Something Feels Off About Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Things haven’t been going great for Team Xbox of late. From recent blockbuster hits like Black Myth: Wukong having yet to be released on the platform due to rumoured Sony exclusivity, to the CEO of Jyamma Games – makers of the upcoming Italian folklore-inspired Soulslike, Enotria – releasing a statement confirming an indefinite delay to their Xbox port due to mismanaged communication by Team Xbox, Phil Spencer and Co. are in dire need of a win. That win looks to be coming this December with the release of the long-awaited first-person action-adventure title from MachineGames, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Or at least that’s what those on Team Green hope will be the case. And for their sake, I pray that it is. However, with everything I’ve seen thus far from the game, I’m unsure if it indeed will be.

Indiana Jones has lost much of its lustre as an IP over the decades, as evidenced by the franchise’s most recent film, Dial of Destiny, bombing in the theatres last summer and reportedly losing Disney over a hundred million dollars. In fairness, though, the film did have an astronomically high budget at close to $300 million; nevertheless, a bomb is a bomb. For as much as I love Harrison Ford, it’s frankly been decades since his snarky, fedora-wearing, bull-whipping protagonist has been of cultural prominence, and I can’t imagine a video game – even a big-budget one by an established studio such as MachineGames – would do much to move that needle. But let’s put cynicism aside and believe that it can. In order to do so, MachineGames would have to make something that they’ve made a couple of times in the past–a great video game.

Unfortunately, when I watched that gameplay reveal trailer earlier this year, concerns immediately began to arise. From the surprisingly poor facial animations that looked like something out of the early days of the PlayStation 4, to stiff animation after stiff animation, to combat that came across as slow, sluggish, and unrefined; it all made for an impression that was very much unlike what I would expect from the makers of Wolfenstein. The tone of the trailer felt right, the environments looked decent, and Troy Baker put on his best impression of a young Harrison Ford that hit all the right nerves in my eardrums, yet I couldn’t get past just how janky the gameplay looked. Especially every time the camera would switch perspectives to third-person, which though gave us a nice view of Indy’s iconic silhouette, looked as if his limbs were moving separately from his head and the rest of his body every time he shimmied across some ledge.

I gave that first gameplay trailer the same leeway as I would any other first look into an upcoming release, hoping that later snippets closer to the game’s release would give a better impression. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case. From that initial gameplay trailer to the one at the recent Gamescom, nothing thus far has given me anything to be particularly confident about. Yes, as mentioned, tonally everything feels right; from the music to the landscapes to Baker’s quips as Indy, which admittedly I’m sure will go a long way in the game’s presentation. However, the facial animations and overall mocap work look incredibly drab and stilted, and something still feels off with the gameplay, particularly in regards to its pace and refinement.

This sentiment was shared amongst a few journalists and content creators who got to see a special preview of the game with MachineGames. Kinda Funny’s Mike, for instance, in his coverage said, “It’s a lot of fisticuffs…it’s a lot of throwing punches that felt and looked a little bit slow on the screen. I think, when you’re playing it, it will feel different when you’re throwing those meaty haymakers, but watching it it didn’t appeal to me when I think of what this team is capable of.” He would go on to say that though the speed was something unlike what MachineGames have done in the past, it did somewhat make sense in the context of the setting and Indy as a character.

Some others have commented on the amount of stealth in the game as well as the reliance on journaling and taking pictures of key items; all of which sound fitting for an Indy game, but the question remains on whether it actually feels good to play, which so far hasn’t impressed me in the slightest. Furthermore, the skimped exclusivity window for Xbox was also a surprising announcement by Geoff during Gamescom. Having been touted as one of Xbox’s “big gets” for years and now having it be exclusive to the platform for mere months until it heads off to PlayStation is curious. Though with how Spencer and his team have been treating Game Pass and exclusivity in general, I guess this shouldn’t come as a total surprise. We’ll have to wait and see how Indiana Jones and the Great Circle turns out come December; for now, I’m going to continue to keep my cynicisms intact, less so because of my trust in MachineGames and more so due to the dumpster fire that continues to be modern-day Xbox.