Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - coming in 2024

[Dr.Jonesy]

I think the game will be between 18-25 hours long, in terms of just story-based missions. To me, that's perfect.

I feel that games today are way too long, as a whole. Just padding of boring, slog-like content and empty open worlds. 500+ hours of content isn't a selling point, for me. It never was. A giant map isn't, either.

Generally, I have a life. Responsibilities. I don't want 500+ hours of content for one game. There are lots of games I want to play - and I don't want just one soaking up all my time with mediocre gameplay so it can pad out its runtime.

 

[Damon]

Generally, I have a life. Responsibilities. I don't want 500+ hours of content for one game. There are lots of games I want to play - and I don't want just one soaking up all my time with mediocre gameplay so it can pad out its runtime.

I have heard "this game doesn't respect my time" or "this game broke me" a couple times now and it usually just comes from those who go for 100 % completion - something I never did (nor understood - who gives a crap about that number). I just go for the main quest and activities/quests I enjoy. This way, no game - not even the heavy hitters like AC: Odyssey - ever overstayed their welcome.

Gotta say though, with Indy, I might even go hunting chests and feathers and whatnot

 

[Dr.Jonesy]

I have heard "this game doesn't respect my time" or "this game broke me" a couple times now and it usually just comes from those who go for 100 % completion - something I never did (nor understood - who gives a crap about that number). I just go for the main quest and activities/quests I enjoy. This way, no game - not even the heavy hitters like AC: Odyssey - ever overstayed their welcome.

That's not always what people mean by a game not respecting their time.

Often, even just the main quests can be overly padded and drawn out. But also, the mechanics are often too clunky or go for realism over quality of gameplay.

For example, Red Dead Redemption II is awesome. BUT. Having to watch Arthur pick up every single item in a room just to see what it is - being forced to watch his entire slow animation every time I loot someone: that's not respecting my time.

Or games that overdo it on grinding mechanics that make it so you have to put in hours upon hours just to get your character competent or leveled up for the next main mission - that's another example.

Games became way too overstuffed with too much fluff without much value, as a whole. They stopped trimming the fat and offer it as a main course.

And yes, this is the main story/quests I'm referring to.

This is why I really dug Assassin's Creed: Mirage, recently. It was about 20 hours, not much fluff, just straightforward mechanics and story. Back to basics.

 

[StockdeFerry]

Something to keep in mind: Singelplayer games like these usually aren't the longest affair. Even if you soak everything up, you might see the credits already after only three or four days. Not sure if it is worth to buy an XBox - or even a gaming pc - for one just one most likely short-ish game. (Luckily, there are plenty adventure games like Uncharted, Tomb Raider or, if you are even slightly interested in history - Assassins Creed, that might justify the price. But yeah, if you aren't intersted in anything other than Indy... propably not worth it).

I think it's important that the game sells well in order to see more Indy content in the future.

 

[Raiders90]

When is this being released

 

[The Lone Raider]

You all raise great counterpoints which I definitely won't argue, although I still stand by my complaints.

In all fairness to each of you, though, I don't even play video games, so it's not like I am personally affected much by the retread vibes this game gives me. I'm just a bit upset that we can't get a more original idea in most Indy content. Give me a sub-Saharan African adventure, or a South Pacific adventure. Something we haven't seen before. Maybe even set it in the 40s or 50s. Indy's many adventures shouldn't be confined to the Middle East over the course of about five years in the late 1930s. It's just getting repetitive for me.

 

[Finn]

Give me a sub-Saharan African adventure, or a South Pacific adventure. Something we haven't seen before. Maybe even set it in the 40s or 50s.

The Infernal Machine from 1999 ticks most of these boxes. Takes place in 1947 and one of the locations is in the Philippines in the South China Sea. Other locales include such oft-visited places as the snowy Kazakhstan and the ruins of Teotihuacan in Mexico.

So... been there, done that?

 

[Kukulcan]

You all raise great counterpoints which I definitely won't argue, although I still stand by my complaints.

In all fairness to each of you, though, I don't even play video games, so it's not like I am personally affected much by the retread vibes this game gives me. I'm just a bit upset that we can't get a more original idea in most Indy content. Give me a sub-Saharan African adventure, or a South Pacific adventure. Something we haven't seen before. Maybe even set it in the 40s or 50s. Indy's many adventures shouldn't be confined to the Middle East ...

The game literally goes around the word. Easter islands are in the south pacific, Japan is also pretty far from middle east as is the Vatican (not only geographically).

