The first five hours with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Listen, I have played my share of Indiana Jones games. I even wrote a lengthy chapter about it. For the longest time, the Fate of Atlantis has been my favourite game, because the riddles and the story were incredibly good and still are. Even for a game from 1992. The new game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle however is capable of stealing that crown. So far, I am very impressed.
The game in general
So, first things first: I think my part in archaeogaming is to analyse video games depicting archaeology. I have written about it, taught it and even organised a hackathon (with more to follow) about it. I already have my thoughts which I will share later in this post. But for now, I want to talk about the game itself and how fun it is. Because it is a lot of fun.
You start out replaying scenes from the first Indiana Jones movie and this kind-of-tutorial instantly catapults you back into the Raiders movie. The game definitely has the Indiana Jones vibe. This is also due to the voice acting of Troy Baker, who is impersonating Indy more or less perfectly. The digital twin of Indiana Jones behaves and sounds like the Indy in the movies and the writing was also done very well. The character is not only famous for his whip, but also for his wit. The story in the Great Circle captures that very well.
The game as a gamer
It is a first-person action game, and we need to explore different levels, discover secrets, solve riddles, and sometimes fight some Nazis. I do not want to spoil the story, but in my opinion, it is well written and has some interesting characters that we interact with. Also, I have heard somewhere that the story of the Great Circle is better than both his last movies. I totally agree.
The game mechanics are nothing special. We explore different levels and need to do some tasks here and there. Of course we have our whip with us, that helps us to fight, climb and jump over gaps. Some of the riddles are exciting, but mostly it is taking something and bringing it somewhere else. As these tasks are so well implemented in the greater story, it doesn’t feel as repetitive as it should.
The game as an archaeogamer
Well, this is preliminary as I have only played the game a couple hours. Of course, Indy is stealing artefacts, destroying heritage and justifying it for the greater good. It is actually what I do expect. But there are also some positive surprises so far. One of the game mechanics is to use a camera, that Indy has always with him. You can actually document archaeological finds and get points for that. Bravo! So simple and yet so powerful. Or, in the Gizeh level, Indy is very kind to the indigenous workers and greets them when passing by. A nice touch!
Also, in the beginning, there is a task where we need to sort scattered finds from a museum into the correct cabinets. This is actually educating as we have to correlate the finds with pictures and other finds still in the cabinet. I think this is also a very nice and subtle way of teaching about archaeology and the past. I am sure there will be more positive mechanics, but for that I need to progress in the game. For now, I can say that I am impressed and that I look forward for the holidays to spend some proper time with Indiana Jones.
I don’t get any royalties here, but if you are interested, have a look at Steam
