Four things that made me fall in love with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

When the first reveal trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arrived, I wasn't as enamored as the rest. I was worried that after nearly 15 years of silence, a new Indy game couldn't live up to the hype. After all, just a year ago we got the perfect send-off to the old grave robber in the fantastic Dial of Destiny. Surely it was time to let him be, right?

That uncertainty lingered well into late summer when I got an invite from Xbox and Bethesda to join their preview event for The Great Circle at Gamescom. There, I saw gameplay footage from a few choice levels of MachineGames's mammoth adventure epic and exchanged a few words with game designers Jerk Gustafsson and Axel Torvenius, who were at hand to present the extended glimpse of the game.

After the presentation wrapped, I found myself enamored by what I saw. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle doesn't just look like a great game in the making, it feels like it will be a masterful Indiana Jones adventure, period.

Here are the four things that made me fall in love with The Great Circle.

The game mechanics follow the logic of the films.

The Indiana Jones Trilogy, as directed by Steven Spielberg, follows a very casual series of rules set forth by old-school adventure serials. In The Great Circle, MachineGames seeks to emulate that feeling of free-wheeling matinee films with great affection.

"If Indy gets knocked down and his health points drop to zero, he can still get back up, just as long as crawls back to his hat", Gustafsson reveals during the presentation.

It's here I feel something stir within me. My initial hesitation towards the game came from the first-person perspective the game uses for most of the action. Watching the initial trailer, I kept thinking: "How can I feel like Indiana Jones if I can't connect with the iconography that makes him Indy?"

In one sweep, MachineGames provides the solution. By making Indy's hat a part of the action like this, they place the player directly in the boots of the legendary adventurer in the process. Suddenly, I no longer thought of the gameplay as a distant process kept at arm's length. Instead, I felt like it was an extension of my fantasy of who Indiana Jones is.

Gustafsson's presentation continued with an extended scene involving Indy's attempt at infiltrating a school by disguising himself as a lecturer. Fans of the films will recognize the sly humor in these attempts, as Indy's previous disguises range from the comical (Scottish lord) to the accidentally successful (nazi getting his book signed by Hitler).

In the game, Indy's disguise only works from a distance. Get too close to someone who knows what they're doing, and Indy's cover is blown. It's in these light-hearted moments I felt most connected to The Great Circle. They feel like moments that have always been part of the series.

Guns aren't the solution

Indiana Jones isn't a stranger to gunplay, but his greatest strength was never in armaments or, well, physicality. Look back at the films, and he's always the underdog who gets his ass handed to him at every turn. We love him because he gets back up every single time.

This is why I was ecstatic to hear that MachineGames, the people behind such classics as Wolfenstein: New Order, didn't want to emphasize their expertise with shooters for the new Indy.

"For The Great Circle", Gustafsson clarifies, "we wanted to go back to our roots with games like Escape from Butcher's Bay".

In the demo, we watch as Indy's focus in nearly every area is to keep the situation from escalating. When it does, it happens naturally in waves. Indy will attempt stealth until he's caught, at which point he brings out his fists. If those fail, he may try to run or, as a final resort, he'll pull out his trusty revolver. It's an elegant solution that harkens back to the movies, where Indy fired first only in dire need. Or when Harrison Ford had the runs.

"Spielberg once described Indy as the anti-superhero", Torvenius says. "It was important to us to preserve that grounded approach to the character".

On-screen, Indy faces a thug twice his size. The hulking colossus swings his fist, and Indy fumbles the block. His meaty paw covers the screen and we hear the iconic PAF! that sound designer Ben Burtt introduced to the world. The screen shakes, and I imagine Indy's knees buckling. From the speakers, I hear Troy Baker's superlative Ford imitation make that distinct yelp, which exists somewhere between a defiant laugh and a shocked gasp.

The illusion is perfect.

The focus is on exploration.

It wouldn't be an Indiana Jones adventure without exploration, and The Great Circle doesn't shy away from the challenge. In the demo shown to the press, Indy faces a multitude of tough situations and close calls, each one in the style of the films they seek to emulate.

"It is important to us that the player feels like they're in charge of their adventure", Gustafsson beams. "We want them to face obstacles and feel like they can choose how to overcome them".

The important parts are all there. Indy faces insects, scorpions, and spiders in narrow passageways deep underground. Ancient treasure awaits on suspicious pedestals. When Indy grabs something he shouldn't, the entire room shakes, and it's up to the player to figure out how to escape. There's a constant sense of forward momentum, like a locomotive that, once in motion, won't stop until we've reached the end. Just like an old-school adventure romp should be.

But it's the moments in between that speak to me the most. In the demo, we see Indy navigating large open areas around the globe. Each one with its hidden secrets and collectibles for an obsessive like yours truly.

One of my favorite moments in any Indiana Jones film is in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where Indy figures out how to use the staff to locate the ark itself. There's a moment where Harrison Ford's face lights up with wonder and childlike joy, as he comes to terms with the implications of his discovery. It's a feeling that MachineGames has replicated beautifully in their game, one that we get to experience multiple times as we take on the fedora ourselves.

The details are for the fans.

"During the development, we had weekly meetings with Lucasfilm", Torvenius reveals. "We had access to not just their vast library of audiovisual resources, but their experts, who know everything there is to know about Indiana Jones".

That dedication to detail comes through in the demo, where the Easter eggs don't feel like superfluous nods, but intricate elements of the world that give it shape and form. Indy's diary, for example, features an inscription from Marion on the front page. But beyond that, it's a vital companion on the adventure.

As a game mechanic, it serves as a map and helps remind the player where to go next. But its function extends into remembrance. A part of the journey that allows us to relive the experience as we near the end.

"We want the diary to be a part of the adventure", Gustafsson agrees.

In the demo, Indy picks up treasure and memories from his adventures and marks them down in the journal. As he does, the maps and the wry comments he makes expand as well. As a gameplay mechanic, it's a smart expansion of traditional UI, one that makes the player live the experience on a more personal level.

The great adventure continues in December

I'm thrilled to admit that my initial reservations about The Great Circle were unfounded. I went in expecting the worst and came out counting the days until I could adventure with Indy once again.

The Great Circle reminds me of how we used to play these games. Tacking on notes onto forums and own diaries, so we could share them with our friends the next time we met. It captures the sense of play that Spielberg's masterful series so beautifully encapsulated for an entire generation.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arrives on the Xbox Series S- and X -consoles and PC on December 6th. Look for a review on this site around that time.