There is a pretty good chance that you, like us, keep forgetting that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game. Every time we see footage, it is a jarring moment to remember that this is not a redesigned Grave robbers or Unchartedbut puts us right inside Dr. Jones’ head. This is exacerbated by the fact that so many things we’ve seen in trailers constantly jump to cinematic third-person views, considering what a weird angle that is when trying to present the game. But now we’ve seen ten minutes of in-game footage and it’s starting to make more sense.
At Gamescom this week, developer MachineGames, the driving force behind games like Wolfenstein: The New Order and its sequel, described what was shown previously as highlighting their approach to “building an immersive narrative full of twists and turns and suspenseful scenes.” But today we would see the enigmatic “gameplay.” They wanted to show “what it’s like to actually play as Indiana Jones and live his adventures, seeing through his eyes.” So it was perhaps unfortunate that this was immediately followed by more shots of the tomb raider smashing an ancient statue to retrieve a secret thingamajig, all from a staged third-person view.
This continued as Indy’s theft triggered traps, closing the doors and filling the room with sand. But lo and behold, eventually a tall window comes within reach, and here we finally see the world through the eyes of the hat wearer, leaping forward into… a scripted series of slips and slides as the temple collapses around him.
OK, I’m being mean, but they tricked me. After that, we finally see actual footage of the game as it is experienced, and it’s a far more controlled and thoughtful game than I expected. At points, it seemed to play more like a first-person adventure game, with Indy scouring scenes for clues, picking up objects to examine, and trying to figure out where he needs to be. And where he needs to be is to stop evil Nazi rival and explorer Emmerich Voss from finding a set of relics and returning them to his leader.
This all starts when Voss breaks into the doctor’s university in Massachusetts and steals one such relic. We try to figure out what he’s up to. After the break-in, we see Indy picking up photos, looking through papers, taking pictures to find out more details about different items and areas, and arguing with Italian journalist Gina, who is only interested in accompanying him to find her sister.
But it’s not just about poking around ancient ruins and academic halls. The other most repeated theme of what we were shown was hitting evil people on the back of the head with shovels. There seems to be a strong emphasis on improvisation, with objects lying around in the world available to pick up and use as a one-off perk. These shovels, for example, shatter at the handle when smashed around an unsuspecting head, and Indy tosses the remains aside. The same goes for metal rods used to knock loose bricks out of walls, or sticks thrown across ravines into the rock face to then be hit with Indy’s whip.
Shovels weren’t the only tool used in combat, of course. The real focus was on fistfights, with fights playing out like a sort of boxing mini-game where you and your opponent traded punches, attempted blocks, and generally smashed each other’s noses in. Such moments often began with Indiana using his whip to pull on a buddy’s ankle to bring them down, and then, once they got back on their feet, launching into fistfights, trading blows until one of you was down.
Speaking of Indy down, in one of the highlights of the footage shown, we saw our hero lose a fight and fall to the ground, but then, thanks to an ability – True Grit – that he gained and added to his skill tree, he was able to make one last attempt to grab his iconic hat and pick himself up for another go. It felt so very, very Indiana Jones.
It is also worth noting that Indy’s perspective is not necessarily first person. When he climbs, it switches to third person view and sees extremely as a Grave robbers game as he fights around ledges and vines like Lara Croft. It’s almost as if… could there have been a better perspective? But the requirement to “see through his eyes” wins out. In the end, it’ll be a combination of both as we experience the bigger challenges, climbing around huge obstacles to solve intricate puzzles. At one point, we saw Doc Jones pouring wine into ancient bowls to reveal secret numbers, then finding ways to reach a huge raised frieze depicting Christ and adjusting levers to match the code.
Honestly, when I looked at the footage and realized that it’s a slower, more focused game than the hectic cutscenes we’ve seen before suggested, it made me much more excited to play it. Sneaking into a room, beating up a bad guy with gardening tools, and then using a whip to knock a gun out of another enemy’s hand really does look pretty awesome, especially when such action is interspersed with exploration and puzzles. As sound director Pete Ward puts it, “The focus of this game is on adventure,” with the desire for players to find their own uses for the tools the game provides.
After seeing this footage, I’m now much more excited to go back to 1937 and see how well this mix of approaches can work together, especially given the good news that Troy Baker’s Harrison Ford impersonation is much better than I previously thought. This could…maybe…actually be something to get really excited about. Although I still have no idea what’s so great about the circle.
.
