February 27th, 2005
Indiana Jones and the return to games
A portion of an interview with Jim Ward, president of LucasArts and LucasFilm advertising alludes to revisiting the Indiana Jones brand for some new games. This should come as no surprise for Indy fans, knowing that development on Indy 4 is well underway. I find it a little amusing that Ward would comment on the quality of recent Star Wars games, basically admitting that the company’s reliance on one franchise to make money has severely damaged the overall reputation of LucasArts as a brand.
Remember when the name “LucasArts” used to mean something in the adventure game genre? By canceling two adventure projects in the last few years with recognizable IP that were almost certain to do well, they’ve essentially severed all ties with that heritage. I have my doubts that the company will be able to restore faith in adventure gamers, because issuing another Tomb Raider clone is not the solution. LucasArts needs to look farther than that. Back to when they were making games with the same engine, but still presenting highly unique adventures that actually told a story, and had an excellent sense of humour.
On most days I can easily call Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis the greatest game of all time. In fact, for the same reasons I re-installed Sim City 4 I began to play Fate of Atlantis again with the help of SCUMMVM. I know the puzzles like the back of my hand, and the dialogue trees are no surprise. But as I said about Half Life 2, playing a favorite game again is a lot like watching a favorite movie. If you leave it on the shelf long enough, it seems the magic is always there waiting when you return.
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