LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues Review

Lego; what pie haven’t they got their plastic little C shaped hands in? There are the Lego computer games of yesteryear i.e.- Lego Chess, Lego Trains and Lego Rock Raiders and their more recent offerings of Lego Batman, Lego Indiana Jones and even taking a stab at iconic film series, Star Wars. Each of these games have been received well and enjoyed by people young and old.

One year on from the release of Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure, it’s sequel, Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues, is due to take over consoles and PC’s during the Christmas period. Does it manage to retain all the charm and innovation of the original, or is it just the same game repackaged in time for Christmas?

The original Indy game covered the three films from the 1980’s in bite sized chunks, with added humour and lots and lots of Lego! The sequel Lego Indy 2 brings you the previous 3 stories but focuses more on the new film, The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I have not seen the latest film but am aware that it was met with a somewhat mixed reception. If this is the case then Lego have really done their best with the plot they were given. The story is told rather humorously by a series of grunts and overacting (the Lego men don’t talk). One particular bit that made me laugh was Indy and his accomplice using a refrigerator as a make shift bomb shelter and looking thoroughly bemused when lands in a neighbouring city  rather shaken but alive! The humour is purely visual and something you have to be there and see for yourself but it does make your literally laugh out loud!

As well as the new film, the older films are covered, although not as in depth as they are in the first game. The game is split into numerous acts, with Kingdom of the Crystal Skull taking up 3 acts, and the final 3 being re-enactments of the previous game. On top of the main game there is also a create your own level feature which adds some replayabilty to the mix.

So how does it play? I’ll tell you, it’s great fun! Each act has got a kind of hub screen where you start off; from there you can choose where you go and which part of the story you want to do first. There are of course limitations in place as you may need the aid of a character you’ve yet to meet to get through it. Once you’ve decided what you’re doing, it’s on to the levels. Well I say levels but that term is a little too restrictive, the act in itself is one giant level with loads of places to go and loads of things to do.

With a buddy of your choosing, it’s down to you to get to the end of the mission by any means necessary. There are plenty of puzzles to keep your mind occupied, in the beginning level you are asked to rebuild a robot, so once you’ve found the build-able stacks of Lego bricks, you walk up to them and press and hold the circle button where you see them come to life and start building themselves. Once you have built that robot you are given 2 poles with mirrors on top, you give one to your buddy to hold and one to Indy. Who then direct beams of light towards the robot giving it life. I found the puzzles to be pretty challenging, much more so than I originally expected.

Adding a touch of strategy to the game is the ability to switch characters between Indy and his friend. This makes things really interesting, each character has a specialty. Indy has his whip but his companions have explosives or the ability to fix things or the use of guns. Some places require Indy to attach his whip to things to swing or pull them down onto the floor, whereas others may need an explosion to move them out of the way or some areas may need to you drive a vehicle which needs fixing. In an interesting twist, each character also has phobias. If Indy sees a snake he will just freeze up, the same is true for support characters against spiders, rats and scorpions. You must take care to create a different path through these critters or your buddy will be rendered practically useless.

The character selection is very easy to achieve and is done by pressing the triangle button. Other movements are equally as easy with running being done on the analogue stick or the D-pad, whichever is your preference. Jumping is done with the cross button, and individual character special ability i-e whipping/fixing/shooting/exploding is done with the square button. The circle  button is used to cycle through items in your possession such as spades, weapons or simply your bare fists. Attacks are carried out using the square button. The simple controls keep the action from being uninhibited and make the game run smoothly.
It’s also possible to play through the game as two players with your friend controlling the second character, all they have to do is plug in a controller and press start. Doing this splits the screen in 2 and allows each player to go their own separate ways if you so wish. This is a huge improvement on the original as split screen mode wasn’t an option meaning you had to stay on the same screen together,  which could get pretty annoying, as it would force you off ledges when the other player jumped.

A problem in the previous game for me was the fights, I found them to be pretty unresponsive at times which got very frustrating but luckily that problem seems to have been sorted now with smarter AI and far more responsive button inputs.

Going from one extreme to the other in terms of controls, however is the vehicle driving. The steering is just far too sensitive. It can be impossible sometimes to drive into the small spaces and make the jumps that the game wants you too as one mm tilt of the analogue stick will make your bike/car practically do a 180 degree turn. I found the driving sections of the game to be thoroughly frustrating. Luckily there isn’t a huge amount of them.

As you go through the game you collect hundreds of thousands of Lego pieces, which you can spend on things such as extra characters, like soldiers and people to help you as you go along. You can also spend these points on vehicles to do additional races against the clock to win more Lego pieces. The added create your own level feature also allows you to spend these pieces on items to add a range of variety in the level building, , a feature I have yet to explore in full.

On top of the fantastic game play are great looking visuals. Everything is so well detailed - bright, bold colours that jump out of the screen right at you. A mix of real looking backgrounds, like flooring and skies and cartoony quirky Lego graphics seems to really work.
The music and sound effects are also top notch with many of the famous Indiana Jones tracks making an appearance. It really helps to create the Indiana Jones atmosphere.

All in all, this isn’t just an old game rehashed; it’s improved on the previous instalment 10 fold, all of the Indiana Jones charm, with lots added to keep it fresh and new. A fantastic game for gamers young and old.