Customer Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I simply don't understand all the negative reviews on this game. Yes, the controls are alittle clunky at first, but I think that it is very easy to get used to them. I loved Infernal Machine but this one is even better. The main highlight of the game in my opinion is the hand to hand fight sequences. They are so much fun! Unlike in Infernal machine, you now can move in all directions, as opposed to the forward- backwards interface infernal machine had. The sound effects are great too. It has the loud, unrealistic punch sound effects like the ones that are used in the Indy Films. I also think it is really cool how you can use a variety of random items as weapons. Such as a shovel, table leg, liquor bottle....etc.
AS for the negatives, there are 3 main things that I don't like about the game. 1 is the lack of an in-game save option. This can get extremely frustrating, but it is manageable. Another is the puzzles are much less difficult then the ones in the Infernal Machine, for those of you who are familiar with that game. But the main thing that I found annoying about the game in the fact that around 80% of the time, you don't have any ammo for your trusty revolver. After all, what's the point of Indiana Jones if you see a guy flailing a big sword around and not being able to casually pull out your gun and shoot him. :-) Overall, I think that this is a worthy addition to the Indiana Jones game family. Again, the hand to hand fight interface is worth the money alone. If you were a fan of infernal machine, or just a plane Indy fan, you wont be disappointed.

This game is one of the most frustrating games I've ever played. Bad-1) It does not allow save points and auto saves at the start of every level. Thereby if Indy dies, you have to re-start from the level. Bad-2) I always prefer using mouse left button to move forward and right button to move back. But its camera movement keys are hardcoded for the same. I still managed to use the mouse for movement but for swinging using Indy's whip, I've had to change the movement keys because then the mouse buttons would not let me swing Indy. And swinging using the whip is to be done scores of times. Bad 3) Most levels are very very tough. Fall in the water..Sharks attack, Swing..someone shoots. So be prepared to play levels innumerable times.BUT...Good 1)The graphics are awesome. Some levels like the China & Istanbul levels are to be seen to be believed. Truly beautiful. Good 2) The fight sequences are just great. Kicking, fisting, fighting using table legs, bottles or other items is superb. Good 3) Some of the puzzles are very good. The graphics used to showing the puzzles like the Zodiac clock is wonderful. All in all, the tough levels, the frustration in re-starting the levels add to one's determination to finish this frustrating yet awesome game. I hope Lucas Arts corrects the bad points and bring out an Indy III game soon.

I've been playing Indiana Jones games on the PC since they first started coming out, and I found this one disappointing. Lots of potential and there are some cool things, but the jerky camera and poor implementation of the controls is a pain. In fact, this game literally gives me a headache like some of the old 3D FPS have done from the jerky camera. Some of the fighting is fun, but you can't assign weapons to keys and are forced to use a scrolling inventory to select them which makes pulling out a particular weapon in the middle of a brawl quite difficult. The puzzles are mostly jumping puzzles where if you don't time it just right you start over, and these get really frustrating if you're not used to playing games with these. The game is very linear and has some enjoyable moments, but I expect more from LucasArts. If you're a fan of Indiana Jones you'll probably enjoy this game, but if you're looking for something with more of an adventure game element like Fate of Atlantis, you'll probably be very disappointed.

Ignoring the Console Porting Issues for a moment, let's look at the levels themselves. The first level, as always, is an introductory affair - boring, easy, and generally just a chore. Levels two and three on the other hand are pure adventuring goodness - inventive puzzles, varied environments, perfect mix of action and thinking, beautiful voluminous areas, etc. The entire remaining 7 levels of the game are a let-down from there - they're much shorter, less creative, and don't live up to potential. (One exception - a mystical enemy-seeking boomerang/throwing star that goes through walls. Awww, yeah). So, on levels alone, we're already down to 3 stars - some great moments, mostly not.

Then come the Issues. 1) No quicksaving, or in-level saving of any kind. 2) Horrendous underwater control. 3) Awkward access of inventory. 4) No scroll-wheel support. 5) Exiting the game, and loading any level over again, requires a drop to the main menu...which takes a while to load, and has a whooshing entrance cutscene that also takes up time, meaning it's about 40 seconds just to restart a level. 6) Sadly limited graphics and sound options, including no option for 3D sound at all. 7) The worst shadows ever - Indy is the only thing in the whole game that casts a real-time shadow. And on and on it goes.

As a further annoyance - there are Artifacts scattered 3 to a level throughout the game, I suppose to give extra challenge. Near as I can tell, though, they do absolutely NOTHING. In Infernal Machine, you could buy stuff when you found them. Here, not only can you not do THAT, but inventory doesn't carry over at all.

