Indiana Jones & The Great Circle’s reveal left the Xbox community divided, as fans are split on whether or not first-person was the right direction.
During Xbox’s Developer Direct, the mega-corporation pulled back the lid on four of the publisher’s most hotly anticipated titles, including Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II and Avowed. To round out the show, MachineGames debuted footage of the upcoming Indiana Jones & The Great Circle after years of silence.
The debut was nearly everything fans of the explorer extraordinaire could’ve hoped for, with looks at Indy’s signature whip in action, puzzle solving, and a look at the villainous Emmerich Voss.
Yet one key decision has opened the floodgates of criticism and that’s the decision to go first-person with one of history’s greatest explorers.
Indiana Jones & The Great Circle’s reveal divides fans
MachineGames is at the head of The Great Circle, with the developer’s previous works providing some of the most memorable first-person experiences to date. Of note, the studio worked on the Wolfenstein games, while some of the developers have also worked on 2007’s The Darkness.
With The Great Circle, the studio is leaning in on what they know, creating a tight-knit first-person title. While some have praised this approach, others have been more critical, stating the studio should’ve gone with a third-person approach.
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Of course, this discourse presents a double-edged sword, as perfectly captured by this tweet from IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey.
Not only is MachineGames's entire history & expertise in making 1st-person games, but if they had made Indiana Jones entirely in 3rd-person, the discourse would be absolutely TOXIC today with Sony fanboys downvoting & comment-bombing the trailer, calling it an Uncharted clone.
— Ryan McCaffrey (@DMC_Ryan) January 19, 2024
Plenty of threads and fans have spent their time debating the direction MachineGames should’ve taken, with many of the complaints wanting to see Indy in the flesh.
Others have stated this is the correct path, as the studio needs to distinguish itself from Uncharted and Tomb Raider, two titles that have made names for themselves during Indiana Jones’ gaming hiatus. As mentioned, MachineGames is clearly leaning into what they know with this one.
Indiana Jones & The Great Circle launches later this year on Xbox Series X|S and PC.
