Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel
| Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio |
 LucasArts , Factor 5 (Nintendo 64) |
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| Publisher |
 THQ
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
December 1, 1999 |
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| platform | Windows , Nintendo 64 , Game Boy Color | ||
| genre | Action adventure | ||
| Subject | adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse , joystick | ||
| system advantages preconditions |
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| medium | 2 CD-ROM | ||
| language | German | ||
| Age rating |
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| information | The Game Boy Color version was approved by PEGI from 12. | ||
Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel (Original title: Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine ) Ⅰ is an action adventure game in LucasArts ' Indiana Jones series released by THQ in late 1999 and also the first Indiana Jones game in 3D . In Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel , the player fights as Dr. Henry Jones Jr. through 16 levels in which he has to assert himself with a whip, revolver and some other weapons against Soviet soldiers, idolatrous guards, deities and snakes.
Unlike the predecessors of the LucasArts series, Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel are based on the principle of the Tomb Raider series. Successors to this work are Indiana Jones and the Legend of the Imperial Crypt and Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings .
action
The year is 1947. The Second World War is over and the Cold War has begun. Soviet agents are looking for secret forces to give the USSR a power advantage. Among other things, they are looking in the legendary ruins of the Tower of Babel . Dr. Henry Jones Jr., known as Indiana , has dedicated himself to the excavations again, where he is visited by his old friend Sophia Hapgood, who asks him to take a closer look at the situation at the Tower of Babel . Since her last meeting with Jones, however, Hapgood is no longer exclusively a medium (as in Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis ), but an agent of the CIA .
The ancient tower was the location of a machine with which space and time can be bridged and a transition into another world is possible, the etherium. When the ancient Babylonians activated the machine, they were so frightened, for reasons that were not clear, that they tore down the tower. Four Babylonians each stole an important component of the machine and scattered in all directions to guarantee that the Great Machine can never be started again.
The four men (Urgon, Azerim, Taklit and Nub) secured access to their part of the machine with overpowering guards. In a monastery in the mountains of Kazakhstan , the sanctuary of Shambala , a guardian made of pure ice is housed who guards Urgon's artifact , which releases the effect of shattering unstable walls and ice. In the temple of Palawan , which is located in a volcano in the Philippines , Taklit has housed his invisible component, which is guarded by a being made of liquid lava. Azerim fled to the sun temple of Teotihuacán in Mexico and left Quetzalcoatl , a giant snake, to guard his machine part with which one can float with the help of so-called "crystals of the sky". The fourth stolen part of the machine, a kind of inexhaustible source of electrical energy, has been housed by Nub in his own grave, which is guarded by a huge ancient robot. Access to the underground tomb, which is located in the former Nubia, is gained through the pyramids of Meroe .
Level
- Canyonlands
Indy is doing excavations in the American Southwest when his old friend Sophia Hapgood turns up, who now works for the CIA , the successor to the OSS . She shows him photos from Babylon, where the Soviet physicist Gennadi Volodnikov is carrying out excavations. The CIA assigns Indy to travel to Babylon and find out what the Soviet Union is doing with the excavations.
- Babylon
Indy meets up with CIA agent Simon Turner, Sophia's superior, who helps him dig deeper into the dig. In Babylon he finds evidence that Nebuchadnezzar once had the Great Machine built, which the Babylonians feared to destroy. Four disciples of the Babylonian priesthood, Urgon, Taklit, Azerim and Nub, escaped the chaos and fled with one component of the machine each in all possible directions to ensure that the machine can never be activated again. Volodnikov suspects that the machine, which is still housed under the former Tower of Babel, opened the access to the etherium and that it was the god Marduk himself who stepped out of it. Indy finds a map showing the Tian Shan Mountains, indicating that Urgon, one of the disciples, was moving east. To forestall Volodnikov, Indy sets out for Kazakhstan, although this is under Soviet sovereignty.
- Tian Shan River
Indy parachutes to land near the Soviet border. After he manages to cross it alive, he collects four candles on a raft, which he places on a candle holder in a small temple roof and lights, whereupon an old metal bridge swings over the river, which leads to an old monastery. so that Indy can cross them.
- Shrine of Shambala
Inside the monastery, Indy first succeeds in restarting the monastery machines, which are mechanically operated with water power. In the bell tower of the monastery he finds an old woman who belongs to the monastery and could help him, but is too weak. She also speaks of the calamity that a man from Babylon brought to them long ago. Indy brings the woman a flower which she made him look for and which rejuvenates her so that she can open the heavy gate for him that leads into the basement of the monastery where the "Babylonian curse" lurks. Down there, Indy meets a large creature made of ice, which he can destroy with Urgon's machine component, which can also be found there, which emits pressure waves from its flower-like opening. The woman thanks him for this and tells him that it was two disciples who came to Shambala, but one - Taklit - traveled on to a large island in the Pacific, which Indy can identify as Palawan . The woman lets Indy travel there through a portal.
