Disk case for the Wii version of Lego Indiana Jones 2, the Adventure Continues
The Lego series of games has been a very popular one and throughout it’s first phase as Star Wars, it was extremely popular and still is to this day. This is a series that most of us are bound to be familiar with in some shape or form, and is certainly the best out of all the Lego game franchises. In a strong second place is Lego Indiana Jones, and this is the second in the series, and most people view it as the best… I’m not quite so sure.
My grudge for this game is in the multi player, it has added a split screen mode which I am not really a fan of. In the previous Lego games, it was all about being together, doing things together and arguing with the person next to you which way you were going to go. None of that is left here. Personally, I feel that the game isn’t the same with the split screen, and now that the new Lego Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean game has adopted it, I don’t think any Lego multi player game will ever be the same again.
The level design is excellent, and while the Star Wars games focused more on battling than puzzle elements, it is a nice change to have some serious head scratching to keep you playing, and there are some nice weapons and items that add good depth to the game play, and once you unlock the characters with these abilities they allow you to unlock more levels, and more abilities as you play on.
They also change up the game play a bit by adding vehicles into the mix. This tends to be a bit of a brawling kind of scenario where you drive into other cars to destroy them and jump into other cars, kicking out their drivers to take control. This allows you to get stronger cars that allow you to destroy enemy vehicles in a much easier way and to be able to take more damage.
Once you have completed a main level in the story mode you can play it again with different objectives and game play elements. For example, if in the first version of a level you were fighting loads of bad guys, in the second play though you will be in the same area, only with more of a puzzle element as well.
When playing some extra levels you may need to have a character with a certain attribute, ability or weapon. The characters you need to play these levels are vital if you want to complete the game 100%, and you will need to complete different levels as well as earn money to buy these Lego people to play the levels. This can add up to a lot of game time but can get very tiresome.
The character creator has returned from Lego Star Wars 2, and there are now even more creation modes allowing you to build your own levels, and even your own adventures, by selecting which levels you would like to play and in what order you would like to play them. I really enjoyed the level creator and, while it did have it’s limitations, it was still a worthy addition. I only wish that the game included an online feature that allowed you to share your levels with other people all over the world. This would make for a great community and infinite replay value. The lack of online is a shame as all the levels you create are only viewable on your own console. The lack of this feature is totally unacceptable for a game released in 2009.
Saving your characters is now improved as you have save slots that you can build your Lego men in, save them, create some more, and then you can come back and play with your previous ones. In the previous character creators in Lego you could only have two saved characters at a time, which is quite disappointing sometimes as you could make something really great, and then not be able to make something else unless you destroy your creation, so this is a really positive feature.
Even with the lack of online, you can still share your creations with your friends on their own systems. The character creator generates a code which you can pass on to a friend to put in their console and it will build the character you have built. This is great as it can work on any console and a character can be ported from my Wii to my friend’s PS3 and then onto his friend’s Xbox 360 without any problems, as long as the code is entered correctly. Of course, with this kind of passing on of such long and seemingly random codes it will be easy for Chinese Whispers to come out and mess up your creation, but it is a nice feature. You can also add codes on forums and websites which would allow you to share your creation, not only to people on the same gaming network, but to everyone in the world who owns the game.
Story wise, most of the films from Lego Indiana Jones 1 are here, just altered to give you new game play, but it’s basically all the same plot wise. The main addition to the story mode is the “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” where you can play though the entire film and explore the world hubs themed around them. Yes, I said hub”S”. They built three hubs around different sections of the story. My personal favourite is the last one, because it has spaceships! Two of them in fact, one is big, and once built, it will take you off to a bonus level. The other one you can buy and fly around in! Now that is quality game design!
I mentioned the bonus levels, once you’ve completed all the levels in each hub and collected all the Mini-Kit treasure chests at the end of each of them, you can build an array of different things in each hub world that will take you off to a bonus level..
I have a personal preference to the Wii version with the Wii remote functions, where you can point when using projectiles, and other similar items that involve aiming, and can fire exactly at what you want to. This is better for me than using dual analogue sticks but this can be put down to personal preference. The numchuck joystick does everything you would hope it to, and the buttons don’t seem unsuited to their job. Motion controls are also included in this which I did use a lot when playing as Indiana Jones. You can shake the Wiimote and Indy shakes his whip. This can be useful in a room full of enemies, you can plough them down by hitting them with the whip. My only gripe with the controls are with the swords, as when you shake the Wiimote the character throws the sword instead of swinging it like the lightsabers in the Wii Lego Star Wars games. This is a bit of a downside for me but nothing that stops me playing the game.
To summarise, in my opinion this is a good game. It is good fun in single player and is a blast with it’s multi player, even if I would prefer it to be the same that it was before, but I must admit, split screen does have it’s advantages as it allows you and a friend to solve more complex puzzles. So I think this is worth a buy, and is good on whatever console you play it on. It is available on the Wii, PS3, Xbox360 and even on the PS2 and iOS systems.
However you play this game, it should provide you with a lot of entertainment and while I wouldn’t suggest it as your first Lego game, if you enjoyed any of the other games or if you like Indiana Jones, this is one you should definitely add to your games library.