Customer Reviews

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, it's a shame that 5 years after it was announced for next gen systems it only made it to the Wii, PSP and PS2.

Otherwise for the PSP it's a fun game and not at all what I expected. Initally I thought it was going to imitate it's biggest immitator (Tomb Raider) but Indiana Jones is actually more of a beat'em up puzzler.

To win levels, you have to beat X amount of enemies within a certain time or escape a building or whatever the objective is. When you finish, your ratings translate into points in which you can use to upgrade Indy.

Does not sound exciting, I know but for a portable game this formula works very well because it's not so complex however, if you want to kill an hour or 2 this is this kind of game you want.

The controls handle ok but some levels where you have to balance ona ledge or a beam, it's pretty unforgiving and the camera angle does not help.

Another small gripe is that the AI doesn't handle ducking out of the way of gunshots very well. Also, the story sometimes bounces around without explaining where Indy is going (the airplane flying the map sequence from the movies would have been a nice touch here) and doesn't explain some characters who sometimes just randomly pop up and disapper.

But...graphically speaking, the game looks pretty good and the voice acting is done pretty well.

It's not the greatest game in the world but it's a step in the right direction to do this title some justice where most of the old Indy games had none.

Again it's a shame that this game wasn't put out on the PS3 and 360 where games like Tomb Raiders and Uncharted excel, but here is to hoping.

I had high expectations for this game. This game has been hyped so much, that I thought that this could be a challenge to the Tomb Raider Series. After seeing this game through, I can that Lara Croft has nothing to worry about.

I was hoping that this would turn out to be a great adventure game with a great storyline. The developers did not bother to develop the storyline that much, your mission is to go after the staff which the Nazis are after it, thats the storyline in the nutshell. Now with games like Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Syphon filter for the PSP, I know that PSP is capable of doing great adventure games. Unfortunely, Indiana Jones has extremely short levels. It feels more like a bunch of mini-games. With exception of a few levels, I was able to complete each level within 5 minutes. It can be good on the go, but knowing that I can put my PSP into the sleep mode and start off exactly at the last spot, does not make it necessary for the levels to be super short.

For the majority of the game, you end up playing it like a brawler, you will be doing a lot of punching. I do have to say that it was fun at times, but it got repetitive towards the end. You do get a gun with limited ammo. And you do get the whip, which brings me to my biggest complaint, it is useless. With the exception of a requirement to use it a couple of times for a couple of puzzles for the game progression, you will never use it. It does not deal as much damage, and you have a better chance of doing more damage with your fists.

The game does contain some puzzles, some of which I got stuck on. They can be interesting, but they do not happen often. For 90% of the game you will be doing a lot of punching.

I know that PSP can put limitations on what a game can do it, but having playing other games on PSP, I know that Indiana Jones could have been so much more. Big disappointment.

In spite of the poor reviews obtained so far, I really enjoyed this game. I enjoyed it because it was something most anyone who has seen the Indiana Jones films can relate to. Granted, I was expecting more puzzle solving, and more climbing around in Tombs and Temples like TR, but over all, this game did well enough to stand on its own two feet.

I liked the music, as its the same as the sound track from the feature films. I thought graphics were for the most part excellent. It was not true lifelike which is what some are expecting today, and is an unrealistic expectation, but it also was not cartoonish which is a turn off for me, and hence why I avoided the Lego version.

Camera angles were not bad, but there were some spots where they were quite annoying, but they were rare.

Controls I thought were excellent. I like the idea that the analog stick actually moved the character around instead of having to fumble with the directional arrows. Indie for the most part almost always obeyed my commands. Hints during game play were prolific, but helpful, and required you to be fast with your hands to press the correct button or do the correct move or it cost you. Most actions performed very well and as intended. I did have some trouble with the balancing where the game did not seem to respond very well to the R and L button pushing to keep balance. Also, during the final boss fight, Indie would get out of camera sight a lot and would not respond to commands as quick as I liked resulting in him getting his butt kicked.

