Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure

aka: Indiana Jones et la Derniere Croisade, Indiana Jones i Poslednij Krestovyj Pohod, Indiana Jones y la ultima cruzada, Indiana Jones: Der letzte Kreuzzug, Indy3
Moby ID: 534
Amiga Specs
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Description official descriptions

It is 1938 and adventurer Indiana Jones is joined by his father on this quest, preventing Adolf Hitler from capturing the Holy Grail. He will have to deal with Nazi guards, the Luftwaffe and enemy spies as he tries to stop the tyrannical Nazi leader.

The Graphic Adventure uses the same SCUMM gameplay system as the previous Maniac Mansion. Most of the screen is used for a visual rendition of the current scene. At the bottom of the screen are words, which can be clicked on using the mouse to activate their functions. For example, objects can be picked up, used, pushed or pulled, and turned on and off. Most locations are from the movie, but some further scenes are added.

In keeping with Indiana's action-man persona, the game also features pure action scenes. Unlike most Lucasfilm adventures, you can die.

Two PC versions of the game were released, one with 16 color EGA graphics, and one with 256 color VGA graphics.

Spellings

  • Индиана Джонс и Последний Крестовый Поход - Russian spelling
  • インディ・ジョーンズ 最後の聖戦: ザ・グラフィックアドベンチャー - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Amiga version)

5 People

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Reviews

Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 41 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 210 ratings with 7 reviews)

Another Lucas classic.

The Good
Yet another title that cemented LucasArts (LucasFilm Games at the time) reputation as one of the best graphic adventure makers out there. And this time with a movie tie-in!!

The game casts you as the legendary Indiana Jones and places you on the same settings and situations as in the classic third movie of it's saga, only some areas are reworked for gameplay reasons, and you get to change the outcome of some actions as you see fit. You'll have to contend with some pretty challenging inventory puzzles as well as some other brain challenges in your quest for the Grail. That would take you to all sorts of locations to explore and investigate. New to the genre would be the implementation of dungeon-like sections, that combined the puzzle solving aspects with a more bare-knuckle approach that would let you take a swing at your enemies instead of having just to think your way around them. Now, while this fighting mini-game was pretty arkward and un-appealing it provided a great change of pace and you also had a phletora of dialogue options (at least when compared to other games of the time), with which you could smart-out guards and other NPCs in order to proceed. The game used that to add a little variation since you could fool your enemies by carefully selecting what you said, or make use of some inventory puzzle, or just beat the crap out of them. Pretty novel wouldn't you say?

Graphically speaking this was the first Lucas game with a real beauty to it. Gone are the waaay retro flat graphics from Maniac Mansion or Zack McKracken. Now we get sharper graphics with much more detail, beautiful backgrounds not to mention more and better animations, things still look way to pixelated for today, but they for the first time would get that "Lucas-Look" that made their games seem lovingly crafted and lavishly detailed. The sound department is polished as usual, tough of course the game doesn't get to flesh those muscles too much due to the limitations of the time.

The Bad
As I mention earlier, the fighting mini-game didn't hold a candle to any action game out there, and it could prove a very tedious affair to get over with, other than that there's the fact that some puzzles were pretty hard.

The Bottom Line
Classic Lucas. Takes one of the fantastic Indiana Jones movies and manages to churn out an equally fantastic game. Don't miss it if you even remotely care about adventure games!!

DOS · by Zovni (10504) · 2002

A parody of the film that's definitely funny, but not a complete playing experience.

The Good
It's difficult to write a review of this game as a stand alone entity as it's so heavily tied into the film. The manual explicitly recommends seeing the film first and even provides a synopsis of the story, including the dramatic twists and what happens at the end.

The game then unfurls like a parody. It recreates certain scenes from the film with a loose explanation of progression as it assumes you know what's going on anyway. Not that it always sticks exactly to the story, often events happen for different reasons and being a game it can tell the story in a different way. For example at the end the game can show the effects of drinking from the wrong grail on Indy, rather than Donovan as you can always reload and try again. Instead Donovan meets a different fate.

The story is also heavily abridged, gone are Sallah, the tank scene, and the Brotherhood. Instead certain scenes are greatly expanded to add some typical adventure elements, now the Venice catacombs are a maze, as is the Zeppelin. Where the story does differ, it is often used as a humorous point, with a sarcastic remark or with Marcus apparently filling in for Indy. He turns up in Venice dripping wet and later with tank marks on him. This self-referential nod is good and exemplifies the light-hearted tone of the whole game. Die at the final trial and Indy mutters comical phrase when you re-start about having to go through the sequence again.

