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For the past few days, I’ve been giving BF:BC a rest (I’m near the end on hard difficulty, and having some frustratingly dizzy moments with it…), and playing the XBox360 Lego Indiana Jones Trilogy.

I’m currently stuck on the bridge in the Temple of Doom where Indy and the gang are confronted by the band of Thuggies and the Thuggie Boss. In the movie, this is the scene where Indy nearly has his heart ripped out by the Priest, and has the bridge cut away from under him. I spent an hour fighting off bands of thuggies, completely unable to reduce the number of hearts from the Boss.

So, I’ve resorted to “cheating”, using the Internet to learn how to get through this level. It’s a shame I’ve had to resort to that…

The Lego Indiana Jones series revolves around solving puzzles, collecting artifacts, studs (money to buy stuff with..), parcels, and fighting off bands of soldiers, and thuggies - a basic, but interesting platform game. It continues the tradition started off with the Lego Star Wars Trilogy a few years back, and looks to continue with a Batman series.

Generally, the levels are pretty easy to solve - you start with the easiest puzzles in view, which eventually solve the level so you can escape it, defeat the boss, open up a secret level, or reveal an artifact chest. There’s not a lot of precision required when moving around, but I’ve found some spots where the game is maddeningly precise, which end up becoming frustrating affairs where I’m hemorrhaging studs, and wasting time on something which should be simple to complete.

One particularly fine example of this behaviour cropped up during the Lost Ark levels, when I was trying to get a parcel to the postbox. This level is the one where Indy uses the crane to maneuver a container onto a spot to use as a platform. The parcel is behind barbed wire, and I used Indy to lift the other character onto another platform, and it’s then an easy affair to get to the parcel.

Anyway, on ground level, there’s a lever to pull, which opens the cage the postbox is in, starts a timer, and pops up a set of stairs. The character with the parcel can then climb the stairs to get to a platform, jump up onto another wooden platform, and deposit the parcel into the postbox. Note that when the character has the parcel, their walking speed, and jump height diminish markedly.

I took an hour attempting the simple task of climbing the stairs with the parcel - either the character couldn’t get up the stairs at all (couldn’t jump high enough), or couldn’t jump the last stair onto the first platform. Oops, time up, bars descend around the postbox, stairs disappear, character drops to the ground, and I have to start the process all over again.

Why make this simple act so hard? I’ve solved the challenge around the puzzle, but can’t execute the last step, as the character can’t jump a simple stair!

I’ve given up on seeing that parcel as a bad joke.

To those of you who have successfully posted the parcel - I am not worthy!

An interesting bug in the game engine had me in fits later in the Temple of Doom scene where Indy needs to free the slave children. There is a piece of an engine that seemed impossible to get across a series of platforms to the engine itself, which was needed to start an elevator going, so Indy and the lady could get to the children.

It was an interesting puzzle, even to an oldie like me - how to get that piece across platforms.

The answer was to use Indy’s whip. Drop the engine piece next to the edge of the platform, have Indy jump to the next platform, use his whip to lasso the piece across the gap, drop the piece next to the edge of the platform, rinse and repeat about five times.

The problem with this is that Indy would drop the piece onto the platform, only to have it fall through some invisible hole, and I’d have to start the whole process again. The other complicating factor is that the other character kept getting in the road. I tried resorting to 2 player mode, and moving her out of the way, but that didn’t work, as it restricted the “flexibility” of the scene camera trying to keep both characters on-screen.

It all seemed a bit stupid and pointless, trying to be really lax about placement, only to require the piece to be in an exact (unmarked) spot on each platform - otherwise the brick would fall _through_ the platform, even though the platform was solid, and Indy could walk over the spot the brick fell through.

*sigh*

The above were only a few examples of issues which can seriously detract from an otherwise great gaming experience.

So, why am I still stuck on that bridge? Because I had no way of knowing what to do to get off it. One of my big bug-bears with games is not knowing what to do - with no clues from the game engine at all. All I would have needed was a cut-scene at the start of the level showing the black smoke around the rope supports. During my hour on the bridge, I’d noticed the smoke, but thought nothing of it. Only after reading the cheat guide on the Internet did I know that I need to throw swords at the supports, but only after kicking the Boss off the bridge (which removes the smoke momentarily). An hour getting frustrated for nothing but frustration in return.

All you level designers out there, give us a break! Make sure your game:

• allows us to walk up stairs/ladders/etc without hassle - the challenge is working out the puzzle, not fighting the characters up a set of stairs.
• allows us to drop objects onto an obviously impervious ground without worrying that it will fall through.
• has the smarts to assist players who are obviously needing some assistance to solve puzzles. Otherwise, these people are not going to be able to continue along with the story, not finish the game, and likely not buy any further games in the series.
• does not include spots/treasures in single-player mode when you expect they’re only reachable in free-play mode. It’s extremely frustrating trying to get to an Artifact in single-player only to discover it’s impossible to do so.

There are some real gems in the Lego Indy game too. The College, where the library, Indiana’s office, and the other rooms are located is sweetly done. So laid back after the frenetic fighting and action of the various levels, it’s quite refreshing to wander around the Artifacts Room, and Indy’s office. I made a sweet character in the Paint Room, with a white hat, skull head, black torso, white pants, white arms, and a machine pistol. Awesome to have fun with in Free Play mode.

The character animations are great too. Each character has their own little quirks - Indy’s afraid of snakes, one of the girls is afraid of spiders, Short-Round is afraid of nothing! They also all have their own walking and swimming styles - Indy swims like a proper swilmmer should, but the Enemy Guards swim by floating on their backs.

The scene in the Temple of Doom, where Indy and the gang are looking down on the ceremony far below them is creepy, and very true to the movie - the captive Indian being lowered into the pit, only to resurface a bit red and embarassed because he’s lost his clothes (in true Lego Indy style). Good fun to watch.

To sum up - a fun series of challenges overshadowed by massive moments of sheer frustration trying to perform simple tasks.