Machine Games’ Indiana Jones game received an official name and got its first gameplay showing during today’s Xbox Developer Direct. We also learned that it’s launching later this year. EW.com also confirmed that though Harrison Ford’s likeness will appear in the game, he will be performed by Troy Baker (The Last of Us, Bioshock Infinite).
The adventure is called Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and stars Indy in his prime doing what he does best: solve puzzles, explore tombs, and pummel Nazis. Set in 1937 between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, Indy is chasing a stolen relic to solve an ancient, globe-trotting mystery.
Like Machine Games’ modern Wolfenstein games, The Great Circle is a first-person experience. Expect to engage in shootouts and fist fights in this more intimate perspective, but the game does switch to third-person during climbing sequences.
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Indy will be helped by new character Gina, an investigative journalist pursuing her own goals that land her in a mutually beneficial (and banter-heavy) partnership with Dr. Jones. The pair travels to locations such as Egypt, the Vatican, the peaks of the Himalayas, and the sunken temples of Sukhothai to visit various tombs filled with puzzles that Machine Games teases have multiple solutions, either using your wits or, occasionally, by brute force.
In addition to punching enemies’ lights out or shooting them in the face, Indy’s signature whip is incorporated into all aspects of play. It can be used for traversal, such as attaching it to grapple points to scale walls. You can whip objects to create distractions in order to sneak past foes. Or you can just whip goons like they owe Indy money, including yanking distant foes toward you.
Machine Games says The Great Circle emphasizes player choice. You can discover multiple routes through levels to sneak through quietly or go in whipping everything in sight. The gameplay trailer shows off thrilling sequences, such as seeing Indy jumping from plane to plane in a midair dogfight, manning a machine gun to mow down adversaries, and swinging from precarious ledges while whipping foes off tall perches.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle launches sometime this year for Xbox Series X/S and PC. It’s also coming to Xbox Game Pass.