The puzzles are well though out and typically hard, often requiring a lot of to-and-fro-ing to complete. I found the castle Brunwald sequence to be the longest, requiring mush traipsing and re-loading to get it correct. Several of the puzzles seem to implement a couple of alternative solutions, which is innovative for the time. I've read that you can complete the game without fighting, but I didn't seem to get much chance to avoid it. Still, this is Indiana Jones and fighting is never far away. I did get a little excited to see him using the whip to swing across a gap

The graphics are good for their time and provide a lot of richness. The locations are all distinct though Castle Brunwald does get very repetitive. The characters all have the typical Lucasarts animation style; quite cartoon-like but very expressive making the most of the limited size.

The Bad
It's a shame that the game doesn't seem to be able to tell the narrative by itself. It is a parody of the film rather than it's own entity. I suppose the memory limits of the time had an effect, the locations are few and the sounds are sparse. Often there's only short musical cues and the odd sound effect to bring a location to life. It ends up feeling like a collection of 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade' puzzles more than a narrative adventure game.

Those puzzles can be baffling too. Often Indy says a hint, but that too can be baffling and I found myself in a classic adventure game conundrum of being unable to translate what I wanted to do into game commands. I expected this due to the games age, as it displays many loop-holes which have been subsequently closed. The principle one being in the SCUMM engine. Being the third game to use the engine it seems still heavily influenced by text adventures, including the pointless 'what is' command, needed to identify hot spots on the screen. It took the first fifth of the game to fully get used to the old style interface.

One much loved feature of the game is the Grail Diary which came in the box. This printed book contains information necessary to completing the game. In the game Indy carries his computer copy too. Unfortunately these two copies do not match and the computer version contains information not found in the print version, which caused me some trouble. You can only look at the computerised Grail Diary at certain points, so there's no chance just to casually peruse it to spot this.

The Bottom Line
This wasn't quite the adventure classic I had expected it to be, that honour belongs to it's successor, 'Fate of Atlantis'. Instead this is a parody for those who have seen the film. It is a good well conceived parody, but often forgets narrative exposition, relying on familiarity with the film to know why you're doing something. Instead it focuses on puzzles trying to strike a balance between mazes and inventory. The multiple solutions are nice though often result in resorting to the lowest common denominator (fists) to succeed. In only the 'clever' solution weren't so obscure.

DOS · by RussS (807) · 2011

Works as a licensed game, but weak by LucasArts adventure standards

The Good
It's a licensed game based on a movie, and it's not bad! That wasn't just an unprecedented example; it's also an achievement many other games failed to repeat.

This is also probably the first game to introduce the immortal LucasArts system of optional dialogue lines. Surely, the usage of this great discovery is rather rudimentary here, and the dialogue is generally not very widely used. Besides, the emphasis here is not on the humorous side of those optional lines (like in Monkey Island), but rather on the correctness of the answer: if you choose a wrong line, you can die.

Yes, this game is quite different from most other LucasArts adventures: you can die here, and pretty often. There are some very tricky action sequences, especially the very hard ones near the end of the game (where you also can't save your game).

The gameplay is fluent, with frequent changes of scenery and locations. The puzzles are for the most part not too hard, though the game can become confusing thanks to occasional obscure tasks and mazes.

And it lets you beat up Nazis! I really enjoyed fighting the bastards. I preferred entering a combat with every single soldier and beating him up rather than solving a puzzle in order to surpass them. The possibility of choosing your own way to deal with them (and with some other situations as well)is probably the most interesting aspect of the game. It adds a bit of replay value to a representative of a genre that lacks it most.

Technically, the game is superb: stunning 256 colors VGA graphics, great sound effects and atmospheric (though unfortunately very sporadic) MIDI music. The controls are the famed SCUMM system; nothing original here, but slightly more comfortable to use than in earlier games such as Maniac Mansion.

The Bad
If I'm not mistaken, this was LucasArts' first attempt at a licensed game, and the results are mixed. I think they were feeling too confined by the requirements of the license, and made a game that took only a few liberties with the source material. The linear, streamlined plot of an action movie made it impossible to create a vast world with varied and elaborate tasks, which the developers succeeded in doing in almost every other adventure they made.

The "movie to game" conversion problem becomes obvious when you compare the structure of Indy 3 to that of other adventure games made by the same company. The lack of creative freedom shows: not only the story and the dialogues, but (more importantly) the gameplay suffers from being forced onto the events from the movie, unable to deviate from them.

Zak McKracken might have been too confusing, but it was a much more ambitious game, with a richer, more challenging gameplay. Even Maniac Mansion had considerable degree of exploration and non-linearity, not to mention tricky puzzles. This game, on the other hand, is a very linear experience in which you follow a less-than-exciting plot, with puzzles being more similar to obstacles than to real challenges to your brain.

