Summary
Star Wars Outlawsis breaking new ground as a huge, open-worldStar Warsexperience, but as fun as that might be, I’m a lot more excited about the other upcoming Lucasfilm adventure inIndiana Jones and the Great Circle.Although its scope doesn’t look as intense asStar Wars Outlaws, Indiana Jones and the Great Circleis a big moment in its own right. It’s been a long time since the last majorIndiana Jonesvideo game, with fifteen years having passed since the release ofLEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues.
The recent lack ofIndiana Jonesgames definitely felt like a waste, as the episodic potential of the franchise has plenty of room for more adventures. I spent some time last year with 1999’sIndiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, and even a particularly challenging implementation of tank controls didn’t stop that from being a thoroughly fun experience. It’s not just the fact that it’sIndiana Jonesthat has me hyped about the new game, however, but a difference in game design that ultimately looks more attractive thanStar Wars Outlawsdoes.
New Indiana Jones & The Great Circle Trailer Confirms At Least One Major Storyline
A new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has been shown as part of the Xbox Games Showcase, revealing more gameplay and a new location.
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Looks More Focused
I’m Hopeful For Consistent Fun & Creativity
Indiana Jonesmovies are traditionally propulsive adventures, andIndiana Jones and the Great Circleseem like they are locked into this concept. Although the amount of gameplay shown so far has been fairly limited, nothing has highlighted the kind of wide-open spaces and possibilities forexploration thatStar Wars Outlawsis emphasizing. Instead,it’s all about the action, whether that action is dodging traps, swinging from Indy’s whip, or the good old-fashioned act of punching Nazis in the face.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circleis being developed by MachineGames, who have plenty of experience with Nazi-killing action thanks to theirWolfensteingames.
There’s obviously merit to either of these approaches, but the path thatIndiana Jones and the Great Circletakes feels both refreshing and entirely appropriate.I loveIndiana Jonesmovies because they’re incredible set-piece extravaganzas, stringing together inventive action sequences that never settle on one idea for too long.Raiders of the Lost ArkandTemple of Doomsee Spielberg fling aside most of his typical pathos to focus almost entirely on consistent fun, and even the more emotionally chargedLast Crusadedoesn’t let up on the gas.
This guiding ethos translates incredibly well to video games, and it’s an obvious inspiration for titles likeTomb Raiderand especiallyUnchartedthat attempt to keep the ball rolling all the way. WithIndiana Jones, the game medium actually feels more capable of carrying the torch than films do. While the spirit ofRaiders of the Lost Arkhas been kept alive in other films by directors like Gore Verbinski, I didn’t loveIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which felt too burdened by Harrison Ford’s age and director James Mangold’s more reflective approach to ever truly soar.
I Expect Star Wars Outlaws To Be A Mixed Bag
Open-World Ubisoft Games Definitely Have Their Appeal
It makes sense thatStar Wars Outlawsis headed in a more expansive direction, especially considering that no single-playerStar Warsgame has ever been truly open-world before. The galaxy far, far away is full of interesting places to explore, and Ubisoft is certainly capable of rendering them with immersive detail. Although Ubisoft’sAvatar: Frontiers of Pandorahad its fair share of problems, I fell in love with simply wandering around its environments and taking in thesights and sounds of Pandora, somethingStar Wars Outlawscould at least partially replicate.
Star Wars Outlaws Is Taking Unlikely Inspiration From George Lucas' First Star Wars Movie
Massive Entertainment’s attention to detail ensures that Star Wars Outlaws feels like part of the original trilogy.
If previous Ubisoft open-world games are anything to go by, however,the scale ofStar Wars Outlawsis certain to bring an over-reliance on formula and repetition with it. While the game may very well have its memorable moments, they’ll likely be sandwiched between missions that follow copy-pasted structures and open-world points of interest that offer little more than checking off a box on a map. TheStar Warsfilms are more willing to take it slow thanIndiana Jonestraditionally was, but none of Lucas’s ever stooped to settling into a rhythm, something that I, unfortunately, expect here.
Indiana Jones Makes A Better Model For Licensed Games
Focused Adventures Are More Viable For Most IPs
Star Warsisn’t in desperate need of more linear adventures, withStar Wars Jedi: Fallen OrderandSurvivorrecently offering something to fill that niche. When it comes to the wider market, however,I’m a lot more interested in seeing tie-in games follow the lead set byIndiana Jones and the Great Circle. Great blockbuster films don’t tend to have filler, and most franchises couldn’t sustain the kind of budget and resources necessary for a massive open world anyway. I miss the pre-HDheyday of decently fun tie-ins, and that was only ever made possible through projects of limited scope.
Does Harrison Ford Voice Indiana Jones In The Great Circle?
The upcoming video game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, captures the likeness of Harrison Ford’s adventure-loving Indiana in animation and voice.
There’s still no guarantee thatIndiana Jones and the Great Circlewill be as consistently exciting as I want it to be, and I wouldn’t say the cutscene shown in the game’s most recent trailer is fully operating at a Spielberg level of ingenuity. There’s one detail that really grabs me, however — a bit where Indy draws a diagram of the titular great circle in lipstick. It’s minor, butIndy having to grab lipstick in lieu of a pen is the kind of thing that the films love to do, giving extra life to conversational scenes through small creative sparks.
Although exciting set pieces and lipstick diagrams might be very different things to celebrate, they both represent what I want out of licensed games. Fifty hours of decent fun can quickly start to lose its luster, but ten hours of something that really understands what makes its source material great is worth replaying. For all I know,Star Wars Outlawscould end up being a better experience thanIndiana Jones and the Great Circle. Based on what we’ve seen so far, though, I’m more than happy to place my bets on the latter.
