These Dice Are Pink

Posts Tagged ‘Lego: Indiana Jones’

Why Does It Have to be Snakes?

Yesterday, I made a tweet complaining about Lego: Indiana Jones.  Before I get into why, I should explain that I really love the lego game franchise.  They are essentially the same formula and it works.  You get to break everything, collect things, and each character type always has a unique and fun role.  I played Lego: Star Wars and Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga.  I’ve beat nearly all of The Complete Saga with exception of the canisters in the Death Star.  In Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga, at its hardest, most things felt possible.  This is why I worry about the QA on Lego: Indiana Jones as I found two major frustrating situations last night:

1. In the Well of Souls, there is a secret area with spinning pillars where you have to jump from rung to rung.  It’s a near impossible puzzle.  I use the term puzzle loosely because it’s not so much puzzling about how to solve it, but, it does require you to stand around and jump over and over again hoping to time it correctly.  I looked online and the forums everywhere essentially stated you just had to keep jumping until you made it.  Really?  Is that what you want to do in a Lego game?  Keep jumping until you make it?  The barrier to game completion is jumping for hours until you get lucky.  I just think they should have rechecked that game design and considered how that would really feel.
2. In Chasing the Ark, there’s a puzzle where you pull a level, it raises stairs, and you have to carry a parcel up them.  Unfortunately, these very short stairs were created such that if you get to close to the stair, you can’t jump up it.  You have to essentially make it up the stairs by jumping not too close to the next stair.  This isn’t immediately obvious.  After all, Lego games are not precision games.  It’s not like you ever get a physics based system here.  They are Legos.  So, the sudden switch to yet another precise mechanic seems to be contrary to the spirit of the game.

Ultimately, I do love the game and the style.  But, I worry that the developers didn’t play their own game or they didn’t have someone outside of them play it and note some of these rather difficult situations.  It just felt like they brought the game out a little rough, maybe they were on a deadline.  Maybe, they improved in Lego Indiana Jones 2.  They did the same thing between Lego: SW and The Complete Saga.

Is this Week Done Yet?

I admit that I’m exhausted this week.  I am ready for a super relaxing weekend and it’s only Wednesday.  In the past two days, I have done very little in regards to anything considered gaming.  I mustered the energy for some role play last night while watching TV.  What would I be doing if I did not want to go to bed at 8 PM?  I really want to level my Feral druid, Mewmoo, to 80.  I have about 90% left to go.  I also want to work on Lego: Indiana Jones.

Tonight, we raid and it will be time to hit Ice Crown Citadel hard!