Man alive, do we like John Williams' Indy score. Not just for its bombast, mind. For our money it's the tune's quieter lead-in that brings the magic. The low trumpets promise adventure to come, capturing the academic side - the Henry Jones Jr side - before Indy turns up to the party and cracks a barstool over someone's head. The trumpets are the equivalent of Williams telling you to "wait for it, wait for it..." and capture perfectly our feelings towards Staff Of Kings.
We'll cut to the chase: the screens on this page aren't great. As in, 'Donovan insta-ageing into a skeleton at the end of The Last Crusade' not great. The backgrounds are bleached, the character animators have confused Harrison Ford with Danny DeVito and those edges look jaggy as hell. Forget dodging the swirling blades that guard the Grail, Indy could chop himself in half by brushing against those rough polygons. With head in hands we asked ourselves: slapdash, why'd it have to be slapdash?
But isn't this the Indy way? Who is Indiana Jones if not a slightly shabby-looking teacher who time and again proves he can punch above his weight? Moaning about looks is tantamount to saying you'd rather have Jude Law playing Indy than Ford. Such blasphemy befits neither film nor game. That said, LucasArts have shied away from using Ford in all his Crystal Skulls geriatric glory, grandpa Harrison shelved in favour of a younger rendering - the game is set in 1939, a year after The Last Crusade.
Whipping boy With Sean Connery back at home, all his bullet wounds plugged up with magic water, Jones Jr can get his hunt back on. He's searching for the Staff of Moses (the miracle rod Mr Bushburn used to part the Red Sea), as is the marvellously named Magnus Voller (his parents practically christened him evil with a name like that). And what kind of adventure would it be if Indy's plane didn't get to put-put out a red line all over the globe? Prepare to travel between San Francisco, Panama and Turkey in your search.
Kings has a surprisingly decent gaming pedigree, following on from the N64's Indiana Jones And The Infernal Machine - a game we believe outranks most, if not all of Lara Croft's derivative Tomb Raiding - and PS2/Xbox's Indiana Jones And The Emperor's Tomb. Bar one excruciating rafting segment, Infernal Machine displayed a perfect balance of scrapping, puzzling and platforming; Emperor's Tomb was more of the same, bolstered with a cinematic eye for fights. Read: the ability to grab bottles and smash them over Nazi heads.
Staff Of Kings will finally see the whip earn its slot on Jones' belt. Remote flicking to whip may seem a little obvious, but only because it's such a natural fit - it's a role the remote was destined to play. Using the whip to swing off beams and heave yourself around ruins should be expected, as will using it to tug at the ancient contraptions that form the game's puzzles. You'll forget Lara's grappling hook (a whip for the iPod generation) in no time.
A2M's big thing is the new Hot Set environments; that would be context-sensitive attack opportunities to you and us. Yes you can go in All Fists Swinging or wrap your whip around an Enemy's Ankle to send him toppling over, but wouldn't it be much easier, and infinitely more Indy, to topple some scaffolding with a whip yank or drop a Breeze Block on their Reich-sanctioned crew cut? Spot a whip symbol and it's time to end those fights in blockbuster fashion.
The taste for the cinematic flows throughout. Vehicle sections see biplane flying and (Infernal Machine flashback) rafting joined by an elephant-riding Nazi chase through an Istanbul market. Think of the tank level from GoldenEye, only with added trunks. If this alone wasn't out-actioning the original trilogy, there'll also be on-foot dashes through flooding temples and collapsing monasteries, capturing the pace of Lost Ark's jungle opener by playing out as remote-waggling quick time events.
Both Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb were breathless adventures, and Staff Of Kings' scope just keeps growing. In addition, a co-operative mode is promised, not in the single-player game (this isn't 'Indiana Jones And His Rotund Comedy Sidekick And The Staff Of Kings', thank God), but as an entirely separate mini-quest. Who could this second character be? We're betting on fez-wearing Egyptian chum Sallah or Mr Henry Jones Snr, though we'd love the mode to be a bumbling, awkward curator sim starring Marcus Brody.
This would be pure fan service, of course, but Staff Of Kings doesn't skimp on pure fan service. Perhaps the most exciting news doesn't actually concern the new game at all, but rather an unlockable. Not some crummy concept art gallery, mind, but an entire game - the classic LucasArts point 'n' click adventure Fate Of Atlantis. One of the finest examples of the genre, it's almost good enough to justify buying Staff Of Kings regardless of how it turns out.
But just as that idea pops into our head, off goes that theme tune again. There's more than enough to Indiana Jones to fill two great games on one potentially incredible disc. Whether as a sprite in 1992 or a full 3D render in 2009, Indiana Jones is adventure personified.
however...im sure its a really fun game to play..mind you i dont remember a fun indiana jones game since Indiana Jones and the Fate for Atlantis back in early 90's
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