There were complaints of a poor story line, or no story line. I thought the story line was clear from the beginning the same as it usually is in the feature films. Indie gets word of an ancient artifact (The Staff), and goes out on request to seek clues to its location, finds same, and follows them. Were there some inconsistencies, it depends, I would call them incomplete scenes. For example, Indie has to release two aircraft from the zepplins hangar and take off in a third plane to escape all while fighting bad guys. So you fight, and manage to release the planes then the level ends, and you end up elsewhere on the zepplin. What happened to leaving in the third plane? But over all, it does not take away from the game, you still have to progress through the levels to beat the game.

Levels sometimes did feel a little too short, and some were quite easy. Others were just a pain and you were grateful they were short. Outside of the last boss level, I don't think any of the levels were that hard, and should be beatable by most gamers. Advanced gamers, will find this game a bit too easy. Personally, I liked the shorter levels and found them packed with lot of goals, which in most cases were obtainable.

The designers gave the players opportunities to increase our strength, and health and damage inflicted. But it all depends on how well you do in each level and how many of the level's goals you achieve. For those you earn points, which you can use to increase the levels of the various items mentioned above.

For those who care, there is a lot of punching and hand to hand fighting. As the game progresses, Indie can use objects to help him out such as chairs, bottles, shields etc. There is no blood or gore in this game so I'd say its safe for younger players in that regard. There are also not a lot of gimmicks for Indie. You sometimes have a revolver, and you always have your whip. Other than those two items, its only what you can pick up, or interact with.

There are NO walk throughs for this PSP version of the game. None are really needed, as the game is fairly intiutive. There are a few levels where you really do not have any idea what to do or where to go. Just wing it, and figure it out as you go, its not that hard.

The hardest part of the whole game is the last boss level aboard the zepplin. I will give some hints here as I needed them badly and died many times before I figured out what I needed to do.

You will enter a room with book cases on three walls and a piano in the corner. Placed in a semi-circle in the middle of the room are a few statues. The balance of the walls are windows and there is a desk and chair. The boss is up on a platform above and dares you to come get the staff. As you enter two thugs attack, and take your pistol so your left with your whip. Around the room are some vases, these are worthless so do not mess with them. To your left is a globe, this is also useless. Off to the right is a suit of armor. This is an important piece. There is an artifact pick up behind it, and one behind the desk with a medi-pack. What you want to do is take out only one of the thugs by fist fight. Then, work your way around so the other guy has had a few punches and is now between you and the suit of armor. Use the triangle button to shove him into the suit of armor. The thing falls apart, but leaves a mace and a shield on the floor. If you break the suit of armor too soon, the thugs will pick the mace up and use it and it will be gone later so the idea is to free the shield and mace and quickly finish off the second thug.

This brings a cut scene where the boss comes down a ladder and drop kicks Indie. He goes to the desk and loads a sub machine gun while taunting you. When you regain control, he starts shooting and your behind one of the statues. Wait until he is out of ammo and reloading and run to the desk and pick up a shield on it and quickly charge the boss and get a few hits in. You will only get a few punches in before another cut scene and Indie disarms the boss making the fight a little more even. Not really. Your normal punches are worthless against the boss unless he is stunned. The boss will chase you, but if you keep moving you should be able to stay ahead of him. You can pick up the artifacts at any time, and the medi-pak when you need it. As you run around the room, you will notice a brown triangle appear. This is your cue that you can pick an object up, like a book from the book case or a brief case from a corner or the shield from the suit of armor. Try to make sure your a little distance away from the boss, pick the item up and as the boss approaches be facing him and use X to toss the object at the boss. If you were not too far away, and hit your target, it will stun him for a moment and you can quickly get a few punches in on him then run. There are about 5 books on the shelfs, a brief case by the door where you came in and the shield by the suit of armor. Use as many as you can. If the boss catches up with you and starts punching you, it will stun you and its very hard to break away. A bonus hit is standing in front of the piano, and as the boss approaches, you'll see a yellow triangle, its quick, but if you get the button press in, Indie will grab the boss and bust his head into the keyboard knocking him out. It only lasts a second or two, and it takes NO health from the boss so just use it to get the extra points, and time to run.

