Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is fast approaching, but ahead of its release next month, developer MachineGames has revealed around 14 minutes of gameplay footage, showing off more combat, stealth mechanics, and puzzles, the latter of which apparently won’t be ruined by overzealous characters who are far too eager to help.
The first-person adventure will throw you straight into the shoes of Indy himself, including in hand-to-hand fights. During the deep dive, we see more of the different ways to approach this – from using Indy’s whip to pull enemies close before going in for a punch, to hitting them with nearby objects, and using the environment itself. We see one foe simply thrown off a ledge to end a fight, which looks extremely effective. That’s not to mention the dodges, blocks, and parries you’ll be able to pull out in the middle of brawls, as well as the archeologist’s handy revolver.
Other than that, we were also shown the game’s optional puzzle hint system in action. Puzzles are obviously a big part of the upcoming adventure, but thankfully, it looks like Indy won’t just blurt out the solution to certain obstacles after you’ve been standing there trying to work them out for more than 10 seconds. Rather, if you use his camera to take a ‘Hint Photo’ of the puzzle in question, he’ll think out loud, saying something to point you in the right direction. It’s a really clever way to integrate hints in an immersive, unforced way, and I’m sure it’ll be a welcome addition for those who just want to figure things out for themselves, thank you very much. It may have been updated since, but God of War Ragnarok could have taken notes at launch with Atreus’ constant unprompted interjections.
It sounds like players will also be able to tweak the adventure’s difficulty somewhat using certain unlockable skills, too. From completing missions, you’ll earn Adventure Points, which can be used to unlock “dozens of upgrades” – from ‘Lucky Hat’ which essentially gives Indy a free revive after being knocked out during combat, to ‘Bare Hands,’ which adds the ability to take down enemies completely unarmed.
There’s not too much longer to wait for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to arrive, anyway, as it’ll launch on PC and Xbox Series X|S on December 9 – and three days sooner for anyone who pre-orders the collector’s or digital deluxe editions of the game. Meanwhile, those on PS5 can expect to dive in sometime next spring.