When it came to choosing a developer for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, I firmly believe MachineGames was the right team for the job. No-one has a better track record than the Wolfenstein developer when it comes to punching Nazis, or tracking down mysterious and ancient artifacts in elaborate ways to keep them out of the hands of said Nazis. Having now seen a demonstration of the new Indiana Jones game ahead of its reveal at Gamescom Opening Night Live, I can say that MachineGames has absolutely nailed the tone – but I’ll need to see more before I’m convinced this is a truly great game.
At a preview event last week, executive producer Jerk Gustafsson and creative director Axel Torvenius of MachineGames gave us an early look at its big reveal for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Fundamentally, it gets the core of the series pretty spot-on. The environments are spectacular, Troy Baker delivers an almost unnerving approximation of Harrison Ford’s Doctor Jones, Italian journalist Gina is every bit the classic, independent counterpart, and there’s a healthy dose of resounding Nazi smacking.
While it’s pitched as an action-adventure game, Torvenius tells us that the team has been internally referring to it as an adventure-action game. That’s a cute distinction, but one that bears weight; what we get to see is much lower-key than the high-octane action of Wolfenstein: The New Order and its sequels.
You’re sneaking around, throwing junk to distract enemies and sticking to the shadows to get the drop on them, or you’re dressing up in outfits to slip into restricted areas. There are some good moments here – while dressed as hired help, one officer calls on you to bring him a bottle. Fail to do so immediately, and he’ll stand up and threaten you, but rather than facing an immediate fail state you’re given the chance to correct your mistake and he’ll loosen up.
Guns are an option, as you have Indy’s trademark revolver to hand, and some enemies will drop weapons you can make use of. Pleasingly, these look incredibly punchy – even at range, a single pistol shot seems enough to put one enemy down – but hard to use well. Instead, you’ll take on enemies in melee combat, making use of your whip to disarm, trip, or pull them in for a beating.
Getting into a one-on-one fight reminds me of playing a boxing game in first-person. There’s a delicious meatiness to the blocks and punches, and you can make smart use of the environment, too. In one sequence, we see Jones encountering three people at once: the first is brought to the ground with his whip, the second is pushed bodily off a high ledge, and the third, somewhat further away, is taken out with the aforementioned pistol shot.
As mentioned, however, the action seems to be taking a backseat to the exploration and the puzzles. Personally, I’m very much in favor of that, as the bits that most stick in my mind from the movies are those ‘a-ha’ moments: climbing the library stairs to see that “X marks the spot,” or solving the trials in the climactic moments of The Last Crusade. We get to see a few similar-looking puzzles, but what’s here so far has me slightly worried, as they all look relatively simplistic.
In one large chamber you’re tasked with using mirrors to deflect light around the room – a classic, no doubt, and I’ll always enjoy doing it, but it seems fairly straightforward. Similarly, another puzzle has you break through perhaps the most obvious ‘hidden wall’ I’ve ever seen and then pull a lever across to number three to match the symbol shown in a nearby bowl.
It’s likely this is early stuff, however; Torvenius says the team was eager to create “rewarding, challenging, and smart puzzles” and admits he got stumped on a few while testing the game. Gustafsson adds that some of the game’s more open areas offer “quite a lot of content on the side that you don’t really have to do – that allows us an opportunity to create some more ‘brainy’ and challenging puzzles.” He also notes that the game will offer a puzzle difficulty slider, in case you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy getting stumped.
The same concerns extend to the combat – while it’s weighty, it’s fairly slow, and I’m just a little concerned that everything feels a bit lethargic. I hope Indiana Jones and the Great Circle doesn’t get too caught up in reverence and manages to pull off that high-stakes vim and vigor that makes the movies, at their best, such exciting and breathless adventures.
Perhaps I should just trust in MachineGames. “Obviously we have a great passion for the character, for the original stories, that’s what we want to catch,” Torvenius tells us. “But we’re not making a movie, we’re making a game. What things will carry and translate into a first-person experience?” The team has certainly delivered no shortage of immensely memorable and chaotic moments in their recent Wolfenstein games, and maybe they just don’t want to spoil all the good bits; I certainly wouldn’t begrudge them that.
One thing’s for sure: it won’t be small. Gustafsson says Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is “by far the biggest game we have ever done – not only in terms of spaces and scope, but also how long it is.” He refrains from giving an exact hour count, noting that it could vary dramatically depending upon your playstyle, but it should be rather substantial.
Hopefully, then, it’ll deliver on the early promise with some increasingly challenging tests – we’ll find out soon enough, as Gustafsson confirms Indiana Jones and the Great Circle release date is set for December 9, 2024.