When I was a child, I had a catalog for games available on the Commodore 64. I didn’t have the money to buy any of them at the time, but I loved going through the catalog and looking through the pictures (incidentally, I liked doing the same with the Children’s Palace/Toys’R’Us catalog). As I think back to those days, I can remember three games that stood out to me: Combots, Zac McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So, in a sense, getting the opportunity to play Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on Steam is like fulfilling a lifelong wish.
My initial attraction to the game stemmed from (1) my love of the film, and (2) my love of the SCUMM game engine that it shared with Maniac Mansion. These old point and click adventures provided just the right pace and duration for me; I didn’t care for twitch games and had a lot of time on my hands through the 80s and early 90s.
So when I sat down to play this for the first time, I found myself really excited about the prospects; unfortunately, I had a difficult time getting into the game. I’m not sure what I expected, but I found myself wishing that I was playing another game at the time.
It’s possible that I have become one of those spoiled gamers that requires immediate gratification. It’s also possible that I simply set my expectations too high for this game to live up to. Or it might be the simple fact that no point-and-click adventure can have a just review in just a few short hours. All I know is that when I play Indiana Jones, I feel like I should be playing more of an action-adventure than a point-and-click adventure.
I plan to include more point-and-click adventures as I continue through this month; hopefully they will bring a better experience than this one. While I may try Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade again after this month is over, I can’t bring myself to recommend it at this time.
EDIT: I loved the fact that Maniac Mansion had multiple endings, and that there was no single path that you were required to take to get to that end. I think that may be the reason for my frustration with Indiana Jones; the fact that it was going through a pre-made storyline (one that I saw in the theater) stifled the exploration. I have since learned that there are, in fact, multiple endings. I don’t see how this could work (that is, how you could have multiple successful endings), but I’m willing to go back in the future and see how it plays out.