Indiana Jones and the Great Circle “could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter,” according to the development team behind the upcoming action-adventure game by MachineGames and Bethesda.
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In an exclusive interview with PC Gamer, MachineGames design director Jens Andersson and creative director Axel Torvenius shared insights into how Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's gameplay has been shaped. Drawing from their experience working on games like the Wolfenstein series and Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, the developers explained that the game will focus on hand-to-hand combat, improvised brawls, and stealth.
"Indiana Jones, he's not a gunslinger, right? He doesn't go guns blazing into situations," Andersson explained. "So it could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter. But hand-to-hand combat, that makes total sense." The team’s experience with the melee combat in Chronicles of Riddick was referenced as a starting point, but they adjusted the approach to better fit protagonist Indy’s style.
"He's not a fighter, that's not his nature, even though he ends up in fights all the time," Andersson added. Players can expect combat where everyday objects—like pots, pans, and even banjos—can be used as weapons. "He's an unlikely hero, lucky—how can we replicate that into gameplay, make the player feel that humor, how do we get that across?"
In addition to hand-to-hand and brawling, the game will let players navigate its world through plenty of ways. Drawing inspiration from Wolfenstein’s blend of linear and open environments, the game will shift between structured paths and more expansive areas meant for exploration. Some of these larger spaces will approach immersive sim territory and give players much agency to solve challenges in multiple ways. "There are also more open areas, almost bordering immersive sim-style, like there's an enemy camp, here you're supposed to get into the main building, figure it out, and you can explore," Andersson described.
Stealth will also be a key element in the game, using both traditional infiltration tactics and a "social stealth" mechanic. This new feature allows players to find and equip disguises in certain locations to blend in and access restricted areas. "Every big location has a number of disguises for you to discover," said Andersson. "That helps you pass as someone that belongs there, gives you access to areas you otherwise would have a really hard time getting through."
In a previous interview with Inverse, game director Jerk Gustafsson shared that the team deliberately chose to make gunplay a secondary aspect of the game. "The starting point for us was to try to ignore the shooting part," Gustafsson said. "We know that we can do it well, so it's never something that would ever concern us. We know that we can get that right. So very early on, we did this pie chart with different types of experiences. Everything from stuff like hand-to-hand, navigation, and traversal. We started our focus on those things that we knew were going to be challenging, especially in first-person."
The game will also feature plenty of puzzles, some of which will be tough enough to scratch the brains of even the most seasoned puzzle completionists. "Those [players] that are looking for puzzles that can be hard to solve, they will find them," Gustafsson said, additionally noting that some very difficult puzzles will be optional to keep a certain sense of accessibility.
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle devs say an Indy game 'could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter,' so they're embracing his signature whip, improvised brawls, and disguise-based stealth instead
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