Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues Hands-On

By now, it should be fairly obvious as to what you should expect from a Lego game. Instead of building your own Temple of Doom to reenact the entire film, you can now play through new versions of the entire Indiana Jones trilogy, as well as play through the storyline of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And, it is mandatory to play through the Crystal Skull story in order to unlock Raiders of the Lost Ark, despite your feelings about the latest movie. We had a chance to play with a build of Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues and found that the gameplay functions more or less the same as before, but there are several new additions worth highlighting.

The most noticeable change is the split-screen when you're playing with a friend. As soon as he or she wanders away from you, the screen will be sliced to give both of you room to wander off in whichever direction you please. The split isn't always just down the middle of the screen either. It changes and rotates, depending on where you are in relation to your partner. As you approach each other, the screen will seamlessly meld together into one again. It can be confusing and disorienting at first, but it's actually a cool feature that allows you to go do your own thing. You don't have to worry about inadvertently killing your partner by bumping him or her off a ledge because you're too impatient to wait.

You can also use Indy's whip to tie people up and drag them around with you--or leave them with their hands bound for a while. Using the X button, you bring up a target reticle and aim your whip--or other useable items, such as chairs, bottles, and bananas--to hit various targets. After playing through several levels, we noticed that boss battles took a bit more coordination between the two characters, and there's more puzzle-solving involved. This isn't a bad thing, but it is definitely a lot more fun to play with a friend than to swap the two characters and try to work out the problems on your own.

When you get tired of going through the main story, the level editor provides a playground where you can mess around to come up with your own devious levels. You can modify existing levels or create new ones with a friend, but it doesn't look like you can share them online. The creator is really easy to use and is unlocked relatively early in the game, but you'll need to continue playing through the main story to get all the parts. Using all the pieces that you've come across in the game, you can also create your own character and play as him or her in a custom area.

Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues looks to be an excellent addition to the series. With all of the unique content and newly added features, it'll be worth checking out even if you've played the previous Lego Indy. The short but hilarious cutscenes manage to retell the story well enough so that if you're familiar with the movies, it'll all come back to you. But even if you aren't familiar, it won't matter because the game doesn't exactly go in-depth and it's so goofy that you won't really care about the actual plot anyway. The Adventure Continues is set to be released on every platform, including the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, PC, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo DS on November 17.