Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Is Scratching My Dishonored Itch

As a seasoned gamer with over two decades under my belt, I must admit that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has piqued my interest like no other game in recent memory. The blend of action, adventure, and puzzle-solving is a heady cocktail that harkens back to the golden age of gaming, when titles like The Legend of Zelda and Tomb Raider ruled the roost.

Trailers for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle have nailed the tone of the franchise. The triumphant John Williams theme song, Harrison Ford’s sly smirk, all accompanied with the crack of a whip and the distant howl of a Wilhelm scream. These are stylistic staples in the 43-year-old franchise that has had five films, a handful of games, and a TV show. There’s no doubt that developer MachineGames understands the look and feel of Indy, but questions have lingered around its ability to capture playing as the globetrotter. Now that I’ve had some hands-on time with the game, it’s clear to me MachineGames understands more than just the aesthetic of Indiana Jones, but also what it means to be Indiana Jones. The result is a promising prospect not just for fans of the franchise, but the adventure genre as a whole.

In this new story, titled The Great Circle, we find our hero, Dr. Henry Walton Jones Jr., a year after his epic adventures and now settled as a professor at Marshall College. Instead of jumping straight into high-octane action sequences, the game allows us to explore everyday life as Professor Jones. This shift offers a more relatable tone for the character and provides a steady pace that lets us appreciate the surroundings instead of rushing through them. During my 90 minutes of playtime, I walked around Marshall College and even Giza, a mini-sandbox, maintaining this engaging, relaxed atmosphere throughout.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Is Scratching My Dishonored Itch

Dr. Jones’ leisurely break from exploring is abruptly interrupted when he encounters a looming intruder, played by Tony Todd, who swipes an artifact from the college’s gallery and brutalizes Jones. With the artifact missing and its shadowy thief fleeing, Professor Jones trades his tweed sports coat for a brown leather jacket and fedora.

Prior to embarking on a global journey for a fresh adventure, I was granted extra time at the university, which offered me an opportunity to delve deeper into Indy’s college persona, a side that I had caught brief glimpses of in the movies. This involved cleaning up after a thief, organizing artifacts and returning them to their proper cases using historical hints such as hieroglyphics. It was like solving an environmental puzzle and setting the stage for the significance of observation in tackling future mysteries.

Experiencing the game from a first-person perspective gives the sensation that the artifacts in Indiana Jones’ hands are really there, making it more authentic and engrossing. Examining Indy’s notebook feels effortless, as if he’s opening it right before your eyes, letting you view maps and notes simultaneously without interrupting your gameplay or obstructing your view, enabling you to continue exploring and moving around the environment at the same time.

MachineGames not only grasps the visual essence of Indiana Jones, but also captures the spirit of embodying Indiana Jones.

During this period, Dr. Jones’ character in the game subtly emphasized a similar dual identity theme: Dr. Jones appearing as an ordinary man, while Indiana Jones is his extraordinary alter ego. This idea resurfaced in a later preview, when one of Indy’s friends failed to recognize him without his glasses, tweed suit, and bowtie. It seems deliberate, particularly in a scene where Indy dons his hat, accompanied by music reminiscent of John Williams’ score. This scene evokes the feeling of Christopher Reeve’s Clark Kent removing his glasses to reveal Superman (also featuring a John Williams score). Though simple and perhaps a bit cheesy, it managed to bring a smile to my face. Such moments, though minor, convey the character’s playful spirit more effectively than some of the movies do at times. Remarkably, this spirit appears to be woven into every aspect of gameplay, especially in combat scenes.

