But where does The Emperor's Tomb come into play? Well, directly in canon before Temple of Doom, my personal favorite in the franchise. It's 1935 and Indy begins a trek through the jungles of Ceylon to - in the style of Raiders - recover an artifact. After making his way through a ruined temple, matching wits against ivory hunters, and dealing with a great white crocodile, Indiana does indeed manage to recover the artifact...which turns out, unlike the Idol of the Havitos...to be intrinsically important to yet another quest he finds himself on when a Chinese official and his lovely assistant arrive to inform him of - the search for the tomb of China's first sovereign Emperor, Qin Shi Huang. And thus, another epic adventure begins as Indiana travels from New York City to Prague to Istanbul to Hong Kong...and to Hell itself in his quest!
...well, one of them. Chinese got a lot of Hells.
But yes, Indy's journey takes him across the globe and even to another dimension entirely...and it's a pretty fun journey. You move through levels, getting into bare-knuckle fist fights with assorted baddies based on the location, going through the tedium of puzzle solving at points to progress, and - if you're particularly vigilant - pocketing a few hidden treasures along the way. It's from a third-person perspective for most of the game, luckily with a camera you can control (and you all know how much I love games where I can't control the camera), with only a few first-person perspectives at a few points like vehicle or turret control.
Guns, knives, and other weapons are also usable within the game, including a temporary one in the form of bottles, table legs, and other assorted non-weapons that prove Indy's combat pragmatism. Of course, there's always fisticuffs that is pretty well-done in my opinion. That being said, I'm one of those who could never fully master it and went through shotgun ammo (or the equivalent weapon of badassery) whenever it was available, deciding that Indy decided to homage the marketplace scene from Raiders more liberally.
...y'know...an entire year before that event had actually happened.
The healing system, too, puts the thumb-pulling antics of Far Cry to shame. Indy can use health packs in a pinch or, more commonly, drink some water from his canteen. You'd be surprised how much simple water can heal. Bullet wounds, explosive burns, stabbings, being impaled repeatedly, shark bites, crocodile bites, drowning, and even the fire of a dragon! Really, I don't know why we aren't using water now to heal everything! Clearly, it's some kind of miracle cure! Also, here's a tip for all you wannabe survivalists out there: water fountains pop up a lot more in ancient ruins when you have a canteen handy. And the water is always fresh, even when no one has been there for hundreds, if not thousands, of years!
The graphics don't look terrible, but they have not aged well since I first played it. The voice acting, too, is the stuff of legend. Not Resident Evil bad, but the emphasis was definitely more on the action-adventure elements than it was the acting. The soundalike for Harrison Ford is pretty convincing besides a few inflections, but the real joy comes in very, very (or so I'm told by people who actually speak the language) poorly translated Chinese dialogue. Even the actors don't seem entirely certain as to what they're saying, and I honestly wonder if they were given more than one take while recording it.
I will say I definitely recommend it. It's got some great visuals and there's a lot of creativity and thought put into the puzzle work, even if a little simplistic in some places. And, of course, the horror elements in the later levels of the game give it a place in Horror Month. I mean, c'mon. The film is basically "Indiana Jones and the Trip to (One Of The) Chinese Hell(s)", and he didn't have to get his heart eaten or kill his mysteriously unexplained half-sister in order to bring himself back to life!
...we'll be getting to that massacre soon enough, don't worry.
To the point, however - definitely pick up Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb if you can. If you've ever wanted to live an Indiana Jones film, this is about the most realistic simulator you're ever going to get your hands on.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb was developed by The Collective, Inc. and published by LucasArts.
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