- Palawan Lagoon
In Palawan, Indy finds remains of the Japanese Navy from the Pacific War, including a shipwreck that once ran aground in a bay. After a few dives, Indy finally manages to find the entrance to the Palawan volcano .
- Palawan volcano
Indy meets Sophia, who has set up a small secret CIA camp here, but shortly afterwards she is captured by Soviet soldiers who had also set up a larger base here some time ago and had already started excavation work. Indy can free Sophia, but has to leave her at a gate that Sophia has to open with a switch so that Indy can pass it. It closes too quickly for Sophia to follow suit. In an underground lake, Indy finally finds a death boat with Taklit's remains on it. Shortly before the entrance to the temple, the Soviet soldiers appear, whom Indy can escape with a cable car that carries him over a gorge to the temple entrance.
- Palawan Temple
In the temple of Palawan, where lava and living beings made of stone make it difficult for him to move forward, Indy comes across Taklit's artifact, which can make its wearer invisible. However, it is guarded by a large being made of lava, which Taklit left there as a guardian. Indy succeeds in diverting the water of a lake onto the lava and thus solidifying the lava together with the guardian into solid rock.
- Jeep Trek
Outside the temple, Indy finds Sophia and Turner's abandoned tent and has to flee from the Soviet soldiers in a jeep. At the end of the section, Sophia takes him out of the danger zone in a helicopter and says that they are on their way to Teotihuacán, where Volodnikov suspects the third machine component. Since he wants to go there by ship, Indy can gain a time advantage.
- Teotihuacan
In the huge pyramid of the sun at Teotihuacán, Indy comes across an old machine that the Babylonian priest Azerim built here after his escape from Babylon and that still works today. With it he finally succeeds in opening up access to an adjacent valley. Shortly before, however, the Soviet soldiers reappear.
- Olmec Valley
Indy finds himself in an area that has probably not yet been mapped and which houses remnants of the Olmec culture. After solving various puzzles, he arrives at another large step pyramid . There Quetzalcoatl , a huge feathered snake, which was once worshiped as a god, guards the third machine component, which in combination with so-called "crystals of the sky" can make the wearer float and overcome great heights. After killing the snake, Indy gets back outside, where he is captured and then taken to the Soviet transport ship.
- VI Pudovkin
Indy manages to escape from his prison cell on board the Soviet ship. After he has retrieved his equipment, he takes the dinghy to the next inhabited island, while Volodnikov hopes to find the fourth machine part in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, since he suspects that the fourth disciple - Nub - fled to Egypt and once established the kingdom of Nubia in the south of the country .
- Meroe
In Meroe , Indy finds the remains of a German mining company that the German Heinrich Hörner ran there in the 1920s. He believed that he had found King Solomon's legendary diamond mines here in Meroe , which were considered a myth. However, Hörner was killed in an accident and so research and operations were stopped at that time. In order to get into the tunnels, Indy first has to operate the parts of an opening mechanism in four pyramids and then trigger them using a glass prism in the shape of an eye. When he is close to the target, the Soviet soldiers reappear. With a cart , Indy finally succeeds in penetrating the underground mine complex, in the corridors of which Hörner had a widely branched rail system laid for the carts in the 1920s to facilitate excavations and mine operations.
- King Solomon's Mines
Indy uses the cart to get through the mines, taking out the Soviet soldiers who were also able to get into the mine complex with a second cart. After Indy finds three of King Solomon's jewels, he can open access to Nub's burial chamber.
- Nubs burial chamber
Indy pushes to the sarcophagus of King Nub, where he finds the fourth machine component, a kind of inexhaustible source of electrical energy. However, the grave is guarded by a giant robot, which Indy can use the artifact to kill. When he is about to leave the crypt, Turner and Sophia as well as Volodnikov appear. Both demand the artifacts on behalf of their governments, but Indy gives them to Turner, who then leaves with Sophia. Volodnikov, who views Indy as an equal for the fact that they are both scholars, describes Turner as a fool who has no idea what powers he is getting himself into. Indy travels back to Babylon alone.
- Tower of Babel
In the catacombs beneath the remains of the Tower of Babel, Indy finds a huge complex machine. Turner used the artifacts to put the machine back into operation, but placed the individual artifacts incorrectly so that the machine is not yet working properly. With the help of the machine, Turner creates a large floating ball, with the help of which the transition into the other world, the so-called etherium, can be passed. He wants Sophia to contact Marduk on the other side in order to make the foreign power of the other side an ally of the USA. He throws it into the floating ball. Indy tries to convince Turner to turn off the machine and first thoroughly study its functioning and purpose with the help of scientists and archaeologists. Turner refuses, however. Indy has no choice but to look for the individual components of the machine and place them in their intended places in the hope of being able to free Sophia. In the end he also has to shoot Turner, who has the last missing component with him. After Indy has correctly inserted all machine components into the machine, he wants to free Sophia, but a mechanical image of Marduk opens the transition to the etherium and transports Sophia and Indy through the portal.
