Lego Indiana Jones

I’m a big fan of these Lego games.  Lego Star Wars (LSW) (All 6 Episodes) was such a blast to play and had me laughing all the way through with the tongue-in-cheek humor.  Since we loved the previous Lego games and liked the movies (who doesn’t?) it was a no-brainer for us to pick up Lego Indiana Jones (LIJ) yesterday afternoon.

So far we’re about halfway through the first movie and the game is absolutely delivering on everything I hoped it would.  LIJ has the exact same type of humor that the Star Wars games had and all the same fun puzzles and situations that force you to stop and think.  The biggest different between LSW and LIJ is the lack of the supernaturla/scifi stuff.  LSW had blasters, Lightsabers, The Force, and other flashy things.  LIJ has whips, Guns with limited ammunition, spears, Shovels, wrenches, and other realistic items that match the setting.  There is a lot more fist fighting and planning going on, at least for me, in this game.  I’m having to make sure I watch my ammo and don’t get too ahead of myself when a wave of nazi’s come running; I’m not a Jedi afterall.

The lack of The Force doesn’t really hinder LIJ though.  There are plenty of additions to the game like throwing mechanics, building lifts and motors, and of course the whip.  The whip is just one example of how the game lets you interact with objects much more than before.  In the tavern when Indiana first meets Marion there are glass bottles at the bar that you can pick up (or in Indiana’s case whip and bring back to you) and then throw at targeted enemies.

In LSW the Mos Eisley Cantina was the “hub” that you could hang out in and buy things in between missions.  In LIJ the college that Indiana works at is your new home.  There are several rooms in the college such as an art room where you can customize your own character for Free Play and the Mail room where you pay for shipping and acquire any treasures or goodies you find throughout the game.  According to the manual there are even secret levels to find… no idea on the truth of that yet.

The graphics and options for the game are slightly better than LSW and even offer v-sync (I have no idea why) and Surround Sound.   Playing Lego games on a big HDTV with surround sound is a killer experience.  When busting up bits of lego you can hear them scatter and make noise all around you and everything is shiny.. mmm shiny.   As for the controls, they are standard and easy to pick up and play.  I do have trouble sometimes judging my jumps when having to jump outward or inward … Graev tells me that I lack depth percpetion – maybe I do!  Cliffs have been the cause of much point lossage… sad times.

As with all Lego games there is tons of replay value and objectives to achieve.  Every level has multiple treasures and collectibles to find as well as the mechanics that force you to go back and play them with different characters to overcome obstacles like small crawl spaces, Ice, and the need for explosives.  The cutscenes in the game deliver 100% on the humor, story, and Lego references.  There are even references to Lego Star Wars!  There is tons to do and never a dull moment, which is why I like these types of games so much.

Lego Indiana Jones is definitely worth buying and playing.

  • “Graev tells me that I lack depth percpetion – maybe I do!” too much time staring at computer monitors and tv’s will do that to you Keen 🙂 Thank for the review btw. I may get this one for a friend.

  • I have always liked the lego games but I have never gotten a chance to play them. This may be a good starting point.

    Also, all of a sudden you’re not talking about Warhammer/AoC and no ones interested. Fanboys are rather single minded I guess.

  • I have like 6 topics for WAR in the works. Haven’t had a lot of “sit down and write” time lately so writing about a few quick impressions of other games is a lot easier.

  • I played the Lego Star Wars demo and really enjoyed it… for some reason, I never got it though. Maybe I’ll order it second hand from amazon and get it cheap 😀

  • It’s a good MMO. Probably the best out there at the moment for me. But, it’s not perfect, can’t cater to everyone, and obviously not Keen. But for people who are happy with WoW, LOTRO etc, they’ll be happy with AoC, because it does nothing really worse than those games. But it ain’t the WoW-beater, and it ain’t the holy grail. But it ain’t half bad.