How Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Encourages Players to Improvise

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home December 16, 2024 62 Views 7 Min Read
How Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Encourages Players to Improvise



Summary

  • Indy’s improvisational nature shines in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s combat, with weapons breaking easily, pushing players to think on their feet.
  • A lack of hand-holding in gameplay encourages players to follow their sense of adventure in solving challenges creatively.
  • The game captures Indy’s essence through unpredictable combat, lack of saves, and reliance on player ingenuity in exploration.



When it comes to making an authentic Indiana Jones experience in the gaming space, developer MachineGames had a particularly tall task ahead of it with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. However, even an hour spent in the game is enough to plainly see the effort that has been poured into accomplishing such a task, as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is as true-to-film as a video game based on a movie arguably should be. While there are plenty of elements of the Indiana Jones IP MachineGames needed to nail, however, one of the most important is the character of Indiana Jones himself, which Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does with aplomb.

Indiana Jones has plenty of defining characteristics, from his smirk to his intelligence, but his improvisational and resourceful side is right up there with the rest. As players progress through Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s story, they will find Indy’s improvisational nature not just coming to life but being projected onto them as they are forced into situations where the iconic character’s resourcefulness is required by the player controlling him.


Indiana Jones and the Great Circle puzzles

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How Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s Puzzles Mirror Indy’s Persona

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s puzzles mirror Indy’s improvisational spirit, demanding quick thinking, adaptability, and problem-solving.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Makes Players Explore Indy’s Improvisational Side

Indiana Jones Has Always Been Known for Being Improvisational

Throughout the films, Indiana Jones has always been portrayed as a scrappy, resourceful, and improvisational character whose humanity is one of his most admirable and relatable characteristics. Being an archaeologist with a sense of adventure, Indiana Jones often finds himself in situations where that humanity is put on full display, as chaos erupts when he triggers a trap or a twig snaps beneath his feet, alerting nearby enemies. From there, he has no choice but to quickly flee the scene or conjure an off-the-cuff plan to ensure he makes it out alive, just as any normal person would in a similar situation.


Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Has Systems in Place to Encourage Players to Improvise

To create as authentic an Indiana Jones experience as possible, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does whatever it takes to force players to improvise, especially when it’s inconvenient. At the core of this improvisation is an unforgiving and seemingly random auto-save system and no ability to save the game manually, which means if players find themselves in danger, they can’t simply reload their save to get out of it. As such, once any sort of danger begins to escalate, players are encouraged to act quickly, often improvising their way out of trouble, just as Indy would in an Indiana Jones film.

A big part of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s improvisational qualities plays out in the game’s combat, which has been intentionally designed to reflect the combat that takes place in an Indiana Jones film. For one thing, weapons break fairly easily when used, often after defeating a single enemy. As such, if players find themselves in the middle of a heated battle with multiple foes, they’ll either be throwing fists, sprinting away, or scrambling to find the nearest frying pan in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Combat in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is chaotic on purpose, and it ultimately plays into the improvisational side of Indiana Jones.


Throughout the films, Indiana Jones has always been portrayed as a scrappy, resourceful, and improvisational character whose humanity is one of his most admirable and relatable characteristics.

What truly makes Indiana Jones and the Great Circle an improvisational game is its lack of hand-holding, unlike many games like it. Generally, rather than explicitly telling players where to go or what to do in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the game relies on their sense of adventure and longing for discovery to drive them forward. This ultimately means that players might eventually come across a route in the game that seems impassable, but they will do whatever it takes to progress, as they sense something valuable lies in wait on the other side. At that point, players can devise clever ways to proceed, whether it be by making a leap of faith or using Indiana Jones and the Great Circle‘s whip to cross a chasm.


In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, MachineGames has created an experience that feels quintessentially Indy, not just in its visuals, audio, or narrative, but also in its very soul. By emphasizing the improvisation, resourcefulness, and the occasional stumble into chaos of the titular archaeologist, the game captures the humanity and ingenuity that define Indiana Jones. From its unpredictable combat to its lack of hand-holding, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle trusts players with Indy’s adventurous spirit, rewarding their creativity and quick thinking.

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