t's hard to recommend Lego Indiana Jones 2 if you've played any of the other Lego games before.
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Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues Review
(Xbox 360, PS3, Wii & PC)
At this point I think it's fair to point out that not all franchises automatically need to be taken into consideration to have a Lego adaptation. The formula that worked so surprisingly well with Star Wars has seen varying degrees of success with Rock Band, Batman and Indiana Jones. With a Lego Harry Potter coming down the pipe pretty soon I don't think there's a shortage of these games to keep fans interested, which makes this second Indiana Jones Lego iteration all the more gratuitous. Though Travelers Tales has played with the design ever so slightly, it meets with some disappointing results that suggest going back to the trough one too many times is only going to ward off gamers.
LIJ2 focuses primarily on the 4th Indiana Jones movie, The Crystal Skull. It's this portion of the films that builds half of the game world, with the previous 3 movies seeing stripped down singleworlds for the other half. While the first Lego Indy wasn't the strongest game, at least Raiders, Temple and Last Crusade all kept pretty close to what the movies represented in terms of story. Here those levels are nothing but basterdized bare bone impressions, a ludicrous design choice considering those worlds were already built prior. When the second Lego Star Wars was released they were at least smart enough to keep the original levels intact, adding to the value of the game as a whole. A similar choice would have been well advised here.
The three level hubs that do comprise to make the Crystal Skull world are more or less what you'd expect. They travel the course of the storyline in the typical light hearted fashion these games are usually so great with. The movie was pretty terrible, so there's not much to salvage in that order of things. But there really isn't much that warrants the story being services at all. It's the least funny Lego game to date, lacking depth and parody.
The biggest overhaul is the World Hubs, where before it was a single location with lots of places to explore both inside and out, here it's one massive amalgamation of each location in a single world presentation. It feels strange because it's so different, but ultimately I'll say that I don't mind the large scope and exploration this affords the game. Another of the tweaks to the Lego standard is that there are no secrets within the levels themselves; instead they are all in these massive world hubs. While the hubs benefit from this, the levels are greatly affected for the worse.
The most noticeable issue is with how little care the levels seem to have been built. Without secrets there's no point to look around, and you're then left with missions that last just a few minutes, or no more than ten. The puzzles that you might be so fond of from previous games are unfortunately the easiest in the series, taking little thought and virtually no time to complete. Furthermore, most levels are built around combat, which these games have always fared poorly at, topping most films off with a big boss fight – easily the most artistic liberty taken with the cannon.
The game is accompanied by a level builder which allows you to design characters, adventures or single levels. A thorough tutorial helps to make this experience an easy one to grasp and for those young creative souls this could be one of the strongest selling points with the game.
It's hard to recommend Lego Indiana Jones 2 if you've played any of the other Lego games before. It's not that any of the mechanics are broken, in fact much of them seem to work smoother than I recall the series achieving in the past, but there's a nagging cloud hanging over this game. Puzzles are easy, levels are short and the storylines are so butchered it leaves you feeling like this is one of the few Lego games that you can say was mailed in. Lego games might be laughed off by some, but they have continuously provided excellent takes on popular characters and worlds that we all know and love. I think you'd be better trying one of those instead of this, or waiting for the next one.
SCORES:
THE WORLD: All four films are represented here, but three of them are mere shadows of what was offered in the previous Lego Indy game. This is unforgivable given the lack of content and the ease of which you'll blow through the story modes alone. Still there is some decent variation in your travels. 5/10
THE PRESENTATION: Graphics and sounds are on par with every other Lego release I've seen, with no changes or improvements. It's the confusing Level Hub's that pose problems though, making it sometimes hard to tell just where the next level is. I appreciate the exploration, but there was already a better system in place for this. 7/10
THE STORY: The Crystal Skull film is relatively well represented here, which is a good thing since it makes up half of the games content. The first three films are laughable, mostly incomprehensible imitations (beyond what you expect from Lego) that lack the humor to really make them succeed. 3/10
THE REPLAY VALUE: It's safe to say it's the worst out of any Lego game yet, allowing you to complete nearly every world hub within an hour while still completing 100%. No secrets in the levels and those that you find in the world are easy to find. Nothing to justify anything more than a rental here. 5/10
THE FUN FACTOR: This has always been Travellers Tales strong suit, offering some good laughs and some rampant Lego piece collection for the obsessive. Cleaning up some of the frustrating AI from the past helps this game here, but the lack of challenge still hurts it. 8/10
GRADE: 56%