RAIDERS OF THE ARCHIVE

Wolfenstein-style shootouts are just a small part of the picture in MachineGames' maximalist Indy game

- JEREMY PEEL

Indiana Jones pushes gently against the frame of a mottled wooden door. Not in search of secret compartments or testing for traps; he's simply trying to open it as quietly as possible. The old hinges creak, but not loudly enough to reach the ears of the Nazi guard standing ten steps beyond the portal.

Fortunately, the guard is facing away looking out towards one of his compatriots, who patrols the walls of an Italian castle beneath gloomy globs of lamplight. Judging by the stacked pallets of crates and sandbags, they're not alone.

Other devoted servants of the Fatherland with itchy trigger fingers lurk somewhere nearby. There's plenty of room for escalation, and a small window for hushed resolution - but it's closing fast.

Casting about for tools, Indy yanks a shovel from a wheelbarrow and bears down on the nearest guard, who coughs unsuspectingly.

"Don't turn around," our hero mutters under his breath. He throws his weight into his left arm, and uses the momentum to power his right slamming the spade into the peak of his enemy's cap. The man crumples, the cap flies clean off, and Indy's makeshift weapon splinters comically at the handle.

It's a moment that could have come from any one of MachineGames' Wolfenstein titles, spliced with the haphazard charm of the world's most famous field archeologist. Yet while this kind of stealth-action sequence formed the core of the developer's excellent Nazi blasters, it's now just one component of a far larger experience that encompasses exploration, puzzle-solving, fistfighting, whip-swinging, rising quicksand, and dressing as a priest to get around backstage at the Vatican.

MachineGames refuses to reduce the Indiana Jones fantasy to a repeating cycle of violence. Instead, it's shooting for the constant variety of the matinée adventure.