Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings

Aside from his early adventure games and the more recent Lego Indiana Jones, poor old Indy has had a rough time of it in the world of video games. Most of the Indiana Jones titles have been sub-standard action adventures that go for a Tomb Raider style approach, and end up being pretty lacklustre.

There was a hope that with Staff of Kings LucasArts was turning a new leaf and was this time going to produce a genuinely good game that did justice to the Indy legacy, but sadly we’re left with yet another disappointing experience.

In this outing you join Indiana as he travels the globe in search of the mysterious Staff of Kings. It’s set in 1939 so there’s plenty of Nazi-punching, but the game takes an unusual approach. It presents the action in a series of set pieces with different styles of gameplay.

One moment you’re whipping and punching Nazis, then whizzing along a mine in a cart. It changes frequently, constantly keeping you on your toes. Initially each of these sections is enjoyable, but repetition soon sets in.

They offer little challenge and although the locations change you’re still performing the same actions over and over. Whipping a Nazi and tripping them up is fun the first few times, but it soon becomes tiresome.

The actual mechanics of the thing are well done, but the enemy is brain dead and the set pieces uninspired. There are puzzle and shooting sections too, but again they’re dull and simplistic, as though they were concocted in a rush the day before the game shipped to stores.

The one positive thing we can say about Staff of Kings is that it includes the classic adventure game ‘Fate of Atlantis’ as an unlockable extra. This is a true classic that remains as good as it was in the early 90s, but it’s not worth paying for or playing through Staff of Kings to get to it.

Verdict 43%

Yet another disappointing video game adventure for Indy Jones. The basic controls and ideas aren’t bad, but the execution is weak. This is one that’s best left buried.