Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings Review

Buy Indiana Jones And The Staff Of Kings Now

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings was originally announced by Lucas Arts way back in 2005. Doubts that the much publicised project would ever be realised were finally quashed with its release in June 2009. Indiana Jones based entertainment has been extraordinarily successful: the legendary films have been followed by video games and TV cartoons. There was also the intention to release a novel to coincide with the new game: this hasn’t happened. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is an all action adventure game.

The story, set in 1939, revolves around Indiana’s quest to find the Staff of Moses; although the actual search does not start until well into the game. There is, of course, plenty of fighting as Indiana battles with various vicious characters, super natural forces and Germans (inevitable as the story is set at the start of WWII). The action is scattered throughout the world, with the PS2 version adding Istanbul and Sudan to the exotic locations.

Full marks to the developers for the range of the gameplay but, unfortunately, the control mechanics are disappointing: they aren’t as responsive as they should be, and are in need of some fine tuning. The first part of the game is fairly straight forward, enabling you to quickly master the techniques of fighting and exploration. The fighting is varied and the enemies cunning. You’ll enjoy the brawling; you can pummel your opponents with a barrage of punches or grapple them and slam them against any adjacent solid structure. When necessary you can pick up something that is lying about such as a shovel and use it as an offensive weapon. When the action gets serious, you will need your gun: the shootouts are fun but your movement is restricted. Best of all is your whip, whose versatility is one of the highlights of the game. Skilful use of your whip allows you to disarm your enemy or pull him about by wrapping it around his legs or neck. It can be used to topple a heavy object, so crushing the person who happens to be standing beneath it. Your whip will also enable you to swing across gaping chasms. Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings offers other challenges apart from fighting: there are vehicles to be driven and puzzles to be solved.

The graphics are of a reasonably good PS2 standard. The character models are well detailed and the environments, though generally good, are rather gloomy on occasions. The voice acting is mostly very good, and although the soundtrack is unoriginal, it partners the acting well enough. All-in-all the graphics and the audio make you feel that you are Indiana Jones.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings is not a ground-braking game that takes the franchise to a new level. It is pretty standard Indiana Jones fare, but this will be more than enough to satisfy the many fans of our super hero.