Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is a 1999 action-adventure video game developed and published by LucasArts. The first 3D installment in the series, its gameplay focuses on solving puzzles, fighting enemies, and completing various platforming sections. The story is set in 1947, after the events of Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, and puts the eponymous protagonist, the adventurer Indiana Jones, against the Soviet Union. In a race for a mythological Babylonian power source, he joins forces with the Central Intelligence Agency and collects four pieces of the Infernal Machine, an ancient device that allegedly opens a portal to another dimension.

The title was designed, written, and directed by Hal Barwood, who considered the Indiana Jones franchise a perfect fit for the action-adventure genre. Initially developed for the Microsoft Windows operating systems, the game later received an enhanced Nintendo 64 port jointly developed with Factor 5 and released exclusively in North America, as well as a 2D version for the Game Boy Color developed by HotGen. Infernal Machine received generally favorable reviews, having been praised for its detailed storyline and sophisticated level designs, though widely criticized for its unwieldy control scheme.

Infernal Machine is an action-adventure and, as such, features a hybrid of various gameplay mechanics. The player sees Indiana Jones from a third-person perspective and controls him through 17 levels of a fully polygonal 3D world. A recurring element of Infernal Machine are platforming sections, for which a combination of running, jumping, climbing, and the use of the protagonist's trademark bullwhip is required. Furthermore, several human, animal and supernatural enemies are encountered during the course of the game, which the player can fight off with numerous firearms, the aforementioned whip, and a machete. In addition to these obstacles, the game largely focuses on solving puzzles and discovering treasures. Some levels include vehicle-themed portions such as rafting, jeep treks, and mine cart chases. The main objective of the game is to collect four machine parts in order to complete the titular Infernal Machine.

The story of the game is set in 1947 and depicts archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones returning to his digging career after his involvement in World War II. Sophia Hapgood, an old friend of Jones and a member of the Central Intelligence Agency, visits him at his dig site in the Canyonlands, and informs him that the Soviets are excavating the ruins of Babylon. Led by Dr. Gennadi Volodnikov, a physicist interested in alternate dimensions, the Soviets' objective is to find a weapon more powerful than the nuclear bomb, giving them a decisive advantage in the Cold War.

Sophia hires Jones to investigate what exactly the Soviets are searching for, and he travels to their dig site in the Kingdom of Iraq. There, he joins up with Sophia's boss Simon Turner and finds out that Volodnikov is looking for the Babylonian god Marduk who lives on another plane called the Aetherium. Deep in the ruins of the Etemenanki, Jones translates ancient cuneiform tablets revealing the true story behind the Tower of Babel: 2600 years ago, Nebuchadnezzar II was inspired by Marduk to build a great engine, but the frightened Babylonians tore the tower housing it down, leading four of the god's disciples to escape with some parts of this "Infernal Machine".

Jones embarks on a journey to find the four machine parts before the Soviets do, and retrieves them from a monastery in the mountains of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, an active volcano on Palawan in the Philippines, an Olmec valley in Mexico, and a tomb near Meroë in the deserts of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He is confronted by Volodnikov and Turner who both demand him to hand over the parts as they think they would not be safe with the other side. Untrusting of his fellow Americans, but opting for the lesser evil, he gives the parts to Sophia and Turner. Volodnikov says that it was probably better this way, as Marduk would have his revenge on those who desecrated the machine.

Alarmed, Jones returns to the Room of the Tablets in Babylon, and finds a now-opened gate leading further into the ruins, to the core of the Infernal Machine. He catches up with Sophia and Turner, the latter of which intends to convince the other dimension to cooperate with the United States, and uses the machine parts to activate the engine. Turner pushes the unwilling Sophia into a mystical cage as a means of sending her to the Aetherium as an ambassador. Jones sees no other way but to kill him to reclaim all parts and rescue her. However, the activated machine goes awry, and Jones and Sophia are sucked into a portal that leads to the other dimension. There, he defeats the malevolent Marduk and frees Sophia from her cage. Having escaped back to Babylon, the team is greeted by Volodnikov, who is curious to find out if they encountered God on the other side, which Jones denies. In the ensuing conversation, the Soviet doctor turns out less extremist than assumed, and the three wander off into the sunrise in search of a good bottle of vodka. A bonus level sees Jones return to the Peruvian temple from the opening of the film Raiders of the Lost Ark, discovering another golden idol in a secret room.

Infernal Machine project leader, designer and writer Hal Barwood always thought of Indiana Jones as an action hero. Based on this notion, he decided for the game to be an action-adventure, as he was particularly fond of the genre and its use of 3D worlds. Barwood also considered the Nazis to be overused as villains in the series and so instead set the title in the Cold War era with Russians as the antagonists. Originally, UFOs were planned to be used as a plot device, though George Lucas vetoed the idea, still reserving it for a then undeveloped fourth installment. In lieu thereof, Barwood became interested in ancient technology like the Antikythera mechanism, conceived the Infernal Machine as the MacGuffin, and placed it in the biblical Tower of Babel, which is believed to be identical with the Etemenanki, a temple dedicated to the god Marduk.