Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure is an adventure from Lucasfilm Games based on the motifs of the film of the same name, which on the Atari ST offered players a quest for the Holy Grail through the classic SCUMM interface with command verbs. The game diverges from its film source in a number of details and offers alternative paths to reach the goal, including the option to resolve some situations without violence thanks to Indy's knowledge, language skills, and an IQ point system that rated the cleverness and elegance of the player's approach through the individual chapters.

On the Atari ST the game offered colorful, legible graphics evoking the adventurous film locations, from the Venetian canals through an Austrian castle to desert tombs with the Grail, complemented by text dialogue and sound effects within the platform's capabilities. The game's structure allowed nonlinear progress along several different paths to the goal, letting the player choose between a forceful solution, persuasion, or wit, which was unusual for adventures of the time and gave the game higher replayability. The game also featured fistfights and other action inserts referencing the film, which broke up the purely adventure-game pace and brought more variety to the gameplay, without permanently endangering the player's character with death.

The game was praised at the time for its fidelity to the spirit of the film and for gameplay innovations such as the aforementioned IQ system and alternative puzzle solutions, and it was among the successful titles from the early era of LucasArts adventures based on film licenses. While many film games of the era were seen as cheap cash-ins trading only on the name, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade managed to deliver a thoughtful and honestly crafted gaming experience. On the Atari ST it remains one of the representative examples of the licensed film adventure genre, one that managed to overcome the usual limitations of tie-in games through quality design, an ingenious structure, and humor typical of the studio.

Why play it: For a licensed film adventure that, despite the expected cash-grab, delivered a thoughtful and honestly crafted experience with humor typical of LucasArts and alternative puzzle solutions.