Emperor's Tomb review
Written: Apr 22 '03 (Updated Apr 23 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great concept, good fighting system, good sized, it's Indiana Jones
Cons: Graphics need polish, Could use a few puzzles to replace the switch and lever pulling.
The Bottom Line: If you are a an Indy fan, it's a no-brainer. But others might not be as forgiving. It's refreshing to see that there is a new Indiana Jones game.
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| jesse12's Full Review: Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb for Xbox |
Ever since I was six years old, and now at twenty-eight, "Raiders of the Lost Ark" has been my favorite movie ever made. No action/ adventure movie can ever come close. I have been an Indiana Jones freak ever since I can remember. So, don't be surprised if I'm somewhat forgiving in my review of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. The newest and best Indiana Jones game to date.
Concept:
Most of Emperors Tomb takes place in China, where Indy is searching for a secret artifact buried with one of the first Emperor's of China. But the Nazi's and a Chinese criminal organization have their own plans. Indy will also visit other locals, such as Sari Lanka (You know, that Island below India), Prague, and Turkey in search of all pieces of the Mirror of Dreams.
Gameplay:
Most of the gameplay revolves around swinging on ledges with Indy's whip, hanging and swinging on chains, lever yanking, switch pulling, and beating the crap out of Nazi's.
And you will find that doing hand-to-hand combat is a real blast for a while. The rumble feature works real well in this game. Whenever Indy delivers say an uppercut to a Nazi's jaw, the rumble feature gives a satisfying feeling. It's fun getting your enemies in a headlock and pounding them. Or throwing an enemy off a cliff into a pool of sharks. Indy can also get down a dirty and picks up a shovel or piece of wood and knock's the hell out them. Liquor bottles are also very effective. You also have the choice of either mowing down a group of Nazi's with a machine gun or thrusting a Turkish sword into their hearts.
And of course, Indy has his trusty revolver.
It is also fun to explore the many exotic locals in this adventure. The Emperor's Tomb is sort of a long game, which is a good thing. There are about ten locations in the game. Each broken up into good-sized levels. Well the Hong Kong levels were short.
On the downside, there is too much lever pulling and not enough puzzles. This makes the gameplay somewhat repetitive. On a good note, the Clock puzzle in Prague, and the Chinese puzzle are pretty good.
After Indy dies, he has to start the level all over again. Luckily its not too bad though because there is not too many bottomless pits that Indy has to swing or jump over, and the bottomless pits he does, are pretty easy.
At first, I was very afraid that it would be one of those Tomb Raider type games, where you die falling into pits more often than anything. If that was the case with the Emperor's Tomb, seeing that you have to start the level over again when you die, it would be unplayable.
Another thing that helps is the game is not too hard in itself, and if you really try to survive through each level, you should be able to do it without dying too much.
Graphics:
The graphics really could have used that extra polish. That means Lucas Arts should have put that extra 5% before releasing it. It could have been a great looking game. The concept is great, the art is good, the locals look exotic and fit for an Indiana Jones adventure, but that much-needed polish is not there. I would be willing to wait a couple more months for this game, if it meant that the final product would be superior.
The first thing that this game needs is a boost in the frame rate. It's amazing how much better a game can look if it just moves faster and smoother. Second, this game would look much better at a much higher resolution. Many of the textures in this game are quite poor. Some of the modeling is just a little bit too simple; a few more polygons would be nice. Don't get me wrong this is not a bad looking game, I see potential in this game. The characters look good; Indy himself is modeled with very good detail.
The Nazi uniforms look good and really look like they're from that evil empire.
There is great concept displayed in some of the environments. The Emperor's Tomb level in particular is very effective and looks great. A bit more polish and we could have had a real killer on our hands.
Sound:
Like all Lucas Arts games, it's great to hear music from your favorite movies featured in a videogame.
And Indy's voice over is dead on. The music and sound is just the kind of thing you might hear in the next Indy flick. On the other hand, Indy's new attractive Chinese girlfriend sounds more like a native Hawaiian, than Chinese does in her accent. The rest of the voice-overs are on the ok side. Overall, the sounds pretty good.
Conclusion:
I loved playing this game. To me it is like watching the next Indiana Jones movie that I have been waiting so long for.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
jesse12
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 2 members
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