Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

"A classic game for a classic hero"

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was published in the infancy of Lucasarts (known as Lucasfilm Games back then)as a tie-in to the movie of the same name. The irony in this fact is that while most publishers today have access to fancy polygons and digital sound, they can seldom churn out a good movie-licensed game. Indy, on the other hand, hit the mark dead-on with only 16-color graphics and an internal PC speaker for music. The game, alongside Maniac Mansion, Loom, and The Secret of Monkey Island among others, has gone down in gaming history as one of the best adventure games ever made.

The game follows the movie almost to a tee: You are Indiana Jones, on a quest to find your father and recover the holy grail. The graphics for the game are composed of only 16 different colors. (A 256-color version was later released) What's amazing is that everything looks exactly as it should; never once will you wonder what scene of the movie you are in. The game area takes up half of the screen. The other half is given over to the verbs list and inventory. Lucasarts would later go on to refine this list for other games, replacing inventory words with pictures and deleting seldom-used verbs like 'turn on' and 'turn off'.

There's not much to say about sound either, since the beeps of a PC speaker can hardly be compared to CD music or even midi, but what is in the game doesn't take away from the experience. The Indy theme is present, as well as other familiar music pieces such as the grail theme, the motorcycle chase music, and the music from the boat chase in Venice. It's all nicely represented, and capture the essence of John Williams' score, if not the strings or violins themselves. Sound effects fare about the same. Indy's footsteps will be the sound you hear most often. Other sound include running water, which can only be described as static-like, though nowhere near as displeasing. Truly the programmers were working with limited resources, and they did a superb job in the sound area regardless.

The gameplay however, is where Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade truly shines. While the game follows the movie, often times Indy will need to do several things to complete the same objective. For example, Indy can see the casket of the dead knight only a little while after he enters the catacombs, but his path is blocked by a locked grate. To reach the casket, Indy must travel around to the other entrance, using the long way. Other puzzles involve research with the grail diary, both on the computer and in a printed copy that comes packaged with the game. There's also a point in the game where you have an option of two different styles of travel. Additionally there are also optional objectives you can take care of, adding to a point value that is totaled at the end of the game. Truly, this game captures the point-and-click style perfectly.

So what's not to like? Some of the puzzles are confusing, even when you know what to do (the puzzle with the floor tiles in the library comes to mind). Others require a little more thinking than usual. It's not that the puzzles are illogical, but the correct solution feels buried and not as obvious. Also, there are a few instances where it is impossible to continue, yet the game won't end. If you drain the beer keg in the castle for fun, you won't have enough beer to get the guard drunk so you can pass. Lastly, the point and click system does not automatically highlight hotspots, making for some rather tedious searching in every room. Lucasarts remedied this for their future games.

All in all, Indiana Jones stands as a testament to the programming genius of Lucasarts. This is one classic that can still be enjoyed today.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/01, Updated 07/27/01