A well-made action/adventure, but if Indy traded in his fedora and leather jacket for a large pair of you-know-whats, you'd swear you were playing Tomb Raider.....on a console.
"Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb" is an action/adventure game from LucasArts starring everyone's favorite action hero. Featuring an original storyline, you must guide Indy as he leaps, climbs, swims, shoots, and punches his way through many various exotic locations.
The story follows Indiana Jones, legendary adventurer and archaeologist, as he tries to prevent an ancient Chinese artifact from falling into the evil hands of the Asian underground and (surprise, surprise) the Nazis. He is occasionally assisted by Mei Ying, an undercover agent with ninja-like skills. The story is told through many between-mission cutscenes and, to a lesser extent, the missions themselves. It is standard Indy fare, featuring a lot of action and many mystical elements. Although it holds few surprises, it does keep you interested.
You play Indy in third person mode through a series of missions which are grouped into chapters. Indy gets to visit quite a few different locales such as Istanbul, Hong Kong, Prague, and Ceylon, as well as other more fantastical places. The camera gives you an over-the-shoulder view, but at times it can be erratic and keep you from seeing your intended target or destination.
The settings are well-rendered and detailed. You will find yourself in outdoor environments such as tropical jungles and city streets, but more often than not, you will be indoors exploring huge caverns, castles, and even a nightclub. Some pieces of the environment can be manipulated or destroyed, such as levers to pull, doors to open, crates to smash, and barrels to blow up. But most of the scenery is just that....scenery.
The music and sound effects are well done and the familiar Indy theme can be heard throughout. The music can be repetitive at times, but it never gets terribly annoying. The voice acting was solid, including a reasonable attempt at recreating Harrison Ford's familiar tone.
Your enemies vary somewhat by chapter, but there is plenty of redundancy to them within each chapter. Most of the baddies blindly charge right at you, but a few will go for sounding the alarm, which always brings reinforcements. At the end of each chapter, you will inevitably face a tough boss battle that forces you to find a sneaky way to achieve victory.
When you aren't dealing with Nazis or thugs, you will be faced with jumps to make or puzzles to solve. Some of the jumps can be made by simply leaping and grabbing on to the ledge on the other side with both hands and then pulling yourself up. Not easy in real life, but Indy does it with aplomb. However, many jumps require the assistance of Indy's trademark whip. There are many convenient objects that jut out above the longer jumps that just happen to make a perfect spot for you to snap your whip at, wrapping it around the object and allowing you to swing across. The trickiest jumps require you to do this "whip jump" twice (or even three times) in a row before reaching the other side. I found these double and triple whip jumps particularly challenging, and unforgiving, as failing usually meant instant death.
The adventure part of the game is delivered through a series of puzzles scattered throughout the missions. The puzzles range from using a set of bells to recreate a series of tones that are played for you, to manipulating a strange contraption to open doors. The difficulty levels of the puzzles vary. Some are very easy, while others will send all but the most hardcore adventure gamer to research walkthroughs on the web. But all the puzzles are logical and don't require you to make long journeys to pick up obscure items.
You will have a decent arsenal of weapons to use on your enemies, including a couple handguns, a shotgun, a machine gun, grenades, knives, and swords, as well as time bombs that are needed to access secret areas and solve door-opening problems. Indy's faithful whip is also available to be used, but it seems to do little damage, mainly keeping enemies at bay. Ammo needs to be conserved in this game and picking up weapons and ammo from your vanquished foes is often critical. And, as always, ammo can sometimes be found in crates that are lying around, just waiting to be smashed. Because ammo is in short supply, bare knuckle fighting is often the way to go. The animations and feel for the fisticuffs was well done. For healing purposes, medpacks can be found along the way, as well as fountains that fill up your canteen.
The missions themselves are usually quite linear. Most of the time, there is a set way to go and only one way to get past an obstacle. Stealth can be used in many missions, but it is always possible to fight your way through every level. There a few missions that try to keep things fresh by giving you a chance to use an anti-aircraft gun to shoot down planes or a mounted MG in the back of a vehicle that you use to shoot at your pursuing foes. Each chapter also gives you the opportunity to find three artifacts that aren't necessary to complete the game, but actually open up a secret gallery of game art upon finishing the game.
One unforgivable feature in this game is the lack of save opportunities. 'Emperor's Tomb' goes the route of many console games where your progress is only saved at the completion of each mission and nowhere else. It is entirely possible to work your way toward the end of a mission, completing many hard jumps and fragging many enemies, only to repeat the whole process because you fell off a ledge near the end. This can be very frustrating, especially if you are not adept at jumping puzzles. I came close several times to giving up on the game because of this, and in fact, I downloaded a saved game to get past one mission.
'Emperor's Tomb' is a solo-player-only game and once it is completed, there is not much incentive to replay the game unless you wish to attempt it on a harder difficulty setting.
Overall, 'Emperor's Tomb' is a well-made made action/adventure title that can be recommended with two caveats. First, you must enjoy jumping puzzles or at least be somewhat adept at them, as there is enough jumping in this game to ruin it for you otherwise. Second, be prepared to replay many parts of this game over and over due to the lack of a true PC-style save feature. The amount of replaying will certainly be determined by the player's skill level. If these two features do not bother you, and you are looking for a good Tomb Raider-type game, then 'Emperor's Tomb' may be right up your alley.
