Indiana Jones and the Great Circle “Could Never be a Shooter,” Developer Says

As the studio behind the rebooted Wolfenstein series, MachineGames has become associated with a very particular brand of high-octane first-person shooter combat over the years, but in spite of being another first-person game, the studio’s upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is going to deliver a very different kind of gameplay experience- as you’d expect from an Indy adventure. Where combat is concerned, that will mean an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat- which, according to the action-adventure title’s developers, was the only proper way to do this game.

Speaking in an interview with PC Gamer, design director Jens Andersson said that as an Indiana Jones game, the Great Circle “could never be a shooter”, and that its focus on hand-to-hand fisticuffs makes much more sense for the character.

“Indiana Jones, he’s not a gunslinger, right?” Andersson said. “He doesn’t go guns blazing into situations. So it could never be a shooter, should never be a shooter. But hand-to-hand combat, that makes total sense.”

It’s worth noting, of course, that a significant portion of MachineGames’ development team also worked on Starbreeze Studios’ 2004 title Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which was another first-person game with a focus on melee combat. According to Andersson, however, Indiana Jones and the Great Circles’ fistfights are “much more semi-chaotic”, to better reflect the humour of the franchise.

“He’s not a fighter, that’s not his nature, even though he ends up in fights all the time,” he explained. “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?

“Compared to even Riddick, that has a different style of hand-to-hand combat. [The Great Circle] is much more semi-chaotic, lots of things around the environment that you can pick up⁠- pots and pans that you pick up and smash into people’s heads.”

What’s more, creative director Axel Torvenius revealed that players will also be able to smash banjos into enemies’ faces.

Interestingly enough, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will also feature open areas with immersive sim elements, and even social stealth mechanics. Read more on that through here.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches for Xbox Series X/S and PC on December 9, and for PS5 in Spring 2025.