 

[emtiem]

Mason was an odd one since I'm still not convinced she needed to be there at all. It seems they should have either given her more to do, or simply cut her role entirely.

Yeah she does feel a bit of a dead end, like she had a different role in earlier drafts of the script or something.

 

[The Lone Raider]

The Infernal Machine from 1999 ticks most of these boxes. Takes place in 1947 and one of the locations is in the Philippines in the South China Sea. Other locales include such oft-visited places as the snowy Kazakhstan and the ruins of Teotihuacan in Mexico.

So... been there, done that?

Fair enough I suppose. I was under the impression that most of the game took place in the Middle East since the MacGuffin was Babylonian, if I remember right. My mistake.

 

[StockdeFerry]

It would be great if Indy (in another game) could travel to Spain and could kick some fascist butts during Franco's dictatorship.

 

[Finn]

Fair enough I suppose. I was under the impression that most of the game took place in the Middle East since the MacGuffin was Babylonian, if I remember right.

Only about 10% of the game is spent in the ruins of Babylon. Most of the time is spent in the locations I mentioned, plus Sudanese desert, which is the closest the game comes to recycling a classic setting. (Not counting the bonus level that literally takes Indy back into the Chachapoyan temple.)

So, yeah, like I said, the complaint about The Great Circle going back to the roots does ring pretty hollow because in these decades after LC we've had two games and two freakin' feature films (did you miss those by chance?) that do more than simply recycle the true-and-tried formula.

 

[Dr.Jonesy]

I'd still posit that there's still plenty of new ground that the Indy series can tread and while this game does look good - it worries me that it's going a safe route.

Given that it's so early and we don't have the game - I'll hold out hope that this game will surprise me. It could.

Though, if it's a great game I'll be happy no matter what.
As I said - beggars can't be choosers.

 

[Randy_Flagg]

It's also entirely possible that the trailer is very deliberately focused on the elements of the game that will have the best chance of attracting casual fans. There could be much more original stuff in the game, but the average Indy fan / gamer wants to see stuff that evokes the films.

If anything, I think some Indy games have gotten a bit TOO original at times, to the point where they stopped feeling like Indy adventures (beating up weird spirit warriors in the Chinese netherworld, for example, or wandering around the Aetherium.)
It's tricky... on one hand, yes, we want originality, but on the other hand, we still want it to feel like it belongs in the same world as the films.

 

[Dr.Jonesy]

It's also entirely possible that the trailer is very deliberately focused on the elements of the game that will have the best chance of attracting casual fans. There could be much more original stuff in the game, but the average Indy fan / gamer wants to see stuff that evokes the films.

You bring up a very strong point, for sure. I didn't even think of that.

MachineGames has to 'win over' the crowd. They're tackling a new IP for the first time, and a character who has been absent of mainstream gaming for over 20 years (Staff of Kings was released under the radar, it was far from 'mainstream').

It makes sense to temp gamers who know the IP with comfort food footage.

It's tricky... on one hand, yes, we want originality, but on the other hand, we still want it to feel like it belongs in the same world as the films.

It's a tough balance.

But in my brain, I don't really feel the games are 'cannon', or at least I have a bit of separatism in my brain about them. So, I don't mind if they get a little crazier with it.

Gaming is a different medium than film and I'd hope that the developers utilize that to take the series into new ground rather than just trying to make a playable movie.

The whole 'games pretending to be film' has been something that's bugged me for a long while, in gaming.

 

[Lord_glavin]

I'm fairly certain if Indy wasn't this close to release (lets say another year of dev or so), it absolutely would have been canceled after seeing the layoffs and cancelations today. Had a couple friends from Blizzard affected. Not fun.

 

[Finn]

But in my brain, I don't really feel the games are 'cannon'

Well, games aren't war machines used to hurl projectiles over great distances, so your brain is right.

 

[Dr.Jonesy]

Just a heads up - it may be unlikely that this game releases physically.

Microsoft is rumored to be shutting down its physical release division and is going full digital soon.

 

[Lord_glavin]

Just a heads up - it may be unlikely that this game releases physically.

Microsoft is rumored to be shutting down its physical release division and is going full digital soon.

Yup, bunch of the layoffs today were in the physical games department

 

[MrEdcar007]

Just a heads up - it may be unlikely that this game releases physically.

Microsoft is rumored to be shutting down its physical release division and is going full digital soon.

Well, it still is published by Bethesda, not Microsoft.
I think the shut down affects Microsoft published games like Forza and Halo.