‘Indiana Jones And The Great Circle’ Dev Confirms Microsoft Exclusive Being Developed For A “Modern Gaming Audience”
In essentially torpedoing any hope that the game might have focused on delivering an adventure fit for the fedora-wearing hero, the senior narrative designer behind the upcoming Indiana Jones and The Great Circle has confirmed that the hero’s long-awaited return to the realm of video games is being explicitly developed for a “modern gaming audience”.
Helmed by Wolfenstein revival series devs MachineGames and featuring a story penned by Bethesda Studios director Todd Howard himself, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will see players put in first-person control of Indy, as voiced by Troy Baker, as he attempts to explore, whip, and brawl his away in a globe-spanning quest to stop the villainous Emmerich Voss, as voiced by Mario Gavrillis, from making use of the eponymous great circle, a worldwide network of magic-heavy locations whose activation will imbue its master with great power.
Notably – like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed before it – the game will also serve as a canonical entry into its franchise, its events taking place in 1937 between Indy’s adventure in Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade.
First announced in January 2021, players were not given their first look at Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for three years, its world premiere eventually taking place during Bethesda Studios parent company Microsoft’s January 18th, 2024 Developer_Direct presentation.
However, while the trailer did its job by sparking excitement in players across the internet, this reception was quickly dulled by a separate ‘game overview’ video released by MachineGames after the presentation.
Therein, following a hope-inspiring declaration from the game’s cinematic producer Mitra Ashkan Far that they rightly observed Indy as being “an archaeologist, a charismatic everyman, passionate and determined, and synonymous with adventure,” fans hopes that The Great Circle would avoid the industry’s current obsession with heavy-handed, player-scolding narratives were dashed by senior narrative designer Edward Curtis-Sivess’ subsequent expression of excitement towards the fact that “Now we have a chance to tell a new Indiana Jones story for a modern gaming audience”.
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And though the fact would normally warrant little more than an eye of caution towards the game’s development, in light of Cutis-Sivess’ admission, hopes that the game would avoid contemporary storytelling pitfalls were even further buried when MachineGames introduced the game’s second “main protagonist”, Gina, as portrayed by Alessandra Mastronardi.
“Where Indy is pursuing answers just for the sake of curiosity, Gina has a personal stake in getting to the bottom of the core mystery,” detailed Pete Ward, the game’s audio director, of this new character. “Gina is an investigative reporter who has a lot riding on this adventure. She’s been tracking a lead for a long time and now she has found an ally in this determined American professor. Their paths are intertwined, and they’ll need each other in order to get to the bottom of this mystery.”
As always, there of course remains the distinct possibility that the aspect of ‘modern audiences’ Curtis-Sivess was referring to relates to the elevated gameplay expectations of current-gen players.
But let’s be real. History has shown us that this will more than likely not be the case.
Instead, the odds instead lean heavily towards MachineGames bringing ‘modernity’ to the world of Indiana Jones via a script that emasculates the hero, takes the spotlight away from him in favor of his new progressive companion, and insults anyone who ever dared to like the franchise before the devs and their cliques gave it their stamp of approval.
Ultimately, players will be able to find out just what fate lies in store for Indy when Indiana Jones and the Great Circle releases exclusively on Windows PC and Xbox Series X/S platforms sometime later this year.
NEXT: ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ Review: A Cantankerous Sequel That Drowns in Hindsight
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