Posted on: August 25, 2021

briandoodo

Games: 236 Reviews: 38

One of a kind then and now,a classic

How can anyone say that a game from 1989, in the pioneer years of a genre that nearly went exitent 20 years ago is dated? Sure, it's not a action/ adventure game of today but it is in essence a adventure game. In fact, it's a grand-dady of what every adventure game is/ would become. (Point and Click) It uses the ScummVm engine, used for several years after it's initial release. It uses the traditional Lucas Arts actions, plus a few... You can't help but appreciate how ambitious it was for it's time and how much effort went into it to follow the actual storyline of the film, while remaining true to itself as an adventure game... The graphics for the time were state of the art for pixel art and what computers were CAPABLE of running. The backgrounds were state of the art. People don't seem to appreciate that artists had to work in a certain style back then and were limited by the capabilities of hardware. It's not like now where you could literally animate anything in 4K... Artists had to use their imaginations and so did players who started these games. This title is comaprable to any title from its time. The art work should be held to the same standards. You don't compare apples to oranges, this is an art form. At the time I discovered this I was wondering where the Temple of Doom and Raider games were. It very closely follows the original film for a adventure game that was created in 1989... It was a thrill to experience the story line in another format than film. It was exciting to play through it, at the time we didn't have 1000 lego games that did this or Xbox PS3 Pirates games, Harry Potter games, etc... Of course video game titles that were based on movies existed, but none followed the story so closely while remaining, fun or truthful to what they were...most sucked...Some parts are tedious but in no way harm the over all experience. Puzzles never unreasonable for those who play the genre. This classic is still loads of fun and worthy of reconition

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Posted on: August 26, 2019

CharlieLima79

Verified owner

Games: 638 Reviews: 149

A serviceable Indy game made for fans

The ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ adventure game has always perplexed me back in 1989. Why would anyone play an adventure game of a movie, of which the plot and solutions to obstacles are already known? 30 years later, despite past and present mixed reviews, I finally took the plunge and gave ‘TLC’ a try. I, as a fan of Indiana Jones, ended up liking ‘TLC’ more than expected, but I was also knowingly more lenient on it because it’s an Indy game. It hits many story points of the film, changing several to service the limitations of the medium. The changes actually work because you now have a game that feels like the movie, without being a carbon copy of it. This allows for some new dialogues and humour, and different solutions to the same/similar obstacles that movie Indy would face. Unlike the adventure games that LucasArts later came to be known for, ‘TLC’ is far from refined. In this game, you can die, be caught in no-win situations, and be stuck in puzzles with unclear or insufficient clues. It expects you to know the plot of the movie to fill in the many story gaps, and lack of decent character introductions and characterization. Without this prior knowledge, some puzzle solutions seem arbitrary. Even then, some puzzles still require series of trial and error to solve (e.g. getting around Brunwald Castle without fighting). Some reviewers have criticized the action sequences, and that’s totally understandable. Despite offering various paths to finish the game, you can’t simply fight your way to the end. Fighting is best done using a full keyboard with a numpad. With it, fighting is much less frustrating though necessary in parts. If this game had starred any other character in the same adventure, and without a hit movie to preface it, it would have been heavily criticized. Yet, this is an Indy game, made for Indy fans, who have seen the eponymous Indy movie; and for that ‘TLC’ receives a fanboy 3 out of 5 stars despite its glaring flaws and rough edges.

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Posted on: November 8, 2018

Shantih1

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 17

A transitional adventure game

I first played Indy after having played Monkey Island 1 - and I think that coloured my experience of the game. Firstly, the interface feels less intuitive as the cursor cannot scan the active objects on screen without first selecting the "What is" verb. Secondly, once the adventure reaches Castle Brunwald standard puzzle solving is mixed with fight sequences. All in all, it was a frustrating experience and I remember leaving the game for six months or so until discovering there were dialogue options in Burnwald which could avoid almost every fight. Once I finished the game and got hold of a copy of the hint book, I began to appreciate the game's hidden depths and the steps it made to transition between the unforgiving adventures of Lucasfilm's past and the "Adventure Game Philosophy" which debuted with Monkey Island and defined every subsequent adventure made by the company. Indy's ambition is to give the player the option to play their own version of Indiana Jones. Want to solve puzzles, outwit enemies and avoid all fights? You can do it, if you're very clever and very lucky (since most of the Burnwald conversations really are just a matter of luck and elimination) Want to use your fists and fight your way through every obstacle? You can do that too - but its hard as there's only one item in the game which restores Indy's health and it can only be used once. You can see the thinking which eventually extrapolated into the multiple paths of Fate of Atlantis - each player should feel free to develop their own path based on how they perceived the character of Indiana Jones. And the adventure game aesthetic actually proved the best way of bringing Indy to games systems - the action games never captured the intellect of the character or the thrill of discovering hidden secrets in the same way as the adventures. Only the fights frustrated and it took until Emperor's Tomb to finally crack those. It's still a frustrating game but the mix of brain and brawn holds up.

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Posted on: February 13, 2017

10gu

Verified owner

Games: 162 Reviews: 1

Best of a Golden Age

For those of us who grew up with LucasArts and Sierra Online, this game was perhaps the gold standard of its day. Nearly thirty years later, long removed from the MCGA-toned, Adlib-scored, 3.5" floppy-driven age I originally played it, the game still holds up. Full of in jokes, charm, and clever puzzles, the game manages to be a successful movie tie-in that actually lets you toy with the film's plot (or not) while exploring a richly crafted journey. Easily worth the pittance it costs here on GOG, either if you're a nostalgic gaming greybeard or someone willing to dust off this old classic out of curiousity.

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Posted on: August 17, 2019

nitrogenfingers

Verified owner

Games: 330 Reviews: 48

Interesting, if frustrating

Before the Secret of Monkey Island standardized the pattern LucasArts used in it's adventure game design, it's adventure games were much more experimental. Maniac Mansion explored multiple player character, Zac McKracken mixed new-age trippiness with flight bookings and The Last Crusade tried to capitalize on it's property through its linear but branching pathways, and its feelies. Although the game has a linear story, each area can be massive- Castle Brunwald is enormous, filled with rooms, treasure and Nazis you can fight, deceive, bribe or avoid. The game also provides players with several avenues to move forward, allowing them to experience (or skip) large portions of the game. This non-linearity feeds in to a very 'adventurey' feel, and promotes replay. Additionally, The Last Crusade makes use of a "grail diary", a physical (or in case of the GoG version, printout) manual that contains clues, translations and suggestions needed to solve many of the games puzzles. Players will need to use this, and notes taken throughout the game (some quite detailed, like a Biplane operations manual) to progress. This all sounds great, but The Last Crusade is an old game and it shows it. This iteration of SCUMM requires a separate command for hover-over to identify unique items, and the game has a LOT of pixel hunting. You need to find one book among 6 screens of identical bookshelves in one scene. The game also relies heavily on interactions with Nazi guards which wear out their welcome quickly- fighting is monotonous and attritive, and it's nested dialogue trees with one correct answer require many many reloads to get correct. The final, pixel-hunting temple scene at the end is, in particular, easily among the most frustrating, save-die-reload sequences I've played in an adventure game. In spite of all that, of the early SCUMM games this is probably my favourite. Once you get used to what the game wants from you, it offers a rather unique adventure game experience.

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