Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - XB, PC (2024)

Mr Crispy

Set between "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Last Crusade", Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is a first-person, single-player adventure that will take you all over the world, uncovering clues and solving an ancient mystery. Become the adventurer in a race against sinister forces. Your journeys will take you from the hallowed halls of the Vatican and the arid deserts of Egypt to the lush and sunken temples of Sukhothai and the frigid peaks of the Himalayas.

Source

Gameplay trailer;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e17p2IVDUU

Full Machine Games section from the Dev Direct;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yp7_ImMV1Iw

CastorTroy

Looks like it could be good. Seems they're going the Metroid Prime route of changing to third person for some movement.

johnny_ultimate

Looks solid enough, but boy Troy Baker’s voice performance gives off real ‘Harrison Ford’s non-union equivalent’ vibes. Strange dissonance between the visual likeness and the uncanny valley voice.

SuperBowserWorld

Looks decent. Indy has a weird smirk, that's a bit annoying. One part reminded me of a crypt in Skyrim. But, if this is really good, then MS could have a very popular exclusive on their hands.

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121637073#Comment_121637073

The weird, disinterested tone makes me wonder if Baker thinks he's impersonating Ford as Han Solo rather than Indiana Jones!

pixelburp

Troy Baker, truly the Chris Pratt of video-game voice work; honestly I've noting against the guy but those line readings are awful. I wouldn't expect a Harrison Ford impression but it needs more drawl & a lot more energy.

As to the "gameplay"? It had me until we saw indy jump from the wing of one plane to another, yeesh. There's a very delicate balance when it comes to good "stupid" and bad "stupid" with the Indy property - and that's a bit too into the bad for my liking. Not sure what to make of the rest really; do we have any sense of what you'll be doing moment to moment in first person? Seems like it might be kinda stealth, but also kinda of FPS too?

johnny_ultimate

It’s a weird move to me to have a visual likeness when you don’t have the voice performance. It’s a tricky one for developers though. Look at Guardians of the Galaxy or The Avengers for two games that have ‘knock-off, b-team’ vibes for the main crew as they’re clearly trying to emulate the cinematic counterparts of those heroes without being able to actually do so. I think GotG (I haven’t played Avengers) ultimately just about gets away with it, but never really escapes the fact it’s drawing such heavy ‘inspiration’ from Chris Pratt’s version of Star Lord (Rocket and Groot are easier to get away with as they’re CG characters on screen).

Indiana Jones is obviously a role so closely associated with one actor, so not sure there’s any ‘perfect’ solution - would’ve been a lot easier if it was all first person without an actual character model, but not sure that’s feasible. But yeah, not feeling Baker’s impersonation here as it just comes across as being fundamentally ‘off’. But will see how the full game fares.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121639029#Comment_121639029

It is kinda weird that the Fate of Atlantis sound-a-like from 20 million years ago sounds more energised, and like Ford - but without sounding like an impersonation either. Baker just smells awfully like a "famous name" (insofar as game VO artists are such) hired for the sake of it ... but then it doesn't sound like Baker's trying very hard either. Or maybe he's making a very poor attempt at that lazy Fordian drawl.

It's a damned-if-you-do scenario for sure, but arguably the trick was not to go for a photorealistic look to avoid the uncanny valley - but that's positively forbidden in AAA gaming now with specific brands - and hire someone who had a degree of Ford's accent but also that almost cowboy articulation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_c1Ax3W4bk

Mr Crispy

Regarding the looks, I thought GotG did a decent job differentiating their take on the characters from the MCU equivalents, but agree that Avengers really botched it (amongst other sins). The big issue with Indy is that he has never existed anywhere else outside Ford's movies (discounting the point and click, or Lego games). Ford IS Jones, and has been for over 40 years. Marvel's roster on the other hand have only been on screen for a decade or so, but have also appeared in decades worth of comics and cartoons where their appearances changed regularly.

CastorTroy

Should've hired Sean Patrick Flannery, since he's technically had more screen time as Indy than anyone else.

Mr Crispy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121639384#Comment_121639384

Ha, completely forgot about that show! Disregard my points above. 😅