Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: A twisted love child of cinematic action, adventure games, and immersive simulation games – I love it

I hate to do this to you, but Indiana Jones and the Big Circle is one of those games that is best described through the most cliche of mediums: comparison to other games. It’s a strange alchemy of mixing things we know from elsewhere into a unique new form. I kind of like it.

First of all, this is an action game. But that’s not the case. except it yes. Creative director Axel Torvenius explains that one of the key concepts behind the Raiders of the Lost Ark adventure is the subtle difference in genre: it’s a adventure action Games – no action adventure game. The order in which these two types appear is important because it gives us an idea of ​​developmental priorities. Indy is certainly an action hero, but he’s also an archaeologist and explorer.

When I think about this sort of thing, my mind is always drawn to James Bond—a spy who sneaks, steals, bickers, and physically fights—but in his best video games, Bond basically Always simplified to a milder version of Doom Guy. MachineGames may be best known for making high-octane shooters closely related to DOOM, but the studio is clearly hoping to avoid a similar fate for Professor Jones. So: this is adventure action.

The adventure unfolds in several different ways. First, there’s an adventure game element – that is, the genre. Every once in a while, you’ll get a chance to slow down and find Indy in some grave or dusty old room with a puzzle to solve. There’s no action here – just your brain, strange and subtle signposts, and environmental clues that match Indy’s notebook, which gradually fills with souvenirs and information from his travels.

Honestly, these are my favorite moments. Simply explore: not just the tomb, but the rest of the world crafted by MachineGames. In a more linear sequence, you control Indy at Marshall Academy (the school where he teaches). It’s a helpfully cinematic sequence, the opening sequence that sets up the game’s narrative. But we spent time and effort reconstructing the building and painstakingly identifying the details of the 1936 set and the 1981 film. Version of that time period. In the manner of an adventure game or immersive simulation game, notes and other pickup content are scattered throughout, sure to keep completionist collectors busy while also filling in important context and color to the world and story.

Speaking of immersive simulation games, this is another genre that’s getting some attention. Another area shown in the preview takes a different tack – instead of linear A to B levels, you’re given a vast open area to explore, in this case around the Pyramids of Giza. This is where experience comes into play. Yes, there are some story objectives to head straight for – but there are also side dungeons, enemy camps, and even towns to explore if you explore.

This setting fits nicely with where Operation Hard A comes into play – as the Pyramid here is being stalked by Nazi troops, they recognize Indiana and try to take him down. What you see here is first-person fighting action. The trailer made it clear that there would be a lot of fight scenes, which would be appropriate for the movie – but what I didn’t expect was that there was a killer feel to it beyond that. Bullets are scarce, and melee weapons shatter after hitting their target a few times. I found myself smashing an enemy and then quickly scouring the environment for the next enemy things – A trowel, a bottle of wine, a shovel, anything – Get ready for the next bad guy.

I expect some of the pacing of this fight won’t sit so well with some people – I could easily see it being derided as repetitive. But honestly, I loved it – the pacing, the back-and-forth, the fact that it stops you from giving it your all all the time – because that’s not the character of Indiana Jones.

Of course, there are guns – but ammunition is always limited. Similar to Hitman, you can find costumes if you explore the Giza Pyramids open area – wearing them, Indy will be able to avoid detection by the Nazis, making it easier to hide in places like small tombs to deal with the main story or optional Side puzzle content.

“The way we came to the conclusion – it wasn’t easy,” Tovinius said of setting the game’s creative direction and balancing its disparate threads. “In the end, it’s basically a pie chart,” he admits.

“That pie chart would say – well, so much hand-to-hand combat, maybe this much combat, so much set pieces, and so much platforming and stealth, disguises, puzzles – you know? “Then we try to balance that to get the right feel. Like, does this feel like the Indiana Jones you were expecting? “

I think the answer is yes. Granted, there are a lot of little details that come together to make this happen. The score seems to do a lot of the heavy lifting using interactive backbones to react to the action, reminiscent of John Williams’ classics and making you really feel like the character. Troy Baker does a pretty good impression of Harrison Ford’s Indy, too – so when you’re smashing a Nazi’s head in with a precious marble bust, the quips hit the mark.

