Indiana Jones® and the Infernal Machine™

Just ignore this game, unless it really hold some nostalgic value for you. The controls are so bad it hurts. No mouse control in a 3d game in 99 is a joke, the animations, controls and the general flow of the game are clumsy and clunky at best, annoying at worst. You have to face the fall exaxtly 90 degrees and dead close to it to grab the edge, usually takes 1-3 attempts to grab the stupud thing. Same goes for ladders, dead close, 90 degrees. Honestly I wouldn't play it even when it was released. And the Indy doesn't look or sound anything like Harrison Ford at all.

I tried several configs and workarounds, and and and... the game just doesn't start. When I boot up the game, the screen goes black for a couple seconds, then puts me straight back to desktop. No error, nothing. Few others have this problem too, so be warned. Maybe you're lucky...

Gamepad controls feel clunky and slow to respond. The automatic camera mostly functions but occasionally drunkenly swings too far making some of the platforming frustrating, resulting in deaths that feel unfair. The keyboard controls have a classic design issue of inefficiency. All items are bound to individual keys, so you soon forget which key does what. This doesn't translate well to gamepad - as you need to locate items from an un-intuitive column like menu before Indy can use them. Has the worst swimming mechanics I've ever played. It's incredibly frustrating to move Indy underwater especially in tight spots. Many levels have underwater sections that are overly complex and difficult to navigate. There's no switchable lock on system. Indy aims at the closest enemy - and NOT the most dangerous. The guy with grenades will certainly kill you much faster than the guy with a gun, but since the pistol guy is closer, he gets all the attention. There is no manual aim. TIM is most enjoyable when things slow down and puzzles are approached calmly and Indy can be deliberately positioned for jumps. It's even rewarding to solve some of the ancient puzzles. The licensed sounds are nice touches, but still feel like budget restrictions as they are more sound bites as opposed to a soundtrack. All story beats are ingame cut scenes with PS1 like graphics of mannequins speaking to each other. Disruptive bugs occurred such as getting stuck in an endless failing animation if lodged between a wall and an object. Indy would also get stuck in animations and refuse to switch weapons. After 15 hours of sterile characters, frustrating swimming, poor combat and crashes, I lost all my patience. I was done. I played The Infernal Machine when it was released originally and regretted not finishing it. I realize now that I have not missed out. Nostalgia got me back, but there is nothing here that you can't get from an endless amount of better games.

I bought Indiana Jones® and the Infernal Machine because I thought it was going to be Emperor's Tomb. Unfortunately I couldn't get past the controls. If this doesn't bother you I'm sure you'll enjoy the game otherwise know what you're getting into. Tank controls or manual turning is when you have to turn left or right before you can move in that direction. Kind of like controlling a tank, hence the name. Very few if any games use this control scheme today and for good reason.

Only the English version is included in this release, so this is my rating for the quality of this launch. The Spanish version had cinema quality voiceover from the guy who dubs Harrison Ford in the Star Wars movies, and that's missing here. And suspect players from other territories are not happy either. Localized versions exist. But GOG, as usual, doesn't care that much about non-English releases.