It's amazing that it's taken this long for a big-budget modern Indiana Jones adventure to come along. Although the franchise is obviously the less popular of the Lucasfilm dyad, the eternal love of Indiana Jones is evident whenever any part of the classic trilogy is shown on ITV on any given Sunday night.
Although the two modern films receive significantly less love, it would have been expected years ago that a major game developer would snap up the rights and try his hand at this exciting adventure.
Not least because we have several successful franchises in gaming that are so clearly inspired by the work of Dr. Jones that a developer could have submitted the names of any of the modern Tomb Raiders or the Uncharted quadrilogy and done well with it.
But now we have MachineGames, Nazi killers par excellence, stepping up to the challenge, and as far as we can tell, they are not shying away from the burden of the iconic fedora.
Further reading
Xbox' Indiana Jones game officially comes to PS5
A recent hands-off demo began with Indy taking an ancient artifact off a pedestal, then smashing it into pieces and finding something inside. As he did so, the space around him filled with sand, a trap left by an ancient civilization sworn to protect the artifact.
Sure, it's basically the Indiana Jones equivalent of starting your Star Wars demo by sneaking through a seedy cantina before getting into a fight with a local, but it sets the perfect tone and gives us an ideal look at the lovingly recreated model of a young Harrison Ford.
“We had most of the main actors scanned, but we didn't have the opportunity to go back in time and scan the young Harrison Ford. So we looked at a lot of old material from the films and went through old photo sets from the 80s,” says creative director Axel Torvenius.
As Indy escapes, we hear Troy Baker's voice, a performance that skirts the line between a complete Harrison Ford impersonation and his own interpretation of the character. To cross a dangerous gap, Indy whips out his whip, and we're treated to the completely over-the-top whip sound effect as he escapes to safety.
Set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, The Great Circle follows Indy on another adventurous journey around the world (with a tiny plane flying over a paper map and all) in search of a lost artifact, hot on the heels of the Nazis.
When asked why MachineGames chose to set the game in this part of the timeline, game director Jerk Gustafsson said the decision was made by Bethesda's executive producer Todd Howard.
“He was the one who set this story idea in motion from the beginning. He brought it to the table early on. A big part of the plot is continuing the story arc of Raiders of the Lost Ark. We see the game as a direct sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Indiana Jones we see in the game is the Indy we saw in Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
“When asked why MachineGames decided to set the game in this part of the timeline, game director Jerk Gustafsson said it was the decision of Bethesda's executive producer Todd Howard.”
The game tries to strike a balance between puzzles and combat. “The focus of this game is on adventure. When you venture into the unknown, you want the exploration to be truly rewarding,” says Audio Director Pete Ward.
MachineGames calls it an action-adventure game, but in practice these two genres seem much more separated. Indy searches for clues, reads documents and scours dusty old tombs.
However, when things kick up a gear and John William's iconic score starts blaring, he disarms bad guys with his whip and blasts them away with his trusty revolver. It wasn't clear how much action will be in the game compared to the percentage spent solving puzzles and searching for clues, but we'd venture to guess that it won't land at the mass-murdering Nathan Drake end of the scale.
“It's an adventure with action. We put the adventure first because that's the most important thing,” says Torvenius. “But of course there are super cool action scenes in it. That's just as important, but we try to highlight the adventure game.”
Gustafsson adds: “We even called it a MachineGames adventure, where MachineGames provides the story and the action part and they provide the adventure part. That's something we used internally.”
The majority of the game is played in first-person, a decision that has received mixed reactions from fans. MachineGames' reason for this? Confidence.
“We even called it a MachineGames adventure, where MachineGames provides the story and the action part and then covers the adventure part. That's something we used internally.”
“We have an extremely long history in developing first-person games,” says Torvenius. “We feel strong and confident with this approach. We also believe that this game is best experienced from a first-person perspective. You get very close to solving puzzles, mysteries and strange artifacts.”
Jerk Gustafsson adds: “This is something we've been doing for 20 years and it's a perspective we can work with very safely. It's important to me that you don't just play Indiana Jones, you are Indiana Jones. That's why we chose this perspective.”
A perhaps unexpected game that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle draws inspiration from is IO Interactive's recent Hitman trilogy. During his journey, Indy must sneak through restricted areas, donning various disguises to get through undetected. As in Hitman, certain characters can see through his disguises, preventing him from running around freely and causing mayhem.
“It's driven by the narrative, but we also have a system that allows you to change the outfit depending on the situation. You can change the outfit at any time, especially in our large spaces.”
In combat, players have two options. They can go all guns (and fists) out, or they can sneak in to isolate and take out their enemies. The objects in the game environment are also very interactive. Bottles found on the ground can be lovingly repurposed to hit someone on the head. Or if you want to be less brutal, you can throw them at a wall to smash it and distract your enemy.
If you're defeated, the “True Grit” ability gives you one last chance against an enemy. This hilariously manifests itself by finding Indy's hat and triumphantly putting it on as if it contained a defibrillator. As you do this, the first few notes of the Indy theme play. It's cheesy and cartoonish, but we think it's brilliant and exactly the tone we were hoping for from MachineGames.
“When you're defeated, the True Grit ability gives you one last chance against an opponent. This is hilariously demonstrated by finding Indy's hat and triumphantly putting it on as if he had a defibrillator in it.”
Batman fans have the Arkham series, Spider-Man fans have Insomniac's games, and Star Wars fans have more games than there are people on Earth, but so far it feels like Indy fans finally have their lovingly recreated digital entry into the franchise with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
MachineGames hits the perfect tone between what you'd expect from this studio and what we'd expect from the franchise, and while he'll never quite be Harrison Ford, Troy Baker's take on the archaeologist is confident and more than enough to carry us through the game.
Sure, it relies heavily on decades-old Indiana Jones cliches, and we'd be shocked if you didn't have to save your hat from a rapidly closing door, but honestly, who cares? When the music kicks in and the whip cracks across a Nazi's face, there's nothing quite like it.