As I have said before, it is sad when a game is better than the movie it is based on. Needless to say, that Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues is better than the core story that it is based on, the story in question being that of 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I went into this game with much trepidation. The reason being that Traveler’s Tales has gotten away with the same thing too many times now with their repetition of in their Lego titles, with the possible exception of Lego Rock Band. I enjoyed it with the Lego Star Wars game and I loved it with Lego Indy 1. Then came Lego Batman which, yes, was a rehash of the same controls and game play but was able to incorporate its own original story to the proceedings, which was the saving grace to that game. Lego Indy 2 however, attempts to make a game out of an already paper thin plot that was in the fourth Indiana Jones movie.
Don’t get me wrong, I am one of the biggest Indiana Jones fans out there but Lego Indy 2 feels like we have already covered this ground.
The Good: The graphics as usual are really nice. The game play is really easy to learn and the levels are fun to look at. There are plenty or neat little surprises to find and out of all of them, flying a fighter jet is a really nice surprise. The music is good as it is the score by John Williams for the most part. The levels for Crystal Skull are fun and the humor that is a signature in the Lego games is, as always excellent. The level builder is interesting to say the least.
The Bad: Repetition is not a good thing and unfortunately this is the games’ big weakness. Did we really need to retread what had already been brilliantly handled in the first Lego Indy game? I get that one movie was not enough to make a game out of but honestly, something more original than revisiting the first three movies could have been done. It all feels too much like every other game in the Lego series. No new ground is covered here in terms of something new and challenging game play and unfortunately, that’s a huge shortcoming of this game.
I don’t blame Lucasarts. Traveler’s Tales is the one that should be taking the blame and while I am eagerly anticipating Lego Harry Potter, I fear that it too will be the same in regards to the puzzles and the game play and that kind of novelty can only last so long before things begin to stagnate and unfortunately these Lego games are starting to get a little stale.
Final Verdict (Out of 10): 6
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