Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures
PlayStation 3
Nostalgia Factor:
I first played this game back in 2008 or 2009, which, to my shocking realization, is about 15 or 16 years ago now. I remember liking the game, but other than that, not giving it much of a second thought. Even back then, I was familiar with the Lego games and realized that all of them were pretty much the exact same thing.
I'm not sure why I am coming back to this game now, after all this time. I think it's more of a "why not?" than anything else. My goal is to play through and review as many games for this blog as I can, so why not make Lego Indiana Jones one of those games?
Story:
This game covers the original three movies in the Indiana Jones series: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temple of Doom, and The Last Crusade. If you are unfamiliar with Lego games, the events of these movies are told, but with a humorous spin to them. Everyone is made of Legos, and no one can speak. They sort of pantomime and grunt the events of the movie. Everything is exaggerated to great comic effect. It really is quite cute.
My only gripe is that for some reason the part from The Last Crusade with young Indiana Jones is oddly missing from this game. I was looking forward to getting to The Last Crusade only to discover it wasn't there. Hmm. The game also does away with Nazi imagery and makes the villains generic bad guys in nondescript military outfits. I suppose it makes sense. The swastika is not exactly a symbol that they'd probably want displayed on their Lego brand.
Gameplay:
This is the same as any other Lego game out there. You play through a series of stages inspired by the source material. You have an unlimited supply of lives. You punch enemies, destroy everything in the environment, put together Lego pieces, and use your characters' special abilities to solve puzzles. Each movie contains six stages. Once you make your way through all six stages (thus the events of one of the movies), the credits roll. When they are done, select the next movie and dive in.
In typical Lego fashion, the game is not very long. Instead, it tries to get you to play through the game multiple times, after you've unlocked new characters. These characters will come with special abilities you need to solve puzzles that you couldn't solve your first time through. I think I've made my stance on this pretty clear in past reviews, but if you are a new reader, I'll repeat myself. I never play through these Lego games a second time. Once I beat the story mode, I consider the game complete. All the extra stuff has never been worth it for me. I understand I may be missing out on a lot of the appeal of these games, for some gamers, but I do not care. I typically don't like any game enough to play through it more than one time after I've beaten it. And this game is certainly not good or interesting enough to make me want to play it again. Once is more than enough.
Graphics:
This game looks good enough. All the characters and locales from the Indiana Jones movies are faithfully recreated in Lego form. Part of the joy for me was playing through the game and seeing what they were going to do from one scene to the next, and how they were going to interpret it in Lego form.
I wouldn't say the game looks super amazing or anything like that. If you've played a Lego game, you know what to expect, and this game delivers exactly that.
Sound:
This game has a sensational soundtrack. It's hard to screw things up, considering they were allowed to pull music directly from the movies. The soundtrack really helps engross the player in the world of Indiana Jones. I know it really got me pumped and "into" the game. Each movie has their own little distinct tunes associated with them. I was a particular fan of some of the Temple of Doom music. And of course there is the main theme, which is always great.
As this is an early Lego game, there is no voice acting. And you know what? I kind of prefer things this way. The voice acting sometimes takes me out of a Lego game, with its poor quality. I think the fact that there is no dialogue makes many of the scenes so much funnier than they would have been otherwise.
Overall:
I had a better than expected time with this game. I certainly liked it a lot more than I did the first time I played it back in '08. Sure, it's just another Lego game. But if you like the theme of the Lego game, I often find it can mask the repetitive nature of the gameplay. And I love Indiana Jones. Not only that, but the stories and the action sequences of Indiana Jones really lend themselves well to the idea of a Lego game.
In typical Dan fashion, I only played through the story campaign before calling it quits. If you like to collect things and you like going back and replaying old areas, you may enjoy trying to collect 100% of everything in the game. I'm certain some fun stuff is unlocked, like extra missions, characters, and outfits. Again - if that's your thing: go for it. But me? I'm just a story mode kind of guy. I don't care about all that extra stuff.
I'm a little torn because I realize that this is just a typical Lego game, and there isn't much special about it. But at the same time, I enjoyed my time with this game. I enjoyed it more than I normally do a Lego game. So how do I grade it?
There is one particular score that I've had in my mind since I finished up this game. I guess I'm just going to go with that. It'll be a B-. Not necessarily a great score, but not low enough to fall in the C range either. I almost feel this is too high for a Lego game (in fact, only one Lego game has ever scored higher than a B-). But you know what? I liked the game. I really loved the theme and the music. I had fun. And that's all that matters. Will I ever play this game again, though? Probably not.
THE GRADE:
B-
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