Let's say it as it is: The controls are terrible, the graphics were already outdated when the game was originally released, the load/save game menu is a Windows File dialog. Still here? Well, then now you got the opportunity to enjoy a great 3rd person action adventure. The game uses a slightly modified version of the engine used in Mysteries of the Sith does. So I really doin't understand why they had to put the savegames menu in a Windows file dialog, since MotS had a ingame menu for savegames. Also - for the artifacts found throughoout the game - you can buy ingame items between the levels. Again ... this was implemented with a standard Windows form. WTF?? Things like these give me the impression that the game was rushed. Some more polishing would have been nice. Despite the tecnical issues the game has, it's a very good game. Some of the riddles have a certain adventure feeling, they might as well belong to a point&click game. The story is better than what we have seen in the latest movie (ok, that's not really something special, but still ...), the characters are well designed. Indy's voice over was done by the same person who did Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, who did a great job in both games. German players get to hear the same speaker who also synchronizes Harrisond Ford in the movies. Back in the days, this was compared to Tomb Raider which in the end won the battle. Sure, the goal WAS to benefit from the Tomb Raider boom, but this game plays very differently. If you expect Tomb Raider involving Indy, don't buy it. But if you are looking for a good Indiana Jones story with a bit of action and don't mind the antique looking graphics, this is for you.
First time I played Indiana Jones and the last Crusade on the Amiga 2000. Yeah, you got it ... it was shipped on 11 disks and was a pain to play. And the port was lousy as hell, you could see that LucasArts didn't put any hope in the Amiga's future. Luckily I owned a bridgeboard so after a few hours of disk swapping (even with 2 drives) I installed it on a 20 MB hard drive. Still it was nothing to look forward to, the port was lousy. A short time after that, I got my hands on a x286 and one of the first things I did was to get this game and play it. What a revelation. Sure, the sound and music quality sucked (I was used to Amiga music which was the best at the time), but the rest was great. Years later, when I finally got a Soundblaster card (and later a Maestro for General Midi), the first thing I did was of course play this game again. Now with acceptable music quality it was even better. At this point, I must have played this game at least 20 time (each possible way a couple of times). I don't know why I keep returning to this game, only a few weeks ago I played through it again (I lost count a long time ago). It just feels right, exactly what I expect from a point & click adventure. No other game (no, not even the Monkey Island games) can keep up to it. I just wished the voice samples of the talkie version would have higher quality. Since it was released on CD anyway, i don't understand why they didn't use better samples. If you play it these days, make sure you install VirtualMidiSynth and some good orchestral sound fonts, since the Windows Midi quality is awful.
The game has good storytelling. It could have had more of an adventure, however. There was not much more to do other than to talk to people in various places (with lots of walking involved). The look is interesting. However, I would not mind if the legs would have the same proportions as the body. This and the sometimes silly looking animations made the game look silly at times, hurt the atmosphere a bit. A different approach to these things might have been better, but maybe that's just my taste. There are a few minor bugs when it comes to savegames (characters appearing / disappearing), none of them breaks gameplay however. I finished the game in a couple of hours, since there really is hardly anything to find out. Just follow the notes, talk to the right people and you are on your way.
This game has everything I missed in Gone Home. I actually bought it quite some time ago and almost forgot everything about it so I didn't expect too much when I started it. Just another "go there, click that" story through empty rooms. But then it turned out to be an extraordinary experience. The story itself is not very important. A woman returns to her family's old house and tries to find out about their past. That's it, really. But the stories are told in a way I haven't seen before, I often found myself laughing my a... off. This is a must have for sure if you have any interest in story telling.
The soundtrack itself is great, there is no question about that. However it is exactly the same soundtrack as the one that came with the Darksiders 2 standard edition. So if you own that already, you should not buy this one. The only thing that's new is that they included an image in the mp3 tags.
The storytelling is great. If you liked games like memento mori, this is just for you. Sadly the engine used for this game is the predecessor to the engine used in GK1-20th. In short terms: It's crappy. Feets move faster than the torso, that has som graphical glitches as side effect. Quite sad actually, I really enjoyed the game, but bugs like this broke the immersion. The gameplay mechanics "evolve" throught the episodes, not always with the desired effect. This could have been a good launch platform for a new graphical adventure franchise, I see a lot of lost potential in the game.
