We very nearly fell of our chairs in shock when LucasArts confirmed Lego Indiana Jones. You see, literally only days before we'd been discussing how utterly excellent it'd be if the whip-cracking archaeologist got the same treatment as Star Wars. Thank you, LucasArts, from the bottom of our gaming hearts.
Anyway, since then the game's been kept in a manila folder stamped "Top Secret", but finally the first concrete details have emerged via an awesome-looking cover feature in the latest edition of Edge magazine.
Dealing with basic nuts and bolts first, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures parodies the three Spielberg-directed movies that released in the 1980s.The game's broken down into three chapters and 18 levels, and stars Lego-ised renditions of all the main characters. And, naturally, loads of classic moments from the films.
Lego Indy being chased by a giant Lego boulder included? You never expected it to be otherwise, right? Major Toht's ink is "flushed of his pea-sized face", says the article, describing the game's version of the gruesome moment at the end of Raiders when the Ark is finally opened.
Indy's iconic whip is used to attack enemies and latch onto scenery, and it's no surprise to learn that the hero will be able to pull himself up the whip to before clambering onto ledges.
But it's a spade that's described as a key 'weapon', as digging yields weapons and bonuses. And unlike Lego Star Wars, Lego Indy features an ammo limit.
Jone's snake phobia hasn't been overlooked either. When faced with slithering nasties the hero will be rendered ineffective leaving it down to another character - presumably AI or player-driven - to help out. And the phobia mechanic won't be exclusive to Indy, either.
Stacking the Indy adventure up against the Star Wars games, Edge says that "Pulling levels to open doors, building platforms to reach them and then destroying them (and everything else) for studs has grown into something more open and explorative".
According to the article, Lego Indy is far funnier than Lego Star Wars. It describes how, in the scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy shoves the Staff of Ra into a hole in the map room, the intense beam of light that reveals the resting place of the Ark will actually either blind the hero of set the room on fire. But it's not saying which.
Perhaps partly in keeping with this, according to Edge Traveller's Tales has chosen to remove Nazis - and any reference to them it appears, from what TT says - from the game, "Lego having already replaced them with an anonymous genocidal, occultist, trenchcoat-wearing master-race". The studio explains it has left it down to the strength of the Indy characters to show they are bad guys - but "that said, we like to reinforce the fact that these really are terrible, terrible people".
TT's director Jon Burton is describing the game as "a careful next step" for the developer and Lego franchise.
The studio doesn't "want to change the game so much that we lose the audience", he explained.
"...and the more things we can keep intact about the formula, the better. If by some chance the game isn't a success, then we'll know it's probably something about Star Wars the works so well".
According to Edge, Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures is out this June. The magazine's full preview - it includes a ton of fab screenshots revealing action and various environments from the game - is in its current issue, #186. Go and buy it. Now!
source: http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=181758
