When I think of developer MachineGames, I think of dual-wielding shotguns in its Wolfenstein games, sprinting through narrow corridors with gunshots ringing and walls stained with Nazi blood. After all, MachineGames’ entire portfolio to date has been built on the bold revival of Wolfenstein – a series of five no-holds-barred, gore-filled action thrillers. Damn, it’s well done. That’s why I was surprised when I saw its next game, Indiana Jones and the Big Circle, which emphasizes more structured combat that lets you solve puzzles and use the environment as your weapon rather than by shooting to get out of trouble.
“It’s always been a big challenge for us to go from the known to the unknown in an Indiana Jones game,” Jens Andersson, design director for Indiana Jones and Great Circle, told GameSpot at Gamescom 2024. [MachineGames] Getting used to work – how we build the levels, how we design the enemies – everything comes from this action [focus]. Now let’s look at this problem from a different perspective. So it took a long time. Honestly, we spent a lot of time in company meetings talking about, ‘What is this game trying to do?
Don’t worry, you can still shoot Nazis in large circles, but as Indy, your wits, your gloves, your whip, and maybe the occasional rolling pin left on the kitchen table will all be your targets . When you put yourself in the shoes of world-traveling Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones, your agency as a player is non-existent. just actionbut exploration and investigation. It’s rare to see this kind of take on the genre and mechanics in a game, let alone a first-person game.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of reference material for this particular game,” Anderson said. “It’s like this is an adventure-first game. So what does a AAA adventure game look like today? We don’t know. We have to figure it out.”
The adventure game genre is broad and difficult to define. At one point in time, it was often associated with more traditional point-and-click games, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Fate of Atlantis. These games are largely narrative-driven, designed around puzzle-solving at the core, and rarely feature combat. However, modern audiences may consider the Uncharted series to be an entry point into modern adventure games – games packed with action, with an Indiana Jones-inspired protagonist named Nathan Drake wiping out countless numbers on a blockbuster scale. Hundreds of bad guys. Raiders of the Lost Ark doesn’t seem to fit into either category, and it doesn’t even feel fair to place it in the middle of a broad spectrum.
For game director Jerk Gustafasson, figuring out the game’s identity started with a simple reminder to the team: this is a “MachineGames adventure.”
“When this was brought up in meetings,” Anderson said, “a lot of people on the team started saying ‘Oh, I see what you mean.'” Just like MachineGames means cinematic, immersive, action, first-person , so what is its adventure version?
From that point on, creative director Axel Torvenius decided that meant doubling down on adventure and exploration, rather than relying on the studio’s tried-and-true action background. “There are a lot of slow-paced moments. Because [they’re] Slow moments don’t mean they’re boring,” Tovinius said. “On the contrary, it’s very tense and exciting. It’s slow-paced but still highly tense and adventurous, and that’s what we’re always trying to get. It’s about getting the balance right.
Based on the hands-off gameplay I saw, those quiet moments Tovinius mentioned are using Indy’s camera to take photos of artifacts, thus filling your journal with information. This information is crucial in telling players where to go next or answering questions in the game’s mysteries. Of course, this also brings the challenge of pacing and assisting the player in deciding what to do and where to go without over-holding the player’s hand.
“How do we push the player to do something, everything we’ve done before has been a linear corridor shooter – sometimes a little more open, but never that much – a very different style of play and pace of gameplay,” Tovinius said.
It’s completely different from what I’m used to seeing this team do in games, and MachineGames fully embracing something so different is starting to get me most excited about what Raiders of the Lost Ark could become: a true Stuff Regardless of the Indiana Jones IP, the first-person game genre is fresh.
“The script and the characters are the most important, not the supporting cast of the action.”
Jens Anderson
After all, the team has a long history in first-person games long before MachineGames was founded. Many members of the Great Circle team have worked with developer Starbreeze Entertainment on games such as Darkness and, before that, the slower Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which, like Raiders of the Lost Ark , relies heavily on hand-to-hand combat. Although both games are first-person games, they are very different in gameplay. But the team’s approach to design always starts with the story. As Anderson said, this is the MachineGames process.
“It starts with a story, as trivial as it sounds,” Anderson said. “We adapted everything to fit the story, rather than the opposite, which I think a lot of other studios do. […] The script and characters are the most important, not the supporting cast of the action.
It’s easy to get sucked into Wolfenstein’s iconic run-and-gun action, but it’s MachineGames’ approach to storytelling and character development that made Wolfenstein’s The New Order and The New Colossus so memorable for me. When I think of Wolfenstein: The New Colossus in particular, I immediately think of its tender moments: BJ Blazkowicz’s surprise birthday party; memories of his childhood sweetheart; or his relationship with his mother. These scenes give the characters time to breathe in the smoke and become all the more memorable for it.
While it’s too early to tell whether MachineGames can reach the same writing heights in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it’s clear that it’s translating the eponymous character’s identity very well, especially in the game’s combat. middle.
During the gameplay, the player uses Indy’s whip to disarm enemies, causing them to lose their balance and fall face-first into a steel barrel, knocking them out. It’s a brief and fleeting moment, but one that’s full of slapstick comedy and gives the battle its own unique charm. Despite the speed of that encounter, achieving that goal was no easy task for the team.
“We have a very complex system where people are pushed into the environment. So you use whips to move people around,” Anderson explained. “It’s a lot of work to make enemies react and be balanced. When we started pushing it, it was a scary proposition. Everyone wasn’t happy with us. But like the combination of simulation and animation and being able to interact with enemies environment and being able to pick things up, like Indy, right?
There’s a comical rhythm to the combat that feels improvised rather than scripted, much like some of the most iconic scenes in the franchise, whether it’s Raiders of the Lost Ark drawing a gun and shooting a swinging swordsman, or Indy Waiting patiently for the plane’s propellers to chop the Nazis into pieces. It’s these moments that embody Indy as a character, and translating that organically through combat is very exciting.
Admittedly, as a die-hard Wolfenstein fan, I’m still eager for the next installment in the Blakovitch family saga. However, whether I’m an Indiana Jones fan or not, I’m equally excited to see how MachineGames extends its writing and design philosophy into the story.
Indiana Jones and the Circle is expected to release on December 9 for Xbox Series X|S and PC, and will be available for Game Pass on day one.
