I Played Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade

Back when Lucas Films was known for more than Star Wars, and now they're both owned by Disney. I'm actually not upset there hasn't been an Indy movie for a long time. Back to the game.

This is a point and click puzzle adventure game. You've got a whole list of interactions possible: Look, open/close, take/give, walk, talk, there's a whole menu to choose from.

So many of the scenes while being drawn from the movie (And you can get a couple solutions from it.) are different enough that you actually need to use in game clues to solve the puzzles. Henry's grail diary is indispensable to this game.

Though you can abuse the save and load mechanic and brute force your way through, never having opened the package the diary came in the entire game. I'm sure my brother and I did this once or twice, but I don't remember if the game comments on it. Sometimes these old games would give you an acknowledgment by way of a throw away joke, though today it would undoubtedly be an achievement.

This is Indiana Jones, so there is some fighting. A mechanic I can't explain because I never figured it out. If you play this game right you can go the whole game and only throw one punch and because I never figured out how to fight I made sure to learn this. The only hint I'll give (come on, part of the fun is figuring things out) is that you need to get a German drunk.

There are fun references and jokes throughout this game (there's a big Sam and Max statue in Indy's office.) And it plays a clip of the Raider's March when you change into Indy's clothes. And if you change in the open, Indy is covered head to toe in a giant censor bar.

Graphics wise, this game is typical of it's era, along the vein of Kings Quest and Space Quest. The detailed pixel art let's you see what the character is supposed to look like, but the simplified graphics show minimal emotion and have to emote heavily, leading to a couple fun scenes.

To actually be a game this needed a lot more content than the movie had, including navigating the sewers beneath Venice, getting around the castle in Germany, and of course puzzles included within. You can still power through this game in one sitting but it will take a few hours, even if you know what you're doing.

Despite the age of the game if you want to play it you still have to buy it. (Disney wouldn't dare let go of a source of revenue.) Like many of these old games it runs on DOS Box. If you like those old games, this one is worth the investment. If you just want Indiana Jones, watch the movies.