There has been a lot of talk about Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine for N64, and a good deal of hype about how much better it is than the PC version. Well, the PC version must have been pretty poor, because this game is screamingly mediocre. It pains me to say this about a game made by Factor 5, who could easily become one of the industry's better development houses; but it is the sad truth.

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine begins well enough. You assume the role of Dr. Jones in 1947 as you search for the four pieces of an ancient machine in conjunction with the newly formed CIA. Because the four pieces are scattered all over the world, you will visit numerous locals...many of which are under Communist control, which leads to some interesting situations. The story is just like something out of one of the Indiana Jones movies, and really helps set the tone of the game.

However, that all falls apart when you start to actually play the game, and realize that it is basically just Tomb Raider with a different lead character and in a different box. The controls, style, puzzles and levels all feel exactly like a Tomb Raider title. The controls are improved over the PC version, but still feel clunky and somewhat unresponsive. For example, in order to climb up a high step, you have to first run up all the way up to it, stop completely, and then jump. It takes much longer than it should, and can cause problems when a wolf, or any other animal, is chasing you. Also, the running and turning in the game will make you feel like you are playing this 3D game with an 8-D pad, and not an analog control stick. Many of the puzzles are pretty standard for an adventure game of this type. But some of the puzzles aren’t really puzzles at all. They seem to be just tests at how well you have mastered the games controls. This is all very well and good if it is only on the first level, but it carries on throughout the game. Puzzles should be added to a game to heighten it as a whole and better stimulate the player, not because the controls are terrible and some company wants to make sure that you are used to that fact.

From a technological standpoint, Indiana Jones is a fine game. The sound is wonderfully done, as the game is chock full of speech and filled with crisp sound effects and a perfectly converted theme song. Actually, if more music was included, this game might rival Rogue Squadron as the best sounding cartridge on the N64. The graphics are almost as good. The Infernal Machine features a huge amount of textures and has some cool effects. However, it has one glaring graphical problem and that is that the edges of polygons are not rounded off. This inclusion of "jaggies" probably will not bother most gamers too much, especially those who are accustomed to Playstation-like graphics, but I find it very annoying. It should also be noted that this game froze up on me a few times.

As for replay value, beating the game will take a while because it is fairly large with 17 levels, but there is no reason to come back to this title. There are many ‘artifacts’ that you can collect, however, doing so will probably result in a great deal of frustration instead of fun. There is no multiplayer, so once you have exhausted the single player, you have exhausted the game.