The one remaining good thing is the fights - fighting with table legs, chairs, Chinese spears, liquor bottles, and just about anything else, is definitely fun. Even here, though, there aren't enough moves to keep it completely interesting, so fights tend to simply follow a pattern as you get later in the game, and become nuisances rather than entertaining sequences.

All in all, a profoundly [bad] effort for a PC game. Consolers are used to this kind of mindless, uninventive, inconsistent "fun", but I'd like to think PC developers have higher standards. Shame on the Collective and Lucasarts.

What a terrible disappointment. I've begun playing the PC Version of Indy and the Emperor's Tomb, but the keyboard control of his movement is very clumsy. With high quality engines like the Quake architecture available, there's no excuse for such aggravating movement problems.

But the worst thing is that the game does not allow you to save games! After working through a long series of actions, should you slip and "die," you have to go back to the beginning of the level, where the game may have saved a start point. You then have to work repeatedly through the same portions you have played, just to get back to a simple action point.

Miss a jump? Too bad, you have to crawl through a series of very difficult steps, fighting the lousy control engine, just to get back to try a single action.

How could they screw up such a great game so badly.

A very disappointed Indy fan....

Compared to the previous Indianna Jones game, The Infernal Machine, this game is phenomenal. The graphics are gorgeous and the frame rates are fine(on my high-end PC). The controls take a while to get used to, but if you are experienced with using the mouse and keyboard, or if you have a game controller, you will be fine with the control aspect.
The levels are designed well, with an intrigueing story line and cool pre-level cut scenes. Another great aspect of the game that many people have overlooked is its PERFECT balance of guns and hand/whip combat. The last Indy game left his fists with no real use, but this game is remarkable and extremely fun when it comes to fist fighting. The fights are long and leaves you with lots of room to improvise(left mouse button is left hand, right button right hand). I am also able to grab the opponent and then do a variety of combo-move on him such as punching as I hold him, knee him, head-butt, or throw over a cliff or into a wall. If your skilled enough, you can even get your opponent into a headlock. The guns on the other hand, do not kill the opponent in one shot and have precious ammo, as it should be. It is often easier to whip a gun out of an opponents hand and beat the crap out of him with your fists.
Many people have complained that you are unable to save a game where ever you want, but I like it like that. It is more challenging and organized, and leaves me without all those save files that I lose track of. I have not had the problem of having to redo a section over and over again from dieing right at the end. I've been playing the game on normal difficulty through 6 levels and have only gotten to the END of a section and die once, so it really shouldn't be considered a problem. I highly recommend this game to anyone looking for an adventurous, action-packed, challenging, fun, fast-paced, intruiging, challenging, exciting, intense, fun, well-made...game.

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine was no doubt a very good game. The puzzles and level design were ingenious. If there were any complaints, it was that some of the levels were too long and the action was clumsy. Despite having a totally unbelievable plot (ancient mechanical machines from ethereal beings?), it was still interesting.

So then comes Emperor's Tomb. Unfortunately, lucasarts took what was good in the previous game and made it worse. The puzzles aren't really much of a brainteaser. Most people who were challenged with the Infernal Machine puzzles will find the ones here bland and kinda 'dumb'. In conclusion, this game was emphasized to be more action oriented. This isn't necessarily a bad thing if the controls weren't so horrible. It is virtually impossible to position Indy the way you'd like him to be without the camera angles and controls messing you up repeatedly. You have no idea how frustrating it can be to jump off a ledge just to grab a piece of dangling rope. You'll position Indy just perfect for the jump when he all of a sudden changes direction slightly and totally misses the rope. What's even worse is that there is no quicksave feature either; you must complete a level without dying. So basically, if you work hard through a difficult level and accidently fall off a terrace while approaching an exit then yep, you gotta start the whole level over again. This is probably what ticks off a lot of players.

I wish game companies would finally get the point that the save features in games are what really matter to people. Most games with awful save features wind up getting extremely bad reviews.

The game seems too tv-console oriented. These days, just about every game has been watered-down for ease on consoles. Ironically, the PC version of Emperor's Tomb beats the X-box or PS2 version with technical/graphical improvements.

But despite its flaws, the fighting sequences are thrilling. I've never gotten so much satisfaction beating the crap out of people with the classic overblown hollywood punches, guns, and of course the mighty whip. The game also stays closer to the movies and has a far more believable plot.

In the end this is still probably one of the better games to have come out in 2003. If you can stomach the problems, then you'll enjoy this game.

If it was not for the controls, that game would have been great! Graphics are gorgeous. The story holds you spellbound. Fist fights are fun. But those controls are a real killjoy. Even after hours of playing, you can't get acustomed to the fact that Indy's movements are based on the camera position and not Indy himself. So if you happen to have Indy facing you (wall behind his back), he'll move forward if you hit the backward key, go right when the left move key is punched and vice versa! And as soon as the angle of the camera changes, all movements change. It got on my nerves so much that I quit playing the game 4 levels through.
Piece of advice: go the official web site, download the demo and try for yourself before buying the game.
Great disappointment!

