Playthrough was done in co-op mode at all times with my then girlfriend, so how the game accomodates to two-player gameplay is practically how I experienced it this time.
LEGO Indiana Jones 2 is a continuation and "reimagining" of the very first LEGO Indy game, after some time the engine was developed enough and after one whole LEGO Batman, features such as the crosshair in order to take out specific objectives or aim a projectile somewhere got added, and overall the game got a bump in graphics... At the low low low low low low low cost of pretty much everything else that makes all the other previous LEGO games so good.
Let's start with the basics, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures released in the same year and two months after as The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth Indiana Jones movie that had released in theaters back in 2008, which would make that game sort of like a promotional game for that specific movie since it was... Already out? I don't know, but the thing is that I don't know the specifics or why they flat out just didn't include a fourth chapter for the movie in that game in the same exact format as they had already done for movies 1-3. A level per major arc/act of this, with some very clear in-game progression as one level could have multiple parts taking place in different scenes of the movie. But instead, Traveller's Tales opted for the impossible.
Instead of taking the normal way of making an extension of the original in order to include a campaign based on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, they decided to make a whole new game, from the ground up. And this wouldn't be such a big and glaring issue if the game straight up didn't suck.
So, in LEGO Indy 2 you're faced with the same old but instead of being fully fledged levels that have different phases or any sort of gameplay gimmicks to them, you have one moderately big hub world per "playset"/chapter, and you have 5 story micro-levels per hub, they are mostly one screen only and don't have any collectibles in them besides studs and achieving True Adventurer. Instead of getting any Minikits per level, having the closest thing be the Colored Bricks per hub which is pretty much the Extras on crack and that you can unlock by just breaking 10 of a certain object in these.
The micro-levels are a very big downgrade from any iteration of levels we've seen in past LEGO games, as they finish as soon as they start when you finish the only objective in them that's usually killing some boss, their goons or completing some minor puzzle, and again, they all take place in one screen/location mostly making them have no impact on the player whatsoever when playing through them, and then when you go back and play the movies that were already on the first LEGO Indy game you can see how much the translation from actual levels to these has butchered any sort of resemblance, or any sort of glimpse of actual good level design away. They are all pretty sucky, only upside is that you can pretty much blast through them with no problem as they don't take nearly as long as normal LEGO chapters...
With the exception of vehicle levels.
Vehicle levels are pretty infamous between my opinion of LEGO games, in the modern era they have gotten rid of them but for the classic ones there's still levels where the objective is to go on a plane and then complete various objectives while airbound, underwater or in the ground. LEGO Indy 2's vehicle stages are probably the worst there are in all of these, it's one big ass map with a very high number of studs for True Adventurer, and your objective is that with the most hideous controls ever, take out a series of enemies that appear.
I cannot express just how much of an eye roller it was when one of the levels in any playset was one shoehorned and forced vehicle level ever, all of them taking so long and to add insult to injury most of them wouldn't let you have True Adventurer from the get-go since there just wouldn't be enough studs in the map for it.
The hub worlds are probably one of the best parts of this game, since you get to free-roam and unlock characters, vehicles, participate in races, unlock Extras and play bonus levels... But it's not like once you buy a character you can freely use it in any hub. Every playset has its own designated characters, a lot of them fill out the same categories because you ultimately need them to complete Treasure Levels, but it's so lame that you simply cannot use characters from Raiders on Crystal Skull levels and that pretty much for everything, it really just removes the magic and reminds you how repetitive is gonna be this process for the whole 6 times you have to do it in all of the hubs, a complete wasted opportunity.
One of the best parts of this game is definitely the bonus levels you find in the hubs, a lot of them seem to have been made with the in-game level creator and they are just straight up fun. They use the mechanics of the game accordingly (whenever objects don't decide to explode or get stuck mid-air), are bite-sized and a lot of them feature some level of skill to get through, they are definitely way more fun than the main story levels or the Treasure Levels.
Speaking of the level creator, while I don't have any problems with it because I think it was a neat as hell addition with some very intuitive and fun ways to design levels.
