Indiana Jones & The Great Circle Could Be Making The Same Mistake As Some Of PlayStation's Best Exclusives

Indiana Jones & The Great Circle Could Be Making The Same Mistake As Some Of PlayStation’s Best Exclusives


With everything that has been shown since its announcement, it looks like Indiana Jones and The Great Circle could be one of the best video games based on a film franchise. It should be noted that games based on film franchises don’t have the best reputation, largely due to the notoriety of movie tie-in titles and how lazily made the majority of them end up being. Indiana Jones clearly hasn’t been given this treatment, with The Great Circle looking promising with some great visuals, a talented voice cast, and plenty of elements that are faithful to the Indiana Jones franchise.




At first glance, people could mistake The Great Circle for a PlayStation exclusive for its heavily cinematic presentation and a strong focus on the game’s story, yet this is a game made by a ZeniMax studio: MachineGames. ZeniMax was bought by Microsoft when acquiring Bethesda, making this Indiana Jones title an Xbox game. This possibly shows that Xbox is trying to compete in the cinematic game market and is trying to bring a big IP, like Indiana Jones, to give itself an audience to gain traction, but it should learn from PlayStation’s mistakes since its domination of the genre began.


Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Needs To Remember It’s A Game

Being A Movie Video Game Means It Has To Justify Its Medium


With the somewhat premature launch trailer, it is clear that MachineGames and Xbox want to show off the game’s story and cinematic quality, making it feel as though little gameplay has been shown off comparatively. Some footage of puzzle gameplay in grand tombs and using Dr. Jones’ iconic whip to knock over Nazis has been shown, and it all does feel like something out of the Indiana Jones films, but the focus has been the cutscenes. Although very high quality, an extreme focus on the cinematics could make the game feel more like a movie.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle
uses the id Tech 7 engine, and seems to be a great engine for first-person games, given its prior use in
DOOM Eternal
.


Ultimately, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is a video game, and if it feels like the game is trying to be a movie with interactive sections, rather than an interactive experience with great cutscenes, it might as well be another film in the franchise. Although the game will have to be very cinematic, since it will have to try and bring in elements from one of the biggest film franchises on the planet, it shouldn’t overdo it. If players spend more time with the controller on their lap than in their hands, it isn’t much of a game.

MachineGames Could Make The Same Mistakes As TLOU & Death Stranding

The Great Circle Can’t Be A Walking Sim

Although they are critically acclaimed and have some of the more realistic cutscenes in gaming, The Last of Us and Xbox newcomer Death Stranding can be guilty of being too focused on their cinematic elements and neglecting their gameplay too much. The Last of Us sometimes feels like a show would have been the better medium for its story, and the quality of the show itself could be evidence for this, even though the gameplay sequences can be tight and well-made, if a little generic. These sequences sometimes feel like they’re in the way of the cutscenes, rather than complimenting them.


HBO’s adaptation of
TLOU
is set to premier its second season in early 2025.

Many Hideo Kojima fans adore Death Stranding, and it was Screen Rant‘s 2019 Game of the Year, but the title can feel like it would rather be a movie than a game, and it doesn’t have the gameplay of TLOU to help alleviate this. It has been joked that the game is a walking simulator with weird cutscenes and dialogue, and while Indiana Jones and The Great Circle won’t be as wacky as anything from Kojima’s brilliant mind, it cannot prioritize cutscenes over gameplay too much. The gameplay still needs to be fun and shouldn’t feel like an obstacle getting in the way of the custscenes.


The Great Circle Could Learn From Uncharted & God Of War

Both Titles Know How To Make Gameplay Feel Cinematic

Uncharted is a great example of how a tomb exploring game can use movie-like set pieces as a part of its gameplay. Players are still in control of Nathan Drake as they run through traps, scale crumbling structures, and get shot at in abandoned naval vessels. God of War‘s Norse titles combine their amazing gameplay with quick, punchy, cinematic intervals that keep players on their toes with QTEs. The Great Circle could use both these methods to keep its gameplay feeling cinematic, especially learning from Uncharted, since the games should be similar.

Indiana Jones from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle next to Kratos from God of War and Aloy from Horizon Forbidden West.

Related

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Breaks One Annoying Trend In The Perfect Way

Among the many amazing things Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is setting out to do, it’s also fixing one of gaming’s most frustrating trends.


None of this is to say that the cutscenes shown off thus far are bad. In fact, they are well voice acted, look great, and the story they are telling appears to be an intriguing, quintessential Indiana Jones story. The problem could arise with the way the story is told, since if it is too cinematic without enough interaction, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle might as well have been a movie or a series, rather than a video game. Players want to play the game, and if they would rather watch it, playthroughs on YouTube will always be a cheaper option.

Source: Xbox/YouTube

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