MachineGames, the studio that developed the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, is probably best known for Wolfenstein. Besides being both titles from the same studio and being about fighting fascism, though, the games have little in common. The Great Circle more resembles the 2004 Starbreeze title The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, according to a MachineGame dev (many of whom came from Starbreeze).
Executive producer Jerk Gustafsson told Game Rant about the evolution of the team’s formula, and in some cases callbacks to older titles, in a recent interview. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle actually marks a significant first for MachineGames, Gustafsson explained.
Indiana Jones Isn’t About Gunplay
At its heart, Wolfenstein is a tight skills-based shooter with deep and interesting narratives. That’s not the heart of Indiana Jones, though. Despite having some impressive and famous action scenes, the core of the Indiana Jones experience is adventure, exploration, and puzzle-solving. The blend of guns and adventure is more akin to The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, said Gustafsson. Another callback to the game design of Riddick is the more open mission elements of the game.
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Another major difference is maturity. The Wolfenstein games are rated M for obvious reasons, but Indiana Jones has always been a family adventure. As a result, Gustafsson mentioned that The Great Circle is MachineGames’ first Teen-rated title.
This is a game that is very different, at least from what we have done previously here at MachineGames. In many ways, I think this game is closer to our older Starbreeze days – games like
The Chronicles of Riddick
– than the
Wolfenstein
games. Aside from switching between first and third-person perspectives, the main differences are a more open mission structure, adventure first with a lot of exploration and puzzles, and our first ever Teen-rated game where the matinee aspect and making a game for all has been much more important than skill-based action and shooting.
In fact, The Great Circle treats guns with caution. MachineGames added the concept of escalation to Indiana Jones and The Great Circle‘s combat – now drawing a gun prompts the enemy to raise the stakes as well, while opting to swing, for instance, a frying pan does less to provoke an enemy into pulling a gun on the player’s archaeologist extraordinaire. This helps MachineGames reach an objective it had with the game from the beginning: making the player actually feel like Indiana Jones.
That kind of authenticity drives a lot of the distinctions between Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and the Wolfenstein franchise. That didn’t just require the development of the escalation combat system and reframing the central focus of the game, but the development of other new systems and ideas as well, some of which were clearly inspired by Riddick. That isn’t to say the approach MachineGames has taken to some of these elements feels 20 years old. Where Riddick had pretty standard crouch-stealth mechanics, The Great Circle relies both on Indiana Jones’ penchant for disguise and poses challenges to stealth gameplay, like denying players the conceit of a truly silent takedown.
MachineGames also focused heavily on puzzles and traps for The Great Circle, though innovatively included a puzzle difficulty slider as well as Indy’s deuteragonist Gina Lombardi, who helps the player with puzzles. While it was critical to an authentic Indiana Jones experience to include interesting and challenging puzzles and traps, it was also important to the developers to keep those elements accessible. As Gustafsson said,
“Overall, we have needed to prove out several new systems and features, and while there have been many challenges during development, I’m proud of the results and what the team have accomplished with this game that I think stands out as something unique and different, not only to us, but also to everyone playing it…It will be very interesting to see how players will react to them and experience the MachineGames version of an
Indiana Jones
adventure. Also, a bit scary but we all want to bring something new to the table, and we shouldn’t shy away from doing that, even if there are some unknowns attached to it.”
- Released
- December 9, 2024