Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is a third-person action-adventure originally developed by LucasArts in 1999 and re-released on PC via Steam. Set in 1947, the game drops you into the early Cold War as Dr. Henry Jones Jr. is recruited by the CIA to investigate Soviet activity around the ruins of the Tower of Babel. What follows is a globe-trotting series of tomb-raiding levels that borrow heavily from the Tomb Raider formula of the era, mixing platforming, combat, and light environmental puzzles across locations built around biblical mythology and pulp adventure aesthetics. The core loop involves exploring ruins, flipping switches, collecting artefacts, and shooting or whipping anything that gets in Indy's way. The whip is the mechanical highlight here. It is used for swinging across gaps, snatching weapons from enemies, and activating distant levers, and it gives the game a physicality that sets it apart from the pure gun-and-jump competitors of its time. Indy carries a mix of weapons including pistols, submachine guns, grenades, and a machete, and resource management matters more than it first appears because ammo is not infinite and you will learn to whip-melee early enemies instead of burning bullets on them. For a 1999 title the level design is reasonably thoughtful, with some genuinely vertical spaces that reward paying attention to the geometry. The problems are real and worth naming clearly. The camera is a fixed third-person system that fights you constantly in tight corridors. The controls feel stiff by any modern standard, and keyboard-and-mouse on PC is noticeably worse than the original Nintendo 64 controller scheme the game was designed around. A gamepad is strongly recommended here. The combat AI is basic, enemy variety is thin, and later levels lean too hard on respawning enemies to create difficulty instead of building more interesting encounter geometry. The save system can be unforgiving depending on how often you use the in-level save points, and a few platforming sequences are frustrating precisely because the camera refuses to cooperate. For the audience actually searching for this game in 2024, the question is not whether it holds up to modern action-adventures. It does not, and that is fine. The question is whether the atmosphere, the license, and the specific 1999-era design philosophy offer enough to justify the time investment. For fans of the films and for players who grew up with this genre, the answer is yes. The level theming is creative, the voice work is committed, and the overall tone nails the B-movie pulp energy of the source material. It also sits comfortably in the category of games that modders and preservation enthusiasts have kept alive with fan patches that improve resolution support and controller mapping on modern Windows, so the technical experience is meaningfully better than a raw Steam launch. If you are a strategy-focused player looking for tight decision-making loops this is not your genre entry point. But if you want an afternoon of low-stakes archaeological mayhem with genuine historical and mythological flavour, and you are willing to tolerate the camera, Infernal Machine delivers exactly what the box art promises. Approach it as a time capsule, not a competitor to anything released in the last decade.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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