Way back in 1999, a game was forged by the masters at Lucasarts called the Infernal Machine, which brought Indy into a totally new world rendered in glorious 3D. Although it did indeed have its moments and some very memorable (mine cart chase, Jeep riding in the Phillipines, pyramids at Meroe), it was plagued by a plethora of pointless and tremendously tedious puzzles which made you want to grab your CD out of the tray and throw it in the trash. Combat was extremely rare and the weapons were poorly balanced with a very sci-fi oriented plot, not typical for an Indy game. I did have some fun with the Infernal Machine but I yearned for a real adventure with greater combat, fewer puzzles and more exciting locales complete with a fun story line. I got my wish almost four years later.

Now Lucasarts has had a chance to redeem itself by contracting the developers at the Collective to revise Indy's previous adventures with a totally new engine. Utilizing an intriguing plot set in 1935, Indy returns to his fond globetrotting days reminiscent of Raiders of the Lost Ark, journeying to such exotic locales as Ceylon, Prague, Istanbul, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia in search of a mysterious artifact.

The graphics and sound are both first rate, especially if your video card can crank up the settings to make this game look absolutely gorgeous, that is leaps and bounds ahead of its xbox counterpart. Even if it isn't you'll still be able to enojy some very fine visuals. I've been playing on my old clunker (P3 733 Geforce 2 64 MB with 384 DDR RAM) and it still looks fantastic on 1024x768). The game particullary shines on the Istanbul and Prague chapters in a creepy Gothic castle crawling with SS agents, the underwater palaces of Belisarius and ancient mosques with sword wielding Turkish guards. The combat system is the gem of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb that uses some of the finest animation yet seen in the third person adventure genre. I particularly like the hand to hand combat that Indy can finally engage in and the frequent number of firefights.

The sound, like any Lucasarts game, is robust although slightly lacking in certain areas. The music is well done but I almost wish that more of John Williams' music from the films had been incorporated even though we get to hear variations of the Raider's March at certain moments. Voice acting is worthy of commendation for having hired an actor that bears an uncanny resemblence to Harrison Ford's husky voice that hits the mark.

The controls aren't as bad as everybody says they are although they can test one's patience at times, especially without a save system when one jump can be the difference between life and death. It takes a little getting used to but I find it to be a nice addition being able to see all of Indy with a 360 degree camera that goes away from the traditional fixed 3rd person camera like Mafia or GTA3.

The levels are small but there are about 60 of them which really makes it fun to explore totally new environments in stead of being stuck for hours in one puzzle on one map. Although there are puzzles, I regret to say that most of them are ridiculously simple but at least they are interesting (Astrologer's Clock and the various coins in Istanbul).

With a few minor flaws, I am very satisfied with the Emperor's Tomb and its ingenious gameplay. This game is far from perfect but it does deserved to be played and recognized as it should go down as a stellar addition to the myriad of some of the finest Lucasarts games.

This game is like a pretty good summer flick. It comes out, you see it once, everyone likes it but its not setting any records. I enjoyed this game from the begining to the end. It had a decent plot, so-so graghics, great sound, good gameplay.

Graghics: Graghics are the first thing you see, and unfortunetly are what many people dislike some games for. Graghics are important, but not the most important. This game has so-so graghics. There are some absolutely stunning graghics in the game, and then there's that part where your gun goes into the wall and out the other side. Major clipping problems, but it shouldn't bother someone too much.3/5

Sound: This game has excelent music, great sound effects, and supperb voice acting. The actor that did Indy in the game sounds just like Ford himself! The music is John Williams so you cant go wrong, and I prommise you will have the theme song stuck in your head within 5 minutes. 5/5

Plot: Indiana Movies always have good, fastpaced plots. This game is not exception. It wouldn't win any acadamy awards, but it is a Fantastic story line for a computer game.5/5

Gameplay: This is the most important factor in reviewing games. You can controll Indy with ease, the fist fights are amazing, there are some interesting puzzles and you wont get bored. There are some levels that i found over frusterating and not fun, there were way to many of these "water levels" where u swim and avoid sharks and stuff. Thankfully however, you get though these halfway through the game. 4/5

This game was a lot of fun. It took me about 12 hours to complete and it was exciting and enjoyable to the end. It doesn't have a lot of replay value, but i am playing some of my favorite levels over again. If you are a big Indy fan get this game now! It will knock your sox off. If you don't like Indy, I would suggest you wait untill the price goes down but still buy it. Happy treasure hunting! and look for the new Indiana Jones movie in 2005!