- Title: LEGO Indiana Jones
- Platform: Xbox 360
- Publisher: LucasArts
- Developer: Traveller’s Tales
- ESRB Rating: “E” For Everyone
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- Pros: Fun gameplay; cool secrets; good puzzles
- Cons: Very familiar if you played LEGO Star Wars; bringing a whip to a gun fight = frustration; no online play
LEGO Indiana Jones, with the subtitle “The Original Adventures”, follows Indy through the first three films of the franchise: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. Each movie is split into six levels for a total of 18 main levels along with three secret levels. Just like LSW, when you beat a level in story mode you can play through it again in Free Play. And, of course, all of the heroes and villains along with plenty of nameless generic soldiers are all playable in Free Play, which opens up new areas and can make some situations much easier. Also just like LSW, there are hidden artifacts (minikits) and cheats hidden in each level for you to find. There is a ton of content here, and to beat the game with 100% (but not 1000/1000 achievements) takes 20+ hours.
There is no online co-op this time around, which is a bummer, but local co-op is still available and it is just as fun as ever. The main hub of the game where you select missions and buy characters/cheats is Professor Jones’ school, Barnett College, which holds some interesting secrets of its own. And truly bonding the whole game together is the unique LEGO humor that puts a little twist on the familiar scenes.
Gameplay
The level design is hit or miss with some levels being exactly like the movies and others not really going how you remember. The highlight is definitely the Temple of the Grail level at the end of Last Crusade, which tests you just like in the movie.
Graphics and Sound
Gaphically, LEGO Indiana Jones is a nice looking game. Not up to normal Xbox 360 standards, mind you, but for a game about little plastic people fighting each other, it is impressive.
The sound is also very good. The music is taken right from the movies and really adds to the overall experience.
Bottom Line
On a side note, and since these won’t really be problems once the game is released these didn’t affect the score, I had a couple of other issues. I ran into a pretty serious glitch where the game would freeze when trying to play Free Play levels. Not all the time, but about 40% of the time or so. Reading message board posts from other people that got the game early, this is a common problem. Hopefully, it gets patched at release or soon after. Also, the achievement list is good, but some of the secret achievements are very obscure and are near impossible to figure out on your own. Again, after release once people stumble over them and post them on the Internet it won’t be a problem, but some of these secrets are kind of ridiculous.