Having said that, I do believe that much of the reason lies in Feel. Fighting spirit, you can do cool things like drag enemies to the floor with a whip, or wrest weapons from their hands… When I grabbed a Nazi by the lapel near a dangerous ledge and pulled When he kicked it away, it wasn’t technically fatal, but it was certainly incapacitating, which felt right. It felt like Spielberg would not be insulted.

It’s a funny thing because you don’t really see Indy doing that much sneaking in movies. Of course, James Bond, whom I mentioned earlier, does more. But in this case, it feels right. Best of all, it’s optional – you can fist-first if you want – but I really came to enjoy the rhythm and pace of sneaking around the pyramid from puzzle to puzzle, just occasionally Caught in pieces. That’s the beauty of combat, by the way – the best word to describe it is scrap. There’s nothing more elegant than it fighting – For Indy, it always felt vaguely like a bar fight, even if it was being fought under the scorching Egyptian sun next to the Eternal Monument.

I have a sneaking suspicion this isn’t for everyone. But honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. It’s reminiscent of a lot of things I love and have name-checked – like Bond (one of the inspirations for Indy), like Hitman, but with a hint of Deus Ex, and some puzzles, It feels like they could have been in a point-and-click adventure. These things combine to make it feel like Indiana Jones. There’s something else, though: a MachineGames association.

This feels weird, to be honest, because I associate MachineGames with something I mentioned before – rivers of blood flowing as you mow down hundreds of enemy soldiers, the meat grinder of an over-the-top war. It’s not very Indy. But the rhythm is a little flipped and twisted here – it doesn’t sound right, but it feels quite right.

Instead of pushing forward with a bigger gun, the urgency becomes sprinting past enemy patrols or scouring the dirt for the next valuable melee weapon.

“We really try to make sure we slow down the game time,” Tovinius noted. “The pace can be a little slower, but a slower pace doesn’t mean it’s going to be boring. Quite the opposite in fact.”

“There’s a lot of parts throughout – the pace just slows down. Maybe there’s no enemy that can punch you in the face, but it’s still highly tense and super fun because you’re using your brain, solving a mystery, or trying to figure out Get some clarity.”

Interestingly, looking at the beats I wrote down in my chat with Tovinius, another game series came to mind: the game successor to Indy, Lara Croft. But not in her reboot, which follows in the footsteps of Nathan Drake (another Indy offshoot), but in the original game, which was baffling with its vague stop-start nature and then shoots the dinosaur or something , then puzzling, then a break to explore, then dual pistols, etc. Indiana never gets to pull out a couple of Browning Hi-Power pistols (even though, you know, they appear in the right era – so having him use Laura’s guns would be a fun joke), but the pacing feels similar.

In a way, as I let this thesis unfold in my mind, I started to think of this game as a strange successor to those games – which is funny, because Lara Croft has always been in hot new narrative form Positioned as the successor to Indy is the video game. At the same time, it is undoubtedly original and novel. A unique combination of familiar elements from elsewhere that still makes for an original and fresh tasting cocktail.

“These are great games and I love them,” Tovinius said of Uncharted and Tomb Raider, two games that will cast some shadow over the direction of Big Circle Doubling . “But from where we stand, we set out to create something very different from those games.”

“We were obviously very aware that there would be similarities and comparisons, but it was never really an issue for us because what we were doing very early on was very different from those games.”

I bet a lot of that difference comes from risk-taking. As he said, this is an adventure action game. I’m playing something that tickles me without even knowing it – and I can’t wait to play the final version.

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Indiana Jones and the Circle will be available on PC, Xbox, and Game Pass on December 9, and on PlayStation 5 in spring 2025.