
	Platform Xbox 360, PS3 Genre Action Publisher LucasArts Developer LucasArts ETA Summer 2007
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Indiana Jones

Indy and his fedora are getting set for not only a return to the big screen, but to gaming in 2007, when LucasArts brings the adventuring archeologist’s latest quest to the Xbox 360 and PS3.

While the film’s plotline is shrouded in mystery, the game will be wholly original, written under the direction of George Lucas and set in 1939, twisting some of the classic mystical and magical unknown that the movie franchise is famous for into its tale.

Just as in previous Indiana Jones games, the title will be an action-adventure foray, as Dr. Jones travels to various locales, including San Francisco’s Chinatown, which was the setting shown at the demo that LucasArts displayed at this year’s E3 on the Xbox 360. He’ll have weapons at his disposal, including his famous bullwhip, but many times will have to overcome enemies with nothing more than just his bare hands.

Although the game is still a long way from completion, which LucasArts readily admitted at E3 (saying it could take up to 18 months before the game is released, putting it at a Christmas 2007 target date), what was shown at E3 promises for a truly unique gaming adventure.

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This will be the first LucasArts game that takes complete advantage of the resources of sister company Industrial Light and Magic, the force behind the excellent special effects and computer graphical capabilities of the Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park films. Both companies are now together in one San Francisco building, the Letterman Digital Arts Center.

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With the Industrial Lights and Magic assets at its disposal, Indiana Jones the game will thus be able to showcase many features never seen in games before with original LucasArts technologies, starting with amazing graphics via NaturalMotion, supremely more intelligent A.I. from both DMM and Hot Seat randomization techniques that will be the genesis for less linear and more open gaming worlds and gaming experiences.

Essentially, LucasArts is promising that you’ll find Indiana Jones to be like no other game you’ve ever played. NaturalMotion brings a whole new level of gaming A.I., giving each character a lifelike awareness to their environment, in part affected by your interactions. The characters will actually be able to “think” and react on the fly, as was shown on the fight between Indy and a slew of bad guys on a San Francisco streetcar-not-named-desire, translating many variables into calculations on how to react. LucasArts is basically attempting to revolutionize and rewrite the principles of gaming artificial intelligence.

Along with improved A.I., LucasArts is implementing, through the scientific-sounding Digital Molecular Matter (DMM) application, enhanced interactive environments. Other games allow for interactivity with the environment, and even have multiple ways for the environment to affect gameplay. But DMM is trying to exponentially increase those interactive opportunities, along with Hot Seat destructibility.

In the E3 demo, when Indy was throwing a bad guy into a wooden door, it reacted as a real wooden door would react to a violent impact, splintering and breaking. Smashing another bad guy into another wooden door, and the door would again splinter and crack, but in a totally different way than the previous door.

Indiana Jones is an ambitious project, but already is showing signs of living up to that ambition, if the E3 demo is any indication. But that same demo, which crashed the Xbox 360 when I was watching, is also an indication that Indy fans will have to be patient as they wait for the game to be completed and all the bugs worked out. However, with the power of movie-quality technologies built into its massively powerful gaming engine, Indiana Jones could be the game that uncovers the Holy Grail of a whole new way of experiencing games.

- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(June 27, 2006)