Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Preview - Gamescom 2024

Microsoft has been making a lot of huge moves over the past couple of years, with undoubtedly the biggest one being the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Through that agreement, the Xbox brand has not only taken hold of some of the biggest existing franchises in the world, but also a slew of talented developers and their future projects. Indiana Jones is certainly up there in terms of name recognition, although it has been a while since a game (or indeed a movie) has been able to live up to it. With Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, developers MachineGames who had previously successfully rebooted the Wolfenstein series are taking on something more in the realm of typical third-person adventures. We had a chance to see a glimpse of the title at Gamescom 2024.

Our hands-off theater demo was introduced by Axel Torvenius, creative director on the game, and design director Jens Andersson. They mentioned that they really want to make players feel like the famous fedora-wearing adventurer. And while the Summer-Games-totally-not-E3 showcase earlier this summer was meant to be a cinematic example, the Gamescom show focuses on the gameplay.

The pre-recorded demo began with Indiana, played by Troy Baker, walking into a crypt and carefully removing a statue, smashing it to find some key object inside, but also causing the room to begin filling with sand. He tried to stay on top of the sand, as the player guided him to an exit window. After a brief sliding moment, and an opportunity to use the whip on an anchor point as a swing, he was able to escape. Indy will be a first-person game, but it does switch to third person for cinematic cutscenes, and swinging and platforming elements. How well and how smoothly this will flow in the game remains to be seen - but it does at least let it avoid direct comparisons with the well established Uncharted franchise that itself has often referred to its Indy aspirations.

Following that escape, we were treated to a number of gameplay example moments across the campaign. Taking place in 1937, Indy will travel to different locations in search of a mystery artifact that a fellow, and apparently evil, archeologist Emmerich is also trying to track down for its mysterious power. A new character named Gina will also join on this adventure, with personal motivations of finding her sister.

Players will be able to explore levels and pick up objects to inspect them. We got a glimpse of managing Indy's suitcase, to arrange items within for storage and presumably future use. He also has a camera to take photos that trigger historical fact monologs or reveals clues. A disguise mechanic was also mentioned, though it's likely this will be a scripted sequence, as the game appears to be typically linear.

During environmental exploration, there will be quick interactions such as throwing a trident at a wall to create a new anchor point for the whip. Puzzles promise to involve much lever pulling and using certain items on other objects - though again the options here are likely to be limited and scripted.

In combat, the action will remain in first person, which means hand-to-hand brawls, which are admittedly a trademark for the character. Using proper timing for attacks, blocking, and countering are said to be important for success. There are meters at the bottom of the screen that likely relate to your health and stamina. There will also be a bit of shooting, though that was barely shown in the demo. Instead, more use of the whip lets Indy disorient foes and make them drop their weapons and force a fist fight.

The adventures will lead to earning upgrades in a small skill tree, that help improve your abilities. There are also said to be moments where Indy can walk around the level and have optional interactions, such as with shop vendors. With that, and a few more scenes, the presentation wrapped up.

If you feel that this preview was very scattershot, that's also how the presentation felt. Compared to the long cinematic story clip from earlier this summer, this gameplay reveal appeared very disjointed. We barely got a few moments of one type of gameplay element before the demo cut to another sequence or mechanic; it felt more like an overlong trailer than a proper demo or gameplay introduction. Hopefully, there will be better opportunities to see the game in action before it plans to launch this December 9 on PC and Xbox Series X|S.