Hands-onIndiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb

LucasArts has revealed a new work-in-progress version of its upcoming third-person action adventure game Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. The game is being developed by The Collective, the development house responsible for EA's popular game based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Indy has many similar elements to Buffy but tosses in a dash of Tomb Raider and comes out with a style that seems authentically Indiana Jones.

None of the game's plot points were in the version we played, but the game centers on various groups vying for control of a powerful artifact known as the Heart of the Dragon. You'll travel through Sri Lanka, Prague, Hong Kong, China, and a few other locales on your quest, and you'll fight a variety of enemies, including Nazis, triads, and more.

The game features some pretty decent hand-to-hand combat, using two of the Xbox's buttons for attacks. You can string punches together, and you can also use one of several weapons. You'll start missions with a pistol and a whip, though you'll find plenty of conventional weapons, such as a machete and a machine gun. You'll also find some improvised weapons along the way, such as table legs, liquor bottles, and chairs. In certain situations, you can also use your whip to swing from platform to platform.

Graphically, the game looks pretty sharp. The levels we've seen have pretty solid texture quality, and the character models also look pretty good. The frame rate was slightly stuttery, but since this build looks really, really early, this issue will surely be worked out before the game is released early next year.

Since the game already seems to have a lot of the great qualities of The Collective's previous work, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb certainly looks promising. We'll have more coverage of Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb as it becomes available.