Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Preview

While revealed before Microsoft bought ZeniMax, the MachineGames developed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle project got its full reveal during the January 2024 Developer Direct. The first-person action/adventure showed exciting action, all while promising to be an authentic Indiana Jones experience for long-time fans of the franchise.

Recently, the Iron Lords were invited to a Digital Event, revealing more information about this exciting Xbox and PC release.

What Is Indiana Jones and The Great Circle?

Taking place between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, Indiana is thrust back into adventure after becoming a professor. When an intruder steals a valuable artifact, the journey to uncover a great mystery begins. Joined by Gina, an Italian journalist who has her motives for helping Indy out, the duo race against the antagonist Voss to get the remaining artifacts.

During the Digital Event, dialog between Indy and other characters was shown, evoking memories of the legendary films the game was inspired by. Helped by this was the voice of Indy himself, Troy Baker, giving the adventure a performance shockingly similar to Harrison Ford.

Also worth noting, is that Todd Howard’s involvement is a key reason for the game’s narrative. Revealed during the Q&A, the idea of exploring the Great Circle was his idea, implying that he had a big hand in the game’s narrative. If major quests in games like Starfield and the Fallout series imply anything, is that he and his team can make amazing narrative experiences.

Exploration

The gameplay for The Great Circle is in the first-person perspective, with it switching between that and a third-person one, depending on the situation. One example during the Digital Event had Indy picking up a spear and throwing it into the wall in first person. But then once he got near the spear and used the whip, he swung across a gap and grabbed onto a ledge, staying in third-person as he climbed.

Unlike recent titles, such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth or Resident Evil 4 Remake, there were no white marks or yellow paint markers in sight, meaning the player is given more trust to be aware of their surroundings.

Puzzle Solving

A major pillar of The Great Circle is a focus on exploration. Throughout the Digital Event, gameplay showed Indy using his wits to solve various puzzles, such as using mirrors to redirect light to specific places and opening up a passageway.

More advanced puzzles were promised by the developers, saying that they would get more involved in optional side missions in the open hub areas spread throughout the game. A potential example of this was featured in the Digital Event. Indy discovered a major area to explore but needed an artifact to open the door.

So, he needed to don a disguise and explore a semi-open area to find it, which was in a room behind various guards. He got the artifact but had to ‘keep up the act’ and get a bottle of wine for one of them before leaving the area. The gameplay then cut back to the initial area and by using the artifact, the adventure continued.

This is in stark contrast to games like Uncharted or Tomb Raider where the puzzle sections were relegated to specific areas, never the more ‘open’ areas in those titles.

Combat – Indiana Jones and The Great Circle Preview

In stark contrast to the studio’s prior work, both as MachineGames making games like the Wolfenstein series and when they were Starbreeze making The Darkness series, melee combat is a major focus in The Great Circle.

While Indy can use his pistol and various weapons taken from enemies, the meat of the combat is using your whip and hand-to-hand rumbles. After you disarm enemies with your whip, Indy enters a one-on-one fight with an enemy, being able to block, counter, and land powerful blows.

It looked visceral, evoking memories of games like Condemned: Criminal Origins that used melee combat in first person to great effect. That being said, the depth of the combat system wasn’t on full display in the Digital Event, with the gunplay not being focused on much.

The developers did comment on the combat system during a Q&A, stating they didn’t want to lean on what they mastered already with prior titles when developing The Great Circle.

Accessibility – Indiana Jones and The Great Circle Preview

During the Digital Event’s Q&A, the developers did comment on difficulty options for both the Exploration and Combat sections of the game, promising options to make both experiences flexible to players across various difficulty options.

In addition, the developers mentioned Adventure Points, which can be used to buy new skills for Indy to use throughout the game. The only example given was for combat, where Indy can crawl to his hat after being knocked out, picking up and getting a second wind to finish the fight.

You earn Adventure Points by taking pictures of various objects in the game world, but other ways of earning them weren’t disclosed in the Digital Event.

Performance

The gameplay shown in the Digital Event seemingly ran between 40-60FPS, but no platform was specified. Seemingly, it ran on high-end development PCs but the gameplay footage shown during both the Developer Direct in January and again during the Xbox Game Showcase in June showed the game running at 60FPS.

So that appears to be the target for the title across Xbox platforms and PC.

Presentation/Audio – Indiana Jones and The Great Circle Preview

The game is a visual marvel from the footage shown to us. Indy and the extended cast have impressive levels of detail, with the facial expressions being a particular highlight. They look as if they were ripped out of a classic Indiana Jones film.

Locations visited across the Digital Event were quite striking as well. From detailed sand particles threatening to bury Indy alive, to dark caves beautifully lit by impressive lighting from realistic fire, MachineGames creates a film-like experience.

The audio sounded great as well, with sound effects authentic to the films and a score sounding ripped right from the films adding to the experience.

Closing Thoughts

Experiencing the game through the Digital Event was a fantastic experience, doing a great job showing what Indiana Jones and the Great Circle could offer Xbox and PC players this Holiday 2024. While a hands-on session would’ve been better, specifically to see how it feels to play, being able to learn more about the title is still very much appreciated.

MachineGames making a major departure from the more high-octane action from the Wolfenstein series is felt but in the best of ways. The developer getting out of their comfort zone allowed them to lean harder on their skill at making beautiful locations to explore and use their quality writing to capture the charm Indy demonstrates in the films.