Jones' first 3D venture is a little slower compared with the movies, but makes for a great action adventure.
"Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine" doesn't contain much of the dynamic action featured in the films, forcing you more to utilize your little grey 'uns to get by. Of course, it does feature action, although in a bit stale and stiff way.
In "Infernal Machine", Sophia Hapgood (from "Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis") unveils Soviet Russia's new plans to Indy; something involving an ancient machine found in Iraq (or Iran, whatevz). Indy, of course, being the professional archaeologist that he is, decides to investigate and is drawn into a plot bigger than he could have imagined (or not really, considering his canon earlier exploits)! The story is quite good, actually, Indy travelling from the desert ruins of Iraq to ruined Japanese military bases to otherworldly realms, in search of the parts of the great Infernal Machine. Despite not being completely original, the story, with classic Indy lines and happenings, works very well.
Everybody who knows me knows that grapics in a game has never mattered to me, and never will. The graphics in "Infernal Machine" are a little less than what you could expect from a 1999 title, but function very well indeed. The models are a bit crude, but the lipsynching's good. The textures for all the locations look proper, and there is a huge variety of textures indeed. The graphics work completely fine with me (I kinda dig those early 3D games anyway).
In the game, there is hardly ever any music playing, besides a few cues during important events (quite well made they are too), which leaves you with the surroundings to take in the Indy experience. I kinda like "quiet" games at times, and with no music distracting you, figuring out the variety of puzzles is easier. It actually benefits the game, not having music constantly playing. The sound effects are so-and-so; some of the pistol shots sound completely strange (gotta love it!) but Indy's footstep sounds always correspond with the type of flooring he is walking on, pretty believable, which is good. There is of course CRACK noises whenever you utiliize Indy's trademark whip, and the parts of the machine that are gained over time have outlandish, weird noises to them. The dialogue between characters (and those gawdawful Soviets!), an early example of its usage, is a bit crispy in audio quality, but it gets the job done. The sound part works pretty good, in all relativity.
Now, to the gameplay. You control Indy, and you can make him jump, swim, climb walls/ladders and whatnot. Not having a dynamic game engine like current games, it feels a bit stiff, and it's very important to learn how to jump well, as even the slightest miscalculation on the angle of the jump will have you at the bottom of the next pungee pit fast. It's a bit old school, but, as the game's puzzle-oriented theme, less eye candy leaves more to the brain (or something like that). Whenever those darn Soviets or some mountain lion should appear though, it's no more Mr. Nice Guy for Indy; as Finlay would put it, "it's time to fight!". However, beating the baddies in "Machine" is actually pretty hard, as there is no first person view when having your gun out, and getting close to the enemy is required to make the weapon auto-target it. So, you really need to act fast when you're playing, or else you'll be dead meat fast. Fights are few and far between though, and mostly you'll just be doing a few easy potshots at passing venomous spiders or snakes.
To get through another contract-obligated quest, Indy (or rather, you) must solve a variety of puzzles to advance further into the annals of archaeology history. These puzzles consist mainly of pushing switches and timing, as well as pushing crates and finding a missing part to some machine, all very basic stuff really. But some of them are really hard, and that's when it's good to have the map/hint system in the game. Some of the game's levels are massive (even by today's standards!) and you will have to be doing some backtracking to advance at times if you screw up.
All in all, "Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine" is a great title, not to mention a classic of its genre -- a sadly overlooked classic, featuring all the right Indy things (bar perhaps a good fighting system) and great atmosphere. If you can pick this game up for a reasonable price, do it, man! You could be disappointed of course, as everyone has their own taste, but this man be likin' this game. And that's it for today's incredibly long review.