Since its reveal, I’ve been both sceptical and excited to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Machine Games has a phenomenal track record, but I couldn’t help but think Indy’s movements looked clunky in recent trailers.
Having seen an extended section of the game, and heard from Game Director Jerk Gustafsson and Creative Director Axel Torvenius, some of those concerns remain, but The Great Circle surprised me in its scope and how impressive it is in its variety and presentation.
Both Torvenius and Gustafsson commented on the fact that their new game will be “by far the biggest Machine Games has ever made.” There will be both linear and open segments, side-quests, secrets to find, and more.
I went into the preview under the assumption that The Great Circle would be exclusively linear, in the mould of PlayStation’s Uncharted series. I expected slightly larger areas you could look around while solving puzzles, but nothing to the degree that Machine Games’ leads suggested we’ll see.
Since the sections I saw were more linear combat and puzzle-solving focused, I’m intrigued to see how the studio weaves in more open areas and maintains pacing and balance. The original Indiana Jones story will, of course, be the focus, so I don’t want to spend too long away from the core of the adventure. I also appreciate that The Great Circle needs to be a more expansive and complete game than I may have expected.
That central adventure looks to be phenomenal from a presentation perspective and true to the tone of the original movies. Troy Baker’s performance, the orchestral score, and the visuals of the varied locations all fit perfectly, with undertones of Machine Games’ signature style poking through the surface.
It doesn’t seem like a generic action game that’s copying a tried and tested formula. It’s taking what Machine Games is already good at and melding that with the cinematic style and personality of the Indiana Jones series, which is much more appealing.
Being an Indiana Jones adventure, the puzzle-solving aspect of The Great Circle needs to be better than the competition. While it’ll be hard to be definitive until I try and solve one for myself, they look to be complex, interesting, and engaging. There’ll even be certain difficulty modifiers that’ll help if you’re someone who gets stuck on puzzles that require you to spot hidden things or figure out tenuous links.
You’ll also have various features modern gaming is familiar with to help you out. Adventure points are awarded for exploration and taking pictures of things (using Indy’s camera that’ll surely be a big part of puzzle-solving). You use them to unlock skills that help with both puzzle-solving and combat.
That combat is still the aspect of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle that I’m least sold on. It simply looks clunky. Yes, I haven’t had my hands on it yet, so it may control well – after all, the Wolfenstein games don’t look buttery smooth in video form – but stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and whip fights all look awkward.
Since Indy is a normal bloke, he can’t have super strength or super speed, he’s got to fight Nazis like anyone would have to, with a whip to the back of the head or a punch to the face. Fights are slow and look awkward, there’s no other way to put it.
Torvenius said that “the whip is an entry point to combat,” so it should be the focus and I expect it to be used in some interesting ways later in the story. If it means I can avoid fist-fights and the dumb-looking AI that seemingly crops up when approaching situations stealthily, that’ll be welcome.
In one clip we were shown, Indy smacked a helmet-wearing Nazi on the back head with a hammer, knocking them out. The metal-to-metal contact in an enclosed room caused an almighty crash. Well, I heard it at least. The same can’t be said for the other bad guy standing no more than 10 yards away from the incident. I hope the stealth sections aren’t too prominent in the full game.
While I can confidently say Indiana Jones and The Great Circle looks and sounds great, and that it’s more expansive than I expected, I can only speculate on the quality of the combat. It just seems, visually, at odds with the polished quality of the rest of the game.
Either way, I’m more excited to get hands-on with The Great Circle than I was following the last Xbox Showcase trailer. I’ve craved a mostly linear adventure game for a while, to the point that I replayed Uncharted 4 recently, and the world of Indiana Jones is the perfect setting for one. It’s still coming out in 2024, so not long to wait now!
