Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues Impressions - Co-Op, New Movie Content, and Level Editor

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues is the sequel to the first Lego Indiana Jones, and will be a much bigger game with a lot more content. Like the first game, it'll star a blockheaded Lego version of the globetrotting archeologist/adventurer as he explores and fights through Lego brick versions of all the exotic international locales that he's famous for visiting. Among other things, the game will include a "retelling" of the content of every single Indiana Jones movie to date, as well as expanded co-op play and a beefier level-editing tool that will let you make fairly large levels to share with your friends. The game will also have numerous prebuilt levels as part of its story mode, though each level can also be played in Free Play mode, and in that case, the prebuilt levels may have different objectives.

Who's Making This Game: Traveller's Tales, the creator of the previous Lego games, such as Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Star Wars, and Lego Batman. Clearly, Traveller's Tales is looking to build on the foundation that it has set with the previous game and with previous Lego titles.

What the Game Looks Like: If you've seen a Lego video game from Traveller's Tales, it won't be hard for you to imagine what this one looks like. But to the creator's credit, Lego Indy 2 will pack in a ton of story-related content with retold versions of every single movie to date. The game's introductory cinematic is a modified version of the cafe scene in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in which Harrison Ford and Shia LeBouf are arguing over a treasure map and a band of thugs attacks them. In another sequence, the infamous "Ark discovery" scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark is retold as a fully playable level, except that instead of having the evil Nazis' faces horrifically melt like wax, the Ark of the Covenant instead compels them to dance a nifty disco jig...then zaps them with lightning.

What There Is to Do: Even though the game will revisit the content of previous movies, LucasArts claims that none of the content in Lego Indy 2 will be recycled from the previous game; it'll be all-new, 100% fresh content. The game will have a variety of international levels that will have platforming, item-collection, and fighting elements. Indy can still fight with his fists and with his whip, and he has a few new moves; he can now sight targets for his whip with a glowing green cursor, and, when he swings his whip, he'll temporarily tie up and incapacitate his foe, at which point he can then pick up his enemy and carry him over his shoulder. In addition, the game will have a robust level editor with six different environment types that will let you deform terrain by dragging your "paintbrush" (in this case, a little Lego skeleton flying around in a Lego flying saucer) across it, digging valleys to fill with river water or lava, or raising terrain to make hills or pyramids.

How the Game Is Played: The game is played like most other third-person action games; you control Indy with your left thumbstick and use the face buttons to perform actions such as jumping and attacking. The game also has a two-player mode that will let you play with either a computer-controlled companion or a friend in split-screen co-op.

What They Say: LucasArts suggests that Lego Indy 2 will offer a ton of all-new stuff that will keep people busy for a long time, particularly if they decide to start futzing with the editing tools.

What We Say: Lego Indy 2 does seem to have a lot going for it, including full retellings of all the movies, no recycled content, two ways to play every single-player level, plus an editor. The game is scheduled to ship this winter for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, the Wii, the PC, the PSP, and the DS.