Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Is MachineGames’ Biggest Gamble Yet

Executive producer and leather jacket aficionado Todd Howard has long wanted to make an Indiana Jones game. In partnering for it with MachineGames, who, given their work on the new, mostly critically acclaimed, batch of Wolfenstein shooters, have experience in Indy’s favourite pastime, punching Nazis, it would seem that Howard has picked the right people for the right job. And, yet, even after attending an hour-long digital event for what has been titled Indiana Jones and the Great Circle , I am still unsure that giving the reins to MachineGames was the best call to make. But, before I go more in detail with my impressions, let me give the rundown of what was presented to me.

Days before its showing at gamescom ONL 2024 , I was fortunate enough to attend an online preview for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle led by game director Jerk Gustaffson and creative director Axel Torvenius. Half of this preview consisted of a gameplay presentation, which will also be shown on the show floor during gamescom, whereas the other was dedicated to a Q&A session with the two.

The presentation began with a montage of footage edited together from previous trailers , upon which Gustaffson and Torvenius revealed the first concept art created for the title. They said that they and their team knew from the get-go that they wanted the player to visit major sites like the Vatican and the Himalayas and that they wanted to include Gina Lombardi, a wholly original companion for Indy.

The overall goal behind Indiana Jones and the Great Circle , they continued, was to ‘strive to make the gameplay experience as authentic as possible and to make something that will evoke a sense of curiosity.’ As an example of how to best do so, they spoke about how the team at MachineGames looked at drawings and renditions of Thai landmarks such as Wat Si Sawai from around 1937 – the year that The Great Circle was set. Nevertheless, they also created their own points of interest, such as temples meant to host numerous well-guarded secrets.

“The overall goal behind Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was to ‘strive to make the gameplay experience as authentic as possible and to make something that will evoke a sense of curiosity.'”

Next, I was shown gameplay from the main chamber of, presumably, one of the said temples. At this unspecified point in the story, Indy had just gotten his hands on what I think was a statue of the Egyptian goddess of war, Sekhmet. He then proceeded to break this statue to acquire the next clue necessary for his adventure.

Upon doing so, however, the temple started to crumble, and the chamber he found himself in was rapidly filling up with quicksand. Following this turn of events, the HUD appeared on screen, showing Indy’s stamina bar and the icons for a whip and a pistol, the latter two being part of Indy’s trusty arsenal. Gustafsson and Torvenius had mentioned before that the whip could be used in both traversal and combat, but this was my first time seeing Indy use it to orchestrate a dashing escape.

The next scene I was made privy to flung me back to the beginning of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ’s story, which starts one fateful night in 1937. After falling asleep at his desk inside Marshall College in Boston, Indy was unceremoniously woken up by an intimidating man who proceeded to rob the museum college of a priceless relic. This event sets the stage for a grand conspiracy which features Indy’s main rival, one Emmerich Voss, a Nazi psychologist who is plundering sites around the globe in search of mysterious artifacts.

To help in the fight against Voss, MachineGames emphasized that players must employ Indy’s resourcefulness and, therefore, find clever ways to deploy each of the hero’s many tools. Take the camera, for one, which can be used to snap photos, which will, in turn, reveal clues and insights. These clues and insights are used to inform Indy’s personal journal, which is blank at the start of the game but will eventually contain the records of his adventure.

After demonstrating the journal and the camera, MachineGames returned to the whip, which they described as “the most important tool in Indy’s Arsenal.” The subsequent clip showed Indy in a temple picking up a nearby trident and then throwing it at a nearby cliff, creating a swing. With the trident firmly affixed to the cliff and his whip in hand, Indy was able to use the swing to cross a dangerous chasm.

In the next segment, it was time for a showing of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ’s combat system. The directing duo made it very clear here that the key to the game’s combat lies in deciding whether to ‘outsmart or overpower’ Indy’s enemies. This being said stealth is possible and perhaps the first option to consider in most cases. ‘What we’ve tried to do is make sure that you understand that there are stealth options,’ Gustafsson said when asked about approaches in combat. ‘It is stealth, the hand-to-hand and the whip that are the go-to’, he stated.

“The transition from Wolfenstein to Indiana Jones was described by MachineGames as a ‘big step’ and their ‘biggest project yet.'”

Fittingly, I then got to see a bit of stealth in a passage of play that had Indy infiltrate the Vatican. To do so, he wore a clerical outfit as his disguise and carefully evaded the gaze of patrolling guards. Moments later, in a different combat encounter entirely, I saw Indy pick up and throw bottles to distract his enemies, eventually subduing them while remaining completely unnoticed.

Moving on from the Vatican, the final piece of footage I got to see was of Indy engaged in a series of fights inside and around the Great Pyramid of Giza. These fights showcased that not only is Indy able to throw combos and whip his enemies, but also that he is capable of using whatever he finds in the environment: sticks, bricks, barrels, etc., to gain the upper hand.

Something that I haven’t mentioned yet, and that changed the tide of a fight that I was shown, is the fact that Indy also has an array of unlockable abilities. The one ability MachineGames showcased was called “True Grit”, which essentially allowed Indy to restore a modicum of health and continue the fight, even though his health bar has just previously been depleted.

MachineGames elaborated that “True Grit” and other abilities can be unlocked using “adventure points,” which the player can earn by taking part in activities such as snapping camera photos and completing optional missions. Gustaffson and Torvenius were coy about giving more details about these optional missions other than suggesting that some locations are more open than others, which would allow players to deviate from the golden path.

The Giza scenario concluded the gameplay portion of the presentation, which was followed by a series of questions from fellow journalists and me. To quickly summarize some of the more salient points covered here, I’ll suffice to write that Gustaffsson and Torvenius spoke about the transition from Wolfenstein as being a “big step” for MachineGames and that The Great Circle , which they confirmed is still slated for this year , is ‘by far the biggest’ project for them yet.

Lastly, and more interestingly to me, when asked whether they ever considered making Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in the third person, Gustafsson responded that ‘first person was the obvious choice for us’ and that it represented something ‘very important for us and for the way we make games in general.’

This last quote by Gustafsson strongly indicates to me that MachineGames is sticking to their guns and to what they do best, which would be rather commendable if it didn’t make me nervous for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle . This is because, ultimately, I’m not convinced that an unabashedly MachineGames title is a right fit for a franchise like Indiana Jones. To be clear, everything I’ve been shown at this digital event suggests that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be a great entry in the studio’s portfolio, but I am unsure whether or not it will prove to be the kind of game that the typical Indiana Jones fan expects.

“As of right now, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle seems like a gamble, especially at a time when both the storied franchise and Xbox Studios are looking for a surefire hit.”

Speaking for myself, when I think about Indiana Jones video games, I think first and foremost about Emperor’s Tomb , which was created with an entirely different set of guiding principles than Indiana Jones and the Great Circle . I suppose, then, that the million-dollar question here is: will players, myself included, accept a different kind of Indy experience? Even after a lengthy preview, I’m still not sure that the answer is a definitive yes. As of right now, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle seems like a gamble, especially at a time when both the storied franchise and Xbox Studies are looking for a surefire hit.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set to release on Dec 9, 2024 on Xbox Series X|S, Windows and Steam. Available day one for Game Pass subscribers. A Playstation release was also announced today, for spring 2025.