The biggest question mark I came away with after watching the preview footage revolved around the game’s traversal mechanics. Indy can climb walls and sidle along ledges, and he can use his whip to swing across gaps and get to higher ground. The camera switches to third-person in these moments, and from the footage the transitions look like they may be a little jarring. I say “may” because there’s every possibility that when I get my hands on the game traversal will feel smooth as silk and the perspective switches could feel quite seamless. From what I saw, though, the first-person stuff looked super, super smooth and fast, while the third-person moments seemed a little rigid, mostly due to the animation not looking natural and fluid.
Aside from this relatively minor quibble, though, I have nothing but praise for the game’s visuals. This thing looks stunning, with the main highlights being the evocative lighting, the hyper-detailed environments, and the spot-on rendering of Harrison Ford’s likeness. What’s interesting about a game like this is that, even if the graphics look incredible and high-end, if MachineGames don’t capture the iconic actor pretty much perfectly, it would risk making the game feel cheap. There is no Indiana Jones without Ford, and they’ve definitely done him justice here. The game model looks exactly like him, down to the mischievous glint in his eye, and Troy Baker’s voice sounds so freakishly identical to Ford’s that Torvenius thought his test audio was an old recording of Ford himself.
The writing team seems to have nailed Indiana’s tone as well. When a German soldier drops an ancient vase and Indy scolds, “You have any idea how old that was?,” it sounds like it was taken straight from the movies (in a good way). The story is set shortly after Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that film was the primary influence for the game’s storytelling and tone. Gina is a new face but seems to fit nicely into the long line of characters from the franchise. She and Indy seem to get on one another’s nerves a bit, which should make for an entertaining dynamic. She mentions in the footage that her reason for joining Indiana on his journey is to find her sister, which will hopefully lead to some interesting twists in the story that compromise his mission to demystify the titular Golden Circle.
What is the Golden Circle, anyway? Well, it’s a collection of ancient sites across the globe that form a circle when connected on a map. It’s a simple idea that gives the game a good excuse to see Indy fly around the world and visit a variety of locations, and from the looks of the footage there will be a ton of different locales to explore. The game’s Executive Producer, the great Todd Howard, actually came up with the concept of the Golden Circle, and with him being involved with the development of the game, it’s no wonder why it looks to be a more robust gaming experience than one might expect from a licensed movie adaptation.
Many of the members at MachineGames also worked on The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay: a game that quietly set the standard for how great licensed games could be 20 years ago in 2004. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s gameplay and presentation feel strikingly similar to that title, which is a really, really good thing. If you’re into that game and the studio’s Wolfenstein series, you should be in for a treat. “[Golden Circle] is, by far, the biggest game MachineGames has made,” Gustafsson says. He also adds that the game’s side missions aren’t merely fluff content. Should players choose to engage in them, it will add significantly to their play time. Each side mission is “a matter of hours, not minutes,” he says.
Indiana Jones and the Golden Circle looks promising, particularly for fans of the films. I can’t say enough about how well MachineGames captured the look and feel of the films. The set pieces look epic (a moment where Indy leaps from the wings of one fighter plane to another mid-flight looks bonkers), and the narrative-driven scenes seem pitch-perfect. Gameplay-wise, there looks to be a lot of variety and balance to the experience, and hopefully all of the mechanics come together in a way that draws you into the world and into the psyche of the legendary adventurer himself.