. Its kind of a tension builder in the atmosphere, where you move when its quiet and as you reach an important point the music fades in and goes faster, etc. Just like in the original mario for NES when your running out of time :-p. I also like the voice that they gave to Indy and Sophia (although I find mainly its just the same people from Fate of Atlantis but they did a good job anyway, so I like the voice. The only thing about this game Im not big on, is the communists. Its always been that Indy's fought Nazis and so in this game I feel a little more like its GoldenEye then I do an Indiana Jones game.
Overall, I think that if you can get past the difficulty in the controls this is a really good game. If you have troubles with the puzzels and such you could be like me and buy the encyclopedic-like prima guide, or follow the online walkthroughs found at their site.