- Etherium
Indy ends up in the so-called etherium, another world or another plane of existence, which is basically one huge machine. In some places there are overlays with situations that Indy has already visited in the course of the game. With the help of a fifth artifact that he finds in the Aetherium, Indy can enter these niches in the real world. Indy has to fight several times against the Marduk who lives in the etherium in his various manifestations. With the help of the fifth artifact, Indy succeeds in merging parts of the etherium with the real world, weakening Marduk. Eventually Indy can defeat the creature and save Sophia. With the death of Marduk, reality gains the upper hand and the etherium begins to dissolve. Indy and Sophia manage to escape from the collapsing ruins of the Tower of Babel, in which they are now again, and end up just outside the excavation site. This time Volodnikov waits for them there alone, helps them both out of a pit on a friendly basis and is pleased that the evil has been averted. After Indy asked if Volodnikov had some “socialist vodka ” left for him, the three of them left together.
- Return to Peru (bonus level)
The bonus level can be reached during the main game by buying the treasure map from the list at the end of a section using the treasures found in the game. If the player does not do this, the bonus level will start automatically after the main story has ended. Indy then returns to Peru . One begins here at the point of the opening sequence of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark . Here you can return to the cave known from the film with the famous scene of the rolling stone. One can loot an identical sculpture to the one that was taken from Indy in Raiders of the Lost Ark by René Belloq .
main characters
- Dr. Henry Jones Jr.
The well-known slouch hat wearer of the title is the protagonist in this game. His German voice is given to him by Wolfgang Pampel , who also dubbed Harrison Ford in all of the Indiana Jones films .
- Sophia Hapgood
Indy's friend, known from Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, is also part of the party. She is now a CIA employee interested in the research of the USSR . In addition, she has psychic abilities, so that she z. B. senses when evil forces are nearby.
- Dr. Gennady Volodnikov
He is the antagonist of our hero, who is employed at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and is engaged in hyperspace . He doubts the destination of the Tower of Babel as given by the Bible, and further thinks that the winged god Marduk, once worshiped by the Babylonians, actually exists or existed as a being from some sort of other reality or plane of existence, and the Tower of Babel was only built to house a vast machine that could open a gate into this other reality.
- Simon Turner
He is also with the CIA and Sophia's colleague and superior. Turner, however, has its own goals.
- The holy woman
She is the guardian of Shambala Monastery.
- Nubian boy
A boy who lives in Meroe near the pyramids and is impressed by the industrialization. He also wants a watch that belonged to the industrialist Heinrich Hörner, who was killed in an accident.
- Marduk
This being was worshiped as a god by the Babylonians. However, it was about the ruler of the aetherium; a world made up of a giant machine.
Easter eggs
In order to get into a secret room in the bonus level "Peru", Indiana Jones has to enter a tone code by pressing switches, which is identical to the 5-tone sequence (4-5-3-1-2) from Steven Spielberg's 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind is.
In addition, there are some allusions in the game to earlier LucasArts productions: The map showing Indy's trip to Mexico or Teotihuacán shows the city of "El Marrow", known from the game Grim Fandango, and the island known from Monkey Island To see “Mêlée Island”. Indy also has a piece of chalk with him with which he can draw various “symbols” on walls - including Max the rabbit from Sam & Max Hit the Road , R2-D2 or the famous Shankara stones from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death .
In the final level (the Aetherium) Indy can reach a room from The Curse of Monkey Island , where he transforms into Guybrush and finds pictures of the programmers as well as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas . Furthermore, one of the ten treasures of each level is hidden here. However, the room has disappeared after you leave it again.
Receptions
Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel performed positively on gaming magazines in January 2000.
Web links
- Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine at MobyGames (English)
Remarks
Individual evidence
- ^ Indiana Jones and the Tower of Babel - Reviews , accessed September 15, 2018.
- ↑ Florian Stangl: Infernal Machine . In: PC Games . Computec Verlag , August 1998, ISSN 0947-7810 , p. 20-24 ( archive.org ).
- ^ Fritz Effenberger: Pipeline: Indiana Jones 5 . In: Power Play . Weka Consumer Medien , August 1998, p. 22 ( archive.org ).
- ^ Richard Löwenstein: Preview - Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation . In: PC Joker . Joker Verlag Labiner , December 1999, p. 40 ( archive.org ).
- ^ Jones and The Infernal Machine . In: joystick . 95 (July / August). Hachette Disney Press, 1998, p. 105 ( archive.org ).
