By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

Traveller’s Tales must be quite happy with what they’ve been doing for the last few years. Its LEGO Star Wars adventure games have been hits among kiddie and older gamers and these successfully introduced younger people to the historic Star Wars franchise. It’s quite a tall order for a developer to create a new game, using the same game engine on a different franchise and make it successful.

Not surprisingly, it did. Traveller’s Tales (and publisher LucasArts) introduced the same gameplay to Indiana Jones starting with the original trilogy. It brings the same blocky in-game players, the same action gameplay, and the same of the old platforming and puzzle-solving adventures that the LEGO Star Wars fans enjoyed. The LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is a sure-fire hit that even those not familiar with the Harrison Ford-starred films will have as much fun playing as finding out where the Indiana Jones history started.

As the title implies, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is based on the first three movies: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade. Nearly all of the most memorable scenes in the movies have been incorporated into the game but to avoid confusion, the developers made Barnett College as Indy’s “base of operations.” This is where he teaches. To start an adventure in one movie the player has to go through portals which are Indy’s office, a theater and an artifact room. Upon entering, each of the portals will first direct to a short cut scene describing that part of the movie scene. The base of operations concept in this game is similar to the LEGO Star Wars games where the players have to start in a Mos Eisley cantina, which has doors leading to certain stages in the game.

Those who have played LEGO Star Wars might wonder how LEGO Indiana Jones would fare without Force-powered Jedis or gun-totting droids and soldiers. Not to worry, Indy’s whip is as good as a lightsaber and his other buddies Marion Ravenwood (who is also present in the more recent Indiana Jones movie), Elsa Schneider, Willie Scott and even Indiana Jones Sr. have skills that are useful in the game. Some characters are also unlockable, such as Thugees, Rene Belloq and Walter Donovan who are adept in problem solving.

There are missions in the games that may require the special skills of particular characters in the game, which is why players opt to be familiar with the playable characters in the game. Only two characters can be used in each game and control can be transferred to the other character for specific purposes.

Humorously, the developers also added a bit of zest in the game by introducing the phobias of each of the characters. These phobias can be in the form of snakes (for Indy), spiders (for Willie) and rats (Indy Jones Sr.). The characters will freeze and move slowly when these creatures are around them so players have to change control to another character to avoid being affected by the presence of the creature, after which the frozen character will start moving normally.

The game is both an adventure and a puzzle-driven game. However, the puzzles are not too difficult even for younger kids. Some puzzles require players to build vehicles, which are pieces of strewn LEGO pieces in a certain area. When the pieces are formed, players can use these to travel to the next stage or to escape enemies. There are also a few mini-games, noteworthy of which is the boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, which will require the player to run away from a LEGO boulder through a tunnel while avoiding bumping into walls and falling into spiked pits as the camera continuously shifts.

There are times when puzzles do not need to be experienced or even finished as the game’s major puzzles will already allow players to unlock the next scenes. The good thing about this is that players can always go back to these mini-puzzles which also unlock treasure chests, similar to mini-kits in LEGO Star Wars. Prizes found in these
treasure chests will go to the artifact room in the Barnett College and can be viewed when Indy goes back to the base of operations.

As for the combat system, LEGO Indiana Jones tries as much as it could to be more family-oriented since so much of the guns in the game are still toys. Likewise, because Indiana mostly uses his whip, he can just pick up guns dropped by his enemies and pick them up to shoot others. The guns have limited ammunition though normally they’re not necessary as Indy’s whip can do quite some damage on its own.

On the other hand, humor is also flavorful in this game and make up for the lack of dialogue. The mime-like actions of the LEGO characters already tells a lot about what the game is all about.

The game isn’t too hard to beat and can be finished pretty quickly (about 8 hours in easy mode and only the major puzzles are played). It’s also difficult to actually die in the game because characters respawn in previous areas. It does not take away the fun at all because characters can die several times in some of the more difficult puzzles. It’s also highly replayable due to the presence of many mini-puzzles or mini-games, which can only be played by using the correct character.

Surprisingly, the PlayStation 2 version of LEGO Indiana Jones holds up in terms of graphics with the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. This is largely because the game is based on an old but modified LEGO Star Wars game engine that also came out on the PS2.

Hopefully, Traveller’s Tales will release a game version of the Indiana Jones and
the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just to complete the series, much as it did with Star Wars.