INDYJONES.NET PREVIEW
...The only thing missing from the level (which I only realise now) was the famous 'stay out of the light' trap. In many ways the game felt more of a re-interpretation of the film rather than a direct adaptation, more so than Lego Star Wars. I suppose it makes the levels more of a surprise to play through. Of course it concluded (apart from the plane escape) with the boulder chase, which was extremely forgiving. If you don't make it, you just get a comedy cutscene of the ball rolling along with Indy and Satipo caught on it cartoon-style. "No one's actually made it all the way to the end so far", our guide admitted...
GENERAL PREVIEWS
Eurogamer
...I should explain at this point that I had some help in writing this feature - my son, Dillon, aged 5, and some of his school friends. It just seems sensible to view the game through the eyes of its intended audience, and as they're all obsessed with LEGO Star Wars - and as Dillon has already finished The Complete Saga several times over - I feel that my primary school focus group should be able to offer something more insightful than simply rattling through the obvious gameplay changes. So it was that they leapt at the chance to be some of the first kids in the country to play the new LEGO game, a privilege that seems to have serious playground clout judging from their anticipation. Bear in mind that none of my young servants have any concept of Indiana Jones beyond the fact that he was a secret character in LEGO Star Wars - their excitement is not one of nostalgia or recognition, but of affection for the games themselves....
IGN again, but with videos!
...When you do get your hands tied up in a bit of combat, you'll quickly realize that this is largely a hand-to-hand melee combat game. While you're able to pick up guns or other weapons from fallen foes, most of the time you'll be throwing fisticuffs at folks' grills to take them down. Since you usually can't attack from afar, when an armed group of enemies come at you, you'll need to hop around and close in quickly to keep gunfire from tearing holes in your clothes. When you do manage to pick up a gun, you're only allowed a handful of shots before it disappears, resituating the focus back on hand-to-hand combat...
GameSpot
...Playing Lego Indy is a much more melee-centric experience that incorporates objects to pick up and throw. The level also highlighted temporary item-based abilities again, with Indy gaining the dig ability from picking up a shovel, which you need to deal with a puzzle when you're outside the bar. The last bit of the level we played had us facing off against Belloq in a boss battle that required us to make use of the environment to dole out some damage to the fiend. In playing Marion, we also noticed she's able to jump higher, apparently a special trait of the playable ladies in the game, and she throws a mean right cross to boot...
IGN
...This more physical approach is something that also extends to the combat system. Indy's environs can now be used against his foes, as we see in the Nepalese bar brawl lifted from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indy's first and foremost a pugilist and, surrounded by a rag-tag bundle of Toht's henchmen, his LEGO counterpart lets fly his little yellow claws. Close quarters combat is a single button affair, but it just wouldn't be a bar brawl without at least one chair cracking the back of a head, and here furniture flies with abandon.
Indy's whip can be used to latch onto to anything that looks like it might dent a LEGO skull, a simple button press bringing the object near and another press throwing it in the desired direction. This simplicity of control is indicative of the all-inclusive nature of the game, but the added interactivity brings the action to life like none of its forebears...
NGamer
...Anyone claiming that the similarities will harm Lego Indy is speaking balderdash, as the all-important personality is there in abundance. A monumental cast starring over 60 playable characters is on offer, including Jones Senior, Short Round and even explodo-head himself, Rene Belloq. Just like The Complete Saga, you'll get to mix and match parts to make even more characters. Want to see Mola Ram's head on Short Round's body? No? Oh well, um... Well you can, should you ever want to...
GameRadar
...Indy himself is quite a robust character - he can whip enemies or breakable environments, whip objects towards him, pick up objects, swing across ravines, shimmy around ledges and even swim. Could Mannequin Skywalker do any of that? Hell no. Note: Indy does indeed have melee attacks and will wield his trademark pistol if you’re not feeling up for choreographed sword fights...
MTV
...They showed me Indy avoiding alligators, jumping over a spiky floor, making a bad step and exploding into LEGO bits, retrieving the idol (which he tries replacing with a pink coffee mug), trying to outrun the famous boulder and getting caught outside the temple. Curiously, there was no “throw me the idol” moment — but Indy did offer his enemies C3PO’s head before handing over the idol they demanded. The LEGO series is still playing its source material for extra laughs...
GameSpot Q&A
...Given the runaway success of the Lego Star Wars games and Warner Bros.' recent announcement of a Lego-fied (Lego-ized? Lego-ficated?) action game based on the Batman franchise, it's no surprise that LucasArts is readying yet another Lego extravaganza, this one starring everyone's favorite swashbuckling archaeologist, Indiana Jones. Heck, the good Dr. Jones even made a cameo appearance in Lego Star Wars...and there's also that new movie coming that you may have heard about...
Edge
...Indy’s venues, among them the Well Of Souls, Pankot Palace and the streets of Cairo, are striking departures from the domed habitats and space stations of classic Star Wars, its Byzantine prequels, or even the building methods that fashioned them all out of bricks. They’re exquisitely down-to-Earth, for a start, textured with such care as to look immediately like those of a point-’n’-click, their geometry and art melting into a kind of pseudo-2D....
Joystiq
...Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures will be out in early June for seven different platforms. Of particular note, the Wii controls will feature some sort of motion-based whip, and all versions -- including the DS -- are being developed by Traveller's Tales. Lego Indy isn't as inventive or obsessive as a fan-created shot-for-shot movie remake. (And the movie made by kids has more Nazis, not that I really cared.) But the wry combination of these unrelated franchises carries some of the same humor, letting players experience the Indy world with a new skin...
