New Games Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Rather than just putting on Indy’s famous fedora, players want to get into the character’s mind. The game designers tried to make the player look like Indiana Jones and think like him. For example, in the film, Indiana Jones carries a gun but rarely uses it. In fact, the most famous scene in Indy’s film is when he shoots a gun. Raiders of the Lost Ark It’s the subtle details that he’s particularly fond of. And those details were developed by the team at Machine Games. The Great Circle, I wanted to tell you.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Set to release for Xbox later this year, the game puts players in the shoes of everyone’s favorite archaeologist as he embarks on an adventure across the globe in search of ancient relics that are part of a vast supernatural mystery. At your disposal are Indy’s trusty whip, his fists, and of course his brain – and just like Indy himself, you’ll need to use them all before you pull out your gun.
“What we’ve been trying to do and pushing is, first and foremost, to have you use your wits and your whip,” creative director Axel Torvenius said. “Look at the environment, think about it, understand that there are different ways to get past obstacles. The only solution in this game is to use your wits and your whip. Absolutely not. “You can shoot your way through. In some cases, you can do that, but shooting your way through this game is very dangerous. It’s dangerous to get shot at, and it’s dangerous to shoot at… You can use your gun, but we’ve balanced it so that it’s smarter to work around the situation and move around the enemy, rather than through them.”
Last week, io9 was one of several invited to a virtual presentation from Bethesda and Machine Games about the upcoming Xbox game, where Torvenius was joined by game director Jerk Gustafsson to show off some great chunks of gameplay and answer questions about the highly anticipated title, which will have a concrete release date announced later this week.
first, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle In 1937, Raiders of the Lost ArkIt’s a primarily first-person game, which shocked some fans when the first trailer was revealed, but was planned from the beginning, and it also adds some great new opportunities to the gameplay. “A big part of the game is mystery solving and puzzle solving, and you get to experience ancient relics, ruins, and scriptures up close,” Torvenius said. “So [first-person] “It adds a sense of intimacy to the adventure; it’s really nice to be able to get up close and personal and see things.” Additionally, Machine Games was building on a foundation of first-person games such as: WolfensteinThat’s what this product does best.
As Torvenius hinted, the game is mostly linear, with several sections encouraging open-world exploration where you might find side missions, Easter eggs, and the like, but for the most part it’s a game about one adventure: move around with your whip, solve puzzles, engage in some very cool melee combat, and when all else fails, pick up a gun.
Other important elements of the game are the journal and camera, which record your journey and provide hints on what happens next. The camera fills the journal and also plays an important role in puzzles, though I didn’t quite understand how that works. By taking pictures and solving puzzles, you also earn “adventure points”, which you can use to upgrade your character however you like. One of the upgrades they showed was that Indy could be brought back to life if he died.
The gameplay we saw saw Indy and a local woman raiding a temple. On his way into the temple, he realizes he needs a special medal, which requires Indy to disguise himself and infiltrate the bad guy’s base. Once he has it, he enters the temple, where plenty of booby traps await. You spin around, pull levers to explore, and make your way deeper into the space. But there’s not much to worry about missing anything: Anything you can interact with, like a switch, a piece of paper, or a hammer, is highlighted in white.
While I haven’t had a chance to actually play it (and I probably never will, if I didn’t have an Xbox), Indiana Jones and the Great Circle It looks, sounds and feels like the kind of adventure you’d want to see on a home console. It knows what makes Indy Indy.
Updated Aug. 20, 4:05 p.m.Today at Gamescon, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle The upcoming title from Bethesda and Machine Games is scheduled to be released for Xbox on December 5th. The PlayStation 5 is scheduled to be released in spring 2025.
Want more news from io9? Check out everything you need to know about when the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases are due, what’s next for the DC Universe in movies and TV, and the future of Doctor Who.
