It’s that time again when LEGO fans can enjoy the epic and fun adventures of ‘LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure continues‘ developed by LucasArts.. LEGO Indiana Jones 2 the adventure begins follows Dr Jones from the jungles of South America to the Peruvian ruins; Players also have the chance to play Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull which will also enable players to create their own levels.

 
Personally I’ve always had a soft spot for the LEGO games, maybe it’s just the multiple amounts of collecting all them delightful studs or gathering a collection of vehicles to be proud of. Whatever the reason I’m always enticed back to the famous LEGO games with great eagerness to see what new features have been added and how well the funny animated stories run. The appeal for me at the end of the day, is that the game play has you smashing your way through everything until your showered in LEGO studs in order to find hidden secrets or other obtainable objects. The experience for me has always been a fun one and always enables me to get absorbed into the storyline giving me a great insight into the world of Indie and his adventures.

 


 
Gameplay is identical as before as you smash every object in sight and collect studs as your reward. Find all the special coloured blocks that are hidden on each level. The main map shows you which story you can enter which is all four Indiana Jones movies with more emphasis on the fourth film, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, seeing as it makes up the Story Mode’s first levels. However, you do get to unlock the levels pertaining to the first three films starting with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and finally Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

 


 
The dashboard shows you which character you can select and to initially begin with you only have Indie and Mac. The first installment of the game has me wandering around a colourful town in which you smash up objects to gain studs and find a selection of puzzles to solve. In one instance I had a monkey sitting at the top of the tree that if I helped with a banana would then reward me something in return. Wandering round you know straightaway that you have to perform certain tasks for the gameplay to continue. I’ve just walked past a mysterious wall that won’t do anything and I know that, later on down the line, I will need some sort of Hieroglyphics book that will help me translate symbols. So much as you think it’s a straight off smash everything to kingdom come, there are multiple sections where you have to solve a mystery or find a certain object that will help you in your game.

 

There are a vast selection of vehicles and characters you can purchase throughout the game, with your LEGO studs, which can range from a tricycle that costs 5,000 studs up to buying all of the characters from the game . I had fun driving around on all the vehicles even though Indie would come off some of them. They are really responsive and it’s great to have the chance to speed around on motorbikes, trucks, and even boats.

 


 
Indie still has full use of his Indie whip which can grab onto higher areas which are out of reach, pull certain targets, release birds from their cages and if you really want to lash out and whip up another character then you can do that as well. This time round they‘ve also invested in a target icon which appears when you press the action button which is then highlighted in white showing where the lasso should be placed.

 


 
The LEGO town is still inviting and pleasing to the eye as you make your way around the different sections of it. Enemies will come out of hiding and start shooting at you as before and there’s even a chance to go head to head in vehicles to see if you can run them off the roads and do damage. At the end of the day you can’t die. You may lose studs and respawn and that’s about it, so I think that’s a great factor about the game, and it enables players to also revisit areas of the game where they can unlock secrets. No matter how many times you die, you can start over and over again.  Certain characters can only be used to complete a level so bear that in mind when starting up a level. Buying all the different vehicles and characters is still great as you gather such a huge selection.

 


 
Each section of the game should take you more or less an hour to get through. If you’re like me I like to smash everything in order to obtain them all important golden studs. Indie still uses his spade to excavate the ground to find hidden objects that are buried deep within and these are represented in a multi coloured aura. Players won’t get fed up playing as one character because you can switch from character to character throughout the game which enables players to use the different skills that are required from each LEGO character.

 
The game has the option also of co op mode and even if you play alone, the other character will help you on your quest. Although many times my other character would be happily bouncing up and down on the trampoline while I was trying to make my way out of a cave. Sometimes the other character can lag behind making you wait a while before they essentially catch up with you. You’ll go back to find your other character swaying back and forth on the rope while you’ve tried to make a run for the exit. So it kind of feels that you’re not actually playing on your own. There are some great scenes on a moving train which I thought was brilliant. The animation is so well polished in this game.

 
Another interesting feature that has been improved is in the way co op can be handled much better by allowing players to wander off and then forming a split screen which is a massive improvement. Before you were constricted by the constraints of the screen and you would have to wait for other player to be on the same screen as you. I‘m glad they have improved this feature now.

 
The hubs also allow for you to take vehicles and do time trials which are quite fun, although my vehicle seemed to veer back and forth while driving, or maybe that was my driving. They seemed a little too responsive at times while you drive over ramps and gather power ups from the road side. Throughout the adventure you will have to solve puzzles, look for keys, push objects and basically smash everything to bits.

 
While the game has an absorbing storyline, some gamers may not be happy with the endings. You have to remember at the end of the day that the LEGO games are all very hilarious, this means that Indiana Jones fans might not entirely agree with how storylines have concluded. Personally I found all the animation absolutely amazing, because there are so many cut scenes that are funny, you can’t help but laugh. Some of the levels in the game I felt were a little misdirecting. In fact I found myself lost quite a few times. As you progress through the levels it’s difficult to always find what your next objective is. Expect to do a great deal of wandering in this particular title. The Big bosses are quite impressive and are quite simple to defeat. I found that I was up against more enemies this time from Nazi soldiers to gangsters. I was forever trying to run their vehicles off the road.

 
Amazing game that it is, I did record three glitches, which was annoying. My game would freeze up and then I would have to restart the level all over again and they didn’t happen in the same place, so I did find the game a bit buggy. I don’t even recall finding that many glitches on previous LEGO titles.

 
I loved the use of all the different characters that you unlock. Some have guns, some knives, and some explosives. It gave me a wide choice to choose from and I had immense fun trying out all the variety of weapons. Each character can be used for their set skill and ability which means you have to swap from character to character in order to solve puzzles.

 
LEGO Indiana Jones 2 the Adventure continues is a brilliant new addition to the LEGO game franchise offering players a great deal of fun, fantastic storylines and terrific gameplay.  This get’s the thumbs up from us. We Love LEGO!!!