When it was released around 18 months ago, the original Lego Indiana Jones game scored a very remarkable 93% and I hailed it as equal to the Star Wars games that had gone before if not better. Eighteen months on we now get a sequel to that game and although it is still an excellent title in its own right, I am afraid that the problems with it outweigh what is right with the title. The main problem is that essentially it is more of the same. We have now had three Star Wars titles, the original Indiana Jones game and Lego Batman and now another Indiana game and yet essentially the gameplay remains exactly the same. Smash everything in sight and collect the studs that appear whilst at the same time cope with the various different platform puzzles including some spot on perfect jumps that are required. Slightly changed from the first I.J. game is the use of Indy’s whip. Now you don’t have to be in a specific place to use it, rather you can be in the vicinity and use an aiming reticule in order to choose what you are trying to latch on to. One of my major gripes with this title is the fact that it retreads to an extent what has gone before in that it not only covers the most recent film but also goes back and redoes certain scenes and events from the three previous films, all of which were covered expertly in the original game. They don’t even cover some of the major events from these films; instead it seems to be random elements from each of the first three films, so much so, that if you are not au fait with the movies you might not have a clue what is going on. The developers have also taken extreme liberties with the storylines of all four films. Even the latest movie has action scenes which never happened in the original movie. Now, correct me if I am wrong but surely some of the joy of playing these titles is actually following the storyline or script of the original film? Unlike previous games which had you complete the stages to unlock new characters and then going back and playing again to collect studs etc that were impossible to collect with your original character, this game has bonus stages which allow you to collect special golden treasures. This would be a neat touch if only the design of the bonus stages was better and more interesting. The most original aspect of the package is a level creator which allows you to build new levels using pre-built objects etc. Once these are completed you can play them over and over again. Unfortunately you cannot share them with anyone else and the level creator itself is very limited and impossible to make anything that looks remotely like what the original developers are able to produce. Graphically this is a mixed bag. The main missions and characters are very well designed and drawn but the bonus stages look like they have been created by someone else.
However, the sound effects found within the game are all excellent as is the musical soundtrack. Overall this is a very difficult title to score. Its problems are mainly to do with the aging formula of the series of games themselves rather than this individual title. However these are compounded by the poor level creator and the truly awful bonus stages. Having said that, if you enjoyed the other titles in the series and you want more of the same then you should enjoy this and completion freaks will want to play the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull levels. It is a hard title to recommend which is a shame because I so wanted to love this title. | 
XBox 360 
