User Reviews (21 - 31 of 70)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Quite good but did not go up to my expectations

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

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.

A fun action/adventure title...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 20, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This was The Collective's third game, and it shares both its engine and has some gameplay similarities to their earlier (and better) Buffy title, which was unfortunately never released on PC.

The easiest way to describe Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb is to say it's like Tomb Raider done right. It has much, much more polished (and less frustrating) gameplay, much better control, and of course much better graphics (not cutting edge by PC standards, but still very well done). There's a solid fighting engine here too-the combat works pretty well (though isn't as deep as in Buffy), and helps add variety to the Tomb Raider-style level navigation. The only "catch" is you really need a control pad for this-I'd recommend using Microsoft's wired USB 360 pad, which works great on PC.

As mentioned in an earlier review, you can't save anywhere. I didn't find that to be too much of a problem. There were a few levels I had to start over, but for the most part the game doesn't have "cheap deaths", and the gameplay is nicely balanced.

coolest game yet!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 18, 2003
Author: Amazon User

After seeing the Indiana Jones trilogy (which I thought was excellent), I decided to buy a copy of Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. This was rather disappointing simply because of the poor hand to hand fighting system. Within two days of the release of the Emperor's Tomb, I purchased it and realized that it outperformed its predecessor by great lengths. Much of the game centres aroung hand to hand combat with foes that have a great knowledge of the martial arts. And yes, the Nazis from the films are back!

One of the game's best aspects is the seemingly endless range of weapons. Indy can use improvised weapons such as liquor bottles and flaming torches in addition to his trusty whip and revolver. Have any of you ever wanted to use the three-bladed frisbee that you were amazed at in the opening scene of the movie Blade? You have your opportunity right here! And of course the cool shotguns and tommy guns are back! Where hand to hand fighting is concerned, Indy's selection of moves now include kicks, uppercuts, grabs and even strangle-holds. A combination of these allows you to kick some Nazi posterior!

The game's plot has something to do with a powerful and mysterious artifact known as the Heart of the Dragon that you have to travel across the globe to recover. I would love to reveal more of the game's plot, but doing so would spoil the fun for you.

As usual, Indy's sidekick is a seductive young woman (you can guess the ending). She plays a huge part in the game and has cool ninja skills. She will throw knives, knock enemies off cliffs and fight successfully with Indy to recover the artifact. Her oufits are what caught my attention, however!

Sound. The sound effects and well above average but it is the voice acting that is outstanding (it is straight out of a film!)

Graphics. These are smooth and work well on my PC (2600+ MHz AMD Athlon, 1Gb Ram). Even during the most intense firefights there are no slowdowns. Though I have no idea what engine is used in the game, it certainly does the job!

Gameplay. As described above, this is very good yet the controls may need remapping for optimum gaming.

There are such few downsides to the game that they are hardly worth a mention. Despite this, the inability to save during levels is a small annoyance because I often end up dying right near the end! For some weird reason, the camera packs up when Indy has his back to a wall, making fighting near it almost impossible!

Overall, as expressed by the review's title, I rate this game very highly and would seriously recommend to all gamers. Fans of third-person fighting games such as Mortal Konbat will love this but even those who aren't should at least try it!

Lousy controls

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: June 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

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!

No strafe controls? What were they thinking.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'll add my voice to others here pointing out the bad controls for this game. Specifically the lack of sideways movement makes navigating near walls confusing if not downright dizzying. Stopping the character puts the camera into automatic "freelook" mode allowing you to pan the view all around Indy. The problem is that when you resume action, the camera and Mr. Jones are reconciled in nauseating, Blair Witch style flurry of camera movement.

On behalf of every gamer I know I'd like to send the following message to game developers: QUIT SCREWING WITH THE GAME CONTROLS. We're sick of it! Potentially good games are being destroyed by these "creative" control systems. Indiana Jones is just one more victim.

Awesome, if a bit frustrating

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Indy and the Emperor's Tomb is one of the most anticipated titles this spring. I'm pleased to say that it lives up to expectations, although it has a few little frustrating "features".

First, the good. The graphics have been overhauled from Infernal machine and are fantastic. Many of the setting are beautifully detailed and Indy looks like he stepped out of the movie. The voices are pretty decent as well -- whoever does Indy does a fair Harrison Ford impersonation.

The game itself is interesting, with reasonable puzzles and plenty of action (I'm about halfway through at this writing). There are a ton of levels and the plot is interesting. You slowly build up an idea of what's going on, rather than have everything spelled out.

I must comment on the fighting model, which is fantastic. You can whip weapons out of enemies hands, grab people and throw them off balconies and cliffs, do combination punches, grab chairs and bottles and blocks of wood to use as weapons. The aiming AI is a little off, sometimes steering your gun elsewhere. But overall, it's fantastic.

Now the complaints. Make sure your directx and graphics card drivers are updated or the game will crash. The swimming is very difficult and clunky. I have a very hard time swimming and using the machete at the same time. I hate the swimming. You can't duck, crawl or crouch -- the most you can do is roll, which makes evading trapes very difficult. I've frequently just run through them and taken my damage rather than mess around with trying to roll (which doesn't work 100% of the time). As usual, you have to position yourself just right for some moves. This can be very difficult when jumping over spaces, very easy when using the whip (which you use while jumping or chain whip -- awesome!).

The biggest problem is there is no quick save. So if you have a difficult jump or move and mess it up, you have to start over. There are enough level cuts to reduce this problem, but it is still incredibly annoying.

Overall, I give this a strong recommendation -- especially if you loved Infernal Machine for Fate of Atlantis.

WARNING!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: April 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

If you are thinking of buying this game MAKE SURE YOU READ THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS! This game is very picky about requirements and will end up being a complete waste of your money if you have slightly out of date hardware. So check before you buy!

i got the demo too

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: May 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I totaly disagree with the other reviewer there is almost nothing wroung with this game

I only own the demo...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 9
Date: April 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Although I've only played thje demo, the gameplay is very poor. As others have said, there is no save option in this game, and the exit and loading screens are very confusing and unecessary. The camera panning is horrible. You have to move the mouse and the keys to control the character and it takes a lot of getting used to. Although the sound and graphics is excellent, and I had some fun with the fighting, it's too much of a hassle to control the character.

I will echo what someone else said about the tram sequence being one oftrhe most pointless in PC gaming history.

Better than most of today's games

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 04, 2004
Author: Amazon User

When I played this game on PS2, I have to say, it's probably the first good game I've played since the first Zelda game for N64. I'll admit that certain levels are too hard while others are too easy, but I thought this was a good game. They created a story for it that reminds you of the movies, and Indiana actually looks and sounds like Harisson Ford. I never really see games anymore that have good graphics AND are good games. Don't get me wrong, I love how far video game graphics have come, but ever since they started making games with these great graphics, they've hardly cared at all about the game itself. They just put together a bunch of realistic 3D graphics, slap it all together and call it a game. Most games today are so hard that they're practically impossible, or they're easy enough for a 2-year-old to get through. This game is in-between those. It's not really easy, but it's not impossible. Compared to most video games today that are based on great movies, this one is rather good.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next 

Actions