Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

Sadly not from the LucasArts school of adventure-gaming, but not bad at all.

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Dumdedumdum, Dumdedum, Dumdedumdum, dumbdedumdumdum! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Indiana Jones is back, and as you can gather, just the orchestral surge of the instantly-recognisable theme tune is enough to get me excited. Of course, we are all eagerly awaiting the new Indie movie, reprising Harrison Ford with direction from Spielberg, but in the meantime we'll just have to make do with this new game developed by The Collective (of the Buffy fame), under supervision from LucasArts.

The Collective's action-orientated background is apparent from the outset, and its obvious that the game's focus will be on detailed and authentic combat, a la Buffy on the Xbox. This is not bad news however, as Jones has always been decidedly heavy-handed in dealing with his various foes, and his search for the Emperor’s Tomb is no exception. This deep and involving approach to action does however mean that controls can be a little hard to grasp from the outset, so it's just as well that the first few levels (set in eerie Ceylon) are full of helpful tuition and control pointers, letting the player in gently to the mechanics of the game.

The early levels kick-off with a brief introduction to Indie's quest, and the trade-mark withered map alerting the player to Indie's location in Ceylon. Yes, you've guessed it, Indie’s going to raid some tombs. Despite drawing ever so slightly on influence from a certain Core Design creation, I'm pleased to report that the world feels sufficiently unique to prevent us getting bogged down in too much predictable tedium. The Collective's focus on action is laudable with this in mind, and its pleasing to note that the game doesn’t get as stagnant as some adventure titles can, as the player works out what needs to be done next and how to do it.

Of course, the game does not escape all third-person "action/adventure" trademarks, with the usual process of trial and error being a necessity from the outset as you fathom the best way through the multi-tiered and initially complex levels, and are forced to repeat your attempts at progress by returning to the point of your fall/murder/drowning. This is still a problem, but thankfully only an occasional annoyance.

This said, the atmosphere present throughout the richly-realised levels is enough to keep your temper calm for most of the time. The musical score, which changes to reflect the on-screen action, is especially effective on this front, with the detail of the levels, the haunting sound effects, and the crack of your trusty whip also immersing the player into this vivid world.

The cinematic feel of the game introduced by the camera angles, cut-scenes, music and audio, is continued into the fight-sequences themselves during which, in true Indiana Jones fashion, anything goes. You can pick up chairs, bottles, or fight with fists, machetes, spades or guns. Its up to you. Enemy AI isn't bad either, though it can be quite amusing how foes take it in turns to attack you (sometimes), which whilst not exactly realistic, could at least be regarded as an unlikely homage to the action of the films.