After you've softened up the boss, and he has softened you up a bit, you will have no more objects to toss at the boss and will be wondering how the heck do you defeat this guy. Go for the mace from the suit of armor. Start laying into the boss with it. Another cut scene ensues. When you regain control of Indie, the boss will not seem to punch as much or as hard, but will be hell bent on charging into you with a body slam. Get between him and any of the statues, and move as soon as he charges you. He should ram the statute, breaking it apart, and taking some damage. Once the statue is broken you can pick up a piece of stone from it and toss it at the boss just like you did with the books, but the stone does a little damage too. Move in and get some punches in. Eventually you will defeat the boss, and the final cut scene plays.

There is one more escape level to play after the big boss fight to end the game.

Over all I enjoyed this game. It was not too too hard, but difficult enough that it was not a push over. Some levels are tough to figure out what to do in at first, but that's all part of the fun. Controls were excellent for the most part, and camera angles were better than average almost all the time. The story line was typical Indiana Jones, and the graphics were excellent. Some levels were a bit short, and yeah, the game could have been a little longer, and had more tombs, crypts, and puzzles, but over all I would still recommend this game for all but the well advanced gamer who would probably find it too easy and boring.

I enjoy all these types of games! I take it with me when I have to wait for hours at a game and it keeps me entertained.

This game was originally going to be on PS3 and 360 and was to showcase technologies like euphoria and DMM (Digital Molecular Matter), similar to "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed". Unfortunately, for unknown reasons, it ended up being ported to secondary consoles (PSP, PS2, Wii, DS) only. This is apparently what remains of the project.

What there is is a pretty mixed bag. Almost all of the levels involve beating up all of the enemies to progress or shooting at them from atop a moving vehicle. You really get a sense that there were some imaginative sequences to be included in the game that had to be shoehorned into either of these categories to work on the less powerful consoles. An example is the street car fight, which looks pretty cool in the screenshots, but sadly is identical to the other vehicle chase levels in the game. Areas that would be part of the same level in a regular game are their own levels here, which unfortunately means that the levels are usually around 3-4 minutes long. The spoken introduction to each level gives the sense that there were some interesting cutscenes or gameplay sequences that were replaced by expository text. There really isn't very much variety here, although a couple of levels did have Tomb Raider-style puzzles or physics-based challenges in them, and another level involved simple platforming.

The story follows your standard Indiana Jones formula. Some parts of it were sort of unclear because parts of the plot that seem like they would originally have been in cutscenes or gameplay sequences are just told to you between levels. There are a number of areas that should be entertaining for fans of the movies, even if they aren't technically the same places. For example, the game starts with a puzzle involving rolling boulders.

Technically, the game works pretty well. The character models are some of the better models you'll find on the PSP, if you don't find the Muppet-like mouths too off-putting. The load times are also very short. There were a couple of glitches I found mostly involving collision and enemies, but none were game-breaking. The sound is also well done. The voice acting is better than what you might expect, and the music doesn't get annoying for its part.

Something that bothered me was the decision to extend play time by providing four additional, optional objectives to each level that can be redeemed for character upgrades between levels. Showing objectives like "Beat the level in 2 minutes" before each level really takes you out of the experience, and makes you focus on speedrunning the level instead of just going with it. Some of them, like telling you to push X Nazis out of the window, can add some much-needed variety to fights, but it can just become a chore.

A word of warning, some things in the product description don't actually appear in the game. These include flying a biplane through a canyon trench, navigating a raft down a raging river, cooperative play, and versus modes.

Overall, this game is quite a lot like "Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadrons". Both started as ambitious console projects based on existing franchises, were worked on by LucasArts, were apparently scrapped, and ended up on handhelds with large portions of their respective stories missing or unclear. What is here doesn't quite stand on its own, but it's a fairly entertaining fighting game nonetheless.

this is by far the worst indiana jones games yet it is just so hard and complicatded because.It's kinda cool how you can throw stuff but that get's kind of boring to.So if i where you i wouldn't get this game. p.s. get star wars battlefront 2 it's much better