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.

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.

[13] 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.

[14] Sophia Hapgood, an old friend of Jones and a member of the Central Intelligence Agency,[15] visits him at his dig site in the Canyonlands, and informs him that the Soviets are excavating the ruins of Babylon.

[16] Led by Dr. Gennadi Volodnikov, a physicist interested in alternate dimensions,[17] the Soviets' objective is to find a weapon more powerful than the nuclear bomb, giving them a decisive advantage in the Cold War.

[23] 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.

[28] 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.

[31] 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.

[34] Dubbed European language versions of the fully voice-acted game were released by THQ in Germany, Ubisoft in France, Electronic Arts in Spain and CTO in Italy.

[54] Although some critics found it to be too similar to Tomb Raider,[78] the game was noted for setting itself apart from the aforementioned series due to being based on the Indiana Jones franchise, and relying more heavily on puzzle-solving.

[70] Keith Ellis of Eurogamer shared the opinion and stated the plot to be "excellently woven", enhancing the feel of "being part of a big blockbuster movie".

[60] Ellis, Blevins, and Mark Hill of PC Zone also praised Infernal Machine for its levels, calling them "excellently designed" and including "some of the most brilliant layouts [...] seen in a game of this type".

[79] Ellis found the comments of the playable character to become annoying after a while, but was impressed with the ambient sounds and music, claiming the latter to be "ace stuff", "further enhancing the motion picture feeling of the game".

"[80] In one review, Boba Fatt of GamePro said that the game "may be a direct copy of Tomb Raider, but Indy fans will be pleased with this whip-wielding, idol-grabbing, raft-riding roller coaster adventure that fits perfectly in the vein of the famed archaeologist's cinematic spectacles.

"[83] Eliot Fish of Hyper gave it 77%, saying, "The sound in Infernal Machine is great, the graphics are a bit of a mixture of wonderful and horrid, and I'm saddened to say that the gameplay is quite average.

"[86] Tom Chick of Computer Games Strategy Plus gave it two stars out of five, calling it "A tedious, frustrating, flat-chested, wisecracking Tomb Raider who's nothing like the Indiana Jones that you know and love.

[55] The control scheme of the port was well received by Matt Casamassina of IGN for the addition of C button item management and Z-targeting, both inspired by Ocarina of Time.

[66] Casamassina was impressed with the texture work and lighting, and found the title to be "one of the prettiest" on the Nintendo 64, even more so by employing the Expansion Pak to achieve high-resolution graphics.

[69] Despite its praise, the graphics received criticism for its "wooden" character animations, occasional frame rate drops, and bugs such as pop-ups and faulty texture placement.

"[89] Jules Grant of The Electric Playground gave it eight out of ten, saying that it was "better tomb raiding fare than Lara Croft's adventures, and console-wise, it's only available for Nintendo 64--tell your Sony loving friends to sit that in their CD tray and rotate.

"[90] Uncle Dust of GamePro said, "The controls have received a good overhaul since the PC version's, and they work very smoothly – you'll basically be Lara Croft with a whip.

"[93][e] On the other hand, Frank Provo of GameSpot panned it for its backtracking, missing puzzle hints, and lack of plot development, but lauded for its clean animations and sound effects.

[65] Nick Woods of AllGame was disappointed with the instruction manual being mandatory to understand the game's mostly non-existent plot, and criticized the decision to make the player restart a level upon dying, as well as the password system, calling it "annoying" and giving it two-and-a-half stars out of five.