As an avid gamer diving into the world of Indiana Jones, I’ve got to say, the Superman comparisons fall flat. Indy isn’t invincible. Swinging fists at baddies might feel righteous and heavy, offering a sense of satisfaction when blocking or counter-punching, but combat can get cramped in first-person view. It leads to sloppy fistfights that escalate into chaos when multiple enemies are involved. The pressure is on during preview events, but I’m hopeful that after release, I’ll be able to take my time and adapt to Indiana Jones’ limitations, fostering more creative combat strategies. For now, it seems like there’s a learning curve to mastering the game, not necessarily a flaw in its design.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Is Scratching My Dishonored Itch

Fortunately, the game offers numerous ways to engage in combat or evade it altogether, thanks to its impressive stealth system. Once I realized I wasn’t proficient at close-combat, I adopted a strategy of seeking out objects nearby, such as shovels, bottles, or guitars, to pummel those pesky Nazis. This unconventional fighting style provided me with amusement, as I frequently disarmed enemies using my whip, only to take their weapon and brutally beat them with it. The humor never wore off.

although Indy has killed many people in the movies, it’s usually less about shooting and more about his quick thinking and combat improvisation. The game design encourages this behavior rather than dictating it or overwhelming me with ammunition.

In various settings, such as the narrow corridors of the Vatican and the expansive landscapes of Giza, this game offered numerous strategies for each combat situation. I could opt for a quick exit, grab a nearby object like a frying pan, find a disguise, or engage in a traditional fight. Resorting to a gun felt like giving in to panic, and using it drew even more unwanted attention towards me.

To my astonishment, instead of finding great satisfaction in shooting a Nazi, I derived almost as much pleasure from tripping them up and observing them get unconscious after slamming their head into a chair. The emphasis on gun usage is reduced by enabling each firearm to double as a melee weapon. On one occasion, when confronting a Nazi armed with a machine gun, I disarmed them, picked up the gun myself, turned it upside down, and used it to strike their face.

Exploring hidden paths within the Vatican, discovering alternative escapades, and neutralizing adversaries in a style distinctly mine, effectively relieved the craving for more Dishonored gameplay.

Indy’s latest adventure, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, shares characteristics with games from the immersive-sim genre that I hadn’t anticipated. This is likely due to MachineGames collaborating with sister studio Arkane on Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which adopted a more open-ended design style compared to previous installments. The freedom to explore the Vatican, find alternative paths, and eliminate enemies in my preferred method has certainly satisfied my craving for games like Dishonored.

The Great Circle game design, akin to Dishonored, offers level-based worlds with a free-roaming structure that’s brimming with optional quests and hidden treasures for players to discover and revisit at will. One expansive area I delved into was Giza – a sprawling desert landscape dotted with pyramids to explore, concealed Nazi outposts to navigate stealthily, and dilapidated marketplaces where items could be bought. Despite being freely accessible, the time constraints only allowed me to glimpse about a quarter of its offerings, leaving much unexplored. In this expansive region, I found the game’s additional features – the camera and notebook – particularly useful. Given the area’s non-linear design, the notebook became indispensable for keeping tabs on side missions, or Field Works, and collecting photographs I’d taken, which offered insights into points of interest and characters encountered during my journey.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Is Scratching My Dishonored Itch

Experiencing the joy of filling out Indy’s notebook in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle evoked a familiar sense of participation akin to using Alan Wake 2’s evidence board. Capturing images on my own added a personal touch to gathering game information, making me an integral part of the story and objectives rather than just a passive observer. This interactive aspect in Alan Wake 2 resonated with me as it allowed me to actively organize the evidence, instead of the in-game notebook automatically filling itself. In Indiana Jones, I found myself enjoying this same sense of involvement. Each time I snapped a photo of an interesting artifact, my instinct was to consult my notebook and absorb the accompanying information, transforming it into more of a helpful ally than a simple checklist.

The game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle seems to blend various genres harmoniously, maintaining a strong connection with the character of Indiana Jones, both the archaeology professor and adventurer. Despite only having 90 minutes of playtime, it introduced an intriguing mix of adventure-puzzle gaming, which is not common in AAA games. This suggests that MachineGames’ skills and insight into tailoring game design to its characters and narrative are impressive, and we can expect more from this title when it releases for Xbox Series X|S and PC on December 9.

2024-10-29 17:39

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Is Scratching My Dishonored Itch

Read More

Minority Mindset