Like the movie, the game's plot is very much on the naive side: black-white characters, simple plot, corny Holy Grail stuff, etc. It lacks the charisma and the typical warmth of other adventure games made by LucasArts. Playing this game is just like watching an Indiana Jones movie, which is fun for the fans, but not particularly thrilling for those just looking for a good adventure.

The combat is rather primitive, failing to make up for lack of solid puzzle design. And adventure game purists who can only accept LucasArts' "you can't die or get stuck even if you are forced to listen to Kenny G records" design philosophy they developed later should definitely skip this one.

The Bottom Line
Well, it's an adventure game which is based on a blockbuster movie and does not suck. That alone makes it a rare phenomenon. But if we honestly compare it to non-licensed LucasArts' products, we'll see the difference. It's an entertaining ride, but it lacks the scope, the ambition, and the gameplay finesse of other adventures made by this legendary company.

DOS · by Unicorn Lynx (181788) · 2013

[ View all 7 player reviews ]

Trivia

Credits

The credits are randomized so that each of the three main designers gets "top billing" at one point or another.

Dialogues

Dialogue between Indy and other NPCs plays a crucial role in the progression of this game. According to the folks at Lucasfilm, every dialogue situation can be solved either by talking your way out of it, or by resorting to fistfighting.

Extras

The package contained the "Holy Grail Diary". It contained essential information for solving the holy grail puzzle at the end of the game.

German version

In the German version of the game all Third Reich insignia were repainted and made invisible. (Remember the scene, where Hitler signs the diary for example - there is not a single swastika around in the German version.) That's because in Germany no toys are allowed to wake resemblances to Hitler's regime. And computer games are (legally) toys. There is one overlooked instance in which swastikas are still seen: when a guard is knocked out during a fist fight, stars in swastika form appear over his head.

Indy Quotient

Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure was the first of two graphic adventures by LucasArts to incorporate an IQ (Indy Quotient), which was a scoring system (the second was Fate of Atlantis). There were many different ways of completing the game.

References

  • Like in many other of LucasArts' games, Max makes an appearance, this time with Sam too! They can be found at the far right in Indy's office where they're "disguised" as a totem pole.
  • In versions of the game that have the translation table copy protection, there is a Indy in-joke. In the top right corner of Indy's writing pad are two crossed out phone numbers. The names next to the two numbers are Marion, and Willie, which were Indy's love interests from the first two Indiana Jones films, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Temple of Doom.
  • In the hallway at the beginning of the game, a note on the bulletin board says "For Sale: 6000 Rats, 500 Snakes. Call S. Spielberg". It's a reference to the high number of the aforementioned animals used in the Last Crusade movie. Since gray rats are hard to find, the production team had to breed 5000 of them by themselves.

Story

Although its based on the movie, the game does take same liberties. There are three possible endings, and several "alternate" ways to get from one point of the story to another (ie. when the Jones have to go to Alexandria).

Awards

  • Amiga Power
    • May 1991 (Issue #00) - #28 in the "All Time Top 100 Amiga Games"
  • EMAP
    • Golden Joystick Rewards 1990: Winner PC Product of the Year.
  • Power Play
    • Issue 01/1990 - #2 Best Computer Game in 1989
    • Issue 01/1990 - Best Adventure in 1989
  • ST Format
    • May 1990 (Issue #10) - Included in the list "ST Format's 30 Kick-Ass Classics"

Information also contributed by Apogee IV, Isdaron, James1, Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker, Mirrorshades2k, Ricky Derocher and Zovni

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Related Sites +

  • FAQs & Guides
    Several walkthroughs and files for The Last Crusade
  • Indy Last Crusade Hints
    These hints will help you solve the game. Co-authored by Jason Strautman and Alex Burrell.
  • Last Crusade Walkthrough
    by Shadow Dragon, posted on Gameboomers.com
  • LucasArts' Secret History
    A multi-article feature about the game by the LucasArts news site, The International House of Mojo. The articles includes two unscored review, short responses written by members of the site's community, trivia, a previously unpublished interview with one of the designers, and a narrated walkthrough.
  • ScummVM
    Get "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade", as well as many other adventure games, to run on modern systems by using ScummVM, a legal and free program.
  • The Complete Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Game Guide
    The original COMPLETE walkthrough, with every single dialogue choice to avoid every fight, complete IQ points list and much more!

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 534
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by IJan.

Amiga added by EboMike. Windows added by Picard. Linux added by Kam1Kaz3NL77. CDTV added by Kabushi. FM Towns added by Terok Nor. Macintosh added by Jason Savage. Atari ST added by Belboz.

Additional contributors: MAT, Verk, -Chris, Rebound Boy, Unicorn Lynx, Jeanne, Apogee IV, Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker, The cranky hermit, Zeppin, CalaisianMindthief, Patrick Bregger, Jo ST.

Game added December 5, 1999. Last modified February 23, 2024.