I must take it with the awful ass character customization in this game, who the HELL thought it was a good idea to not include the SKELETON head. Are you for real. I couldn't make my cool skeleton guy for the entirety of this game. this is why INDY 2 SUCKS WHY DOES THIS GAME EVEN EXIST AAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
click here if you wanna see lego indy 2 propaganda
LEGO Indiana Jones 2 is a continuation and "reimagining" of the very first LEGO Indy game, after some time the engine was developed enough and after one whole LEGO Batman, features such as the crosshair in order to take out specific objectives or aim a projectile somewhere got added, and overall the game got a bump in graphics... At the low low low low low low low cost of pretty much everything else that makes all the other previous LEGO games so good.
Let's start with the basics, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures released in the same year and two months after as The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the fourth Indiana Jones movie that had released in theaters back in 2008, which would make that game sort of like a promotional game for that specific movie since it was... Already out? I don't know, but the thing is that I don't know the specifics or why they flat out just didn't include a fourth chapter for the movie in that game in the same exact format as they had already done for movies 1-3. A level per major arc/act of this, with some very clear in-game progression as one level could have multiple parts taking place in different scenes of the movie. But instead, Traveller's Tales opted for the impossible.
Instead of taking the normal way of making an extension of the original in order to include a campaign based on Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, they decided to make a whole new game, from the ground up. And this wouldn't be such a big and glaring issue if the game straight up didn't suck.
So, in LEGO Indy 2 you're faced with the same old but instead of being fully fledged levels that have different phases or any sort of gameplay gimmicks to them, you have one moderately big hub world per "playset"/chapter, and you have 5 story micro-levels per hub, they are mostly one screen only and don't have any collectibles in them besides studs and achieving True Adventurer. Instead of getting any Minikits per level, having the closest thing be the Colored Bricks per hub which is pretty much the Extras on crack and that you can unlock by just breaking 10 of a certain object in these.
The micro-levels are a very big downgrade from any iteration of levels we've seen in past LEGO games, as they finish as soon as they start when you finish the only objective in them that's usually killing some boss, their goons or completing some minor puzzle, and again, they all take place in one screen/location mostly making them have no impact on the player whatsoever when playing through them, and then when you go back and play the movies that were already on the first LEGO Indy game you can see how much the translation from actual levels to these has butchered any sort of resemblance, or any sort of glimpse of actual good level design away. They are all pretty sucky, only upside is that you can pretty much blast through them with no problem as they don't take nearly as long as normal LEGO chapters...
With the exception of vehicle levels.
Vehicle levels are pretty infamous between my opinion of LEGO games, in the modern era they have gotten rid of them but for the classic ones there's still levels where the objective is to go on a plane and then complete various objectives while airbound, underwater or in the ground. LEGO Indy 2's vehicle stages are probably the worst there are in all of these, it's one big ass map with a very high number of studs for True Adventurer, and your objective is that with the most hideous controls ever, take out a series of enemies that appear.
I cannot express just how much of an eye roller it was when one of the levels in any playset was one shoehorned and forced vehicle level ever, all of them taking so long and to add insult to injury most of them wouldn't let you have True Adventurer from the get-go since there just wouldn't be enough studs in the map for it.
The hub worlds are probably one of the best parts of this game, since you get to free-roam and unlock characters, vehicles, participate in races, unlock Extras and play bonus levels... But it's not like once you buy a character you can freely use it in any hub. Every playset has its own designated characters, a lot of them fill out the same categories because you ultimately need them to complete Treasure Levels, but it's so lame that you simply cannot use characters from Raiders on Crystal Skull levels and that pretty much for everything, it really just removes the magic and reminds you how repetitive is gonna be this process for the whole 6 times you have to do it in all of the hubs, a complete wasted opportunity.
One of the best parts of this game is definitely the bonus levels you find in the hubs, a lot of them seem to have been made with the in-game level creator and they are just straight up fun. They use the mechanics of the game accordingly (whenever objects don't decide to explode or get stuck mid-air), are bite-sized and a lot of them feature some level of skill to get through, they are definitely way more fun than the main story levels or the Treasure Levels.
Speaking of the level creator, while I don't have any problems with it because I think it was a neat as hell addition with some very intuitive and fun ways to design levels.
I must take it with the awful ass character customization in this game, who the HELL thought it was a good idea to not include the SKELETON head. Are you for real. I couldn't make my cool skeleton guy for the entirety of this game. this is why INDY 2 SUCKS WHY DOES THIS GAME EVEN EXIST AAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
click here if you wanna see lego indy 2 propaganda