Longer-serving players will remember the hype that preceded every new title carrying the Indiana Jones name. MachineGames, with Lucasfilm Games, has now brought Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and the developers are demonstrating their dedication through a big new update. Introduced this April, the game’s fourth big patch features an abundance of changes and additions, which tackle concerns of players and work to polish the overall adventuring experience.
A nice touch in this update is the inclusion of “Adventure Books.” These items in-game grant our fearless archaeologist new fighting skills, namely an extension of the use of his legendary whip. The “Open Season” book enables Indy to inflict greater damage on foes following a successful whip attack, while “Sleight of Hand” enables him to disarm foes and subsequently pull the foe’s weapon toward his own side – introducing strategy into combat.
Other than combat buffs, the patch is heavy on quality-of-life features. Due to fan demands, players are now able to disable the center dot of the HUD to please motion sickness-prone players. In addition to this, highly requested “Always Allow Skipping Cutscenes” has been added, giving players more control over game pacing. Stealth fans, rejoice. The “Stealth Vignette” around the HUD can now be disabled. Navigation is also enhanced with the capacity to cycle between level and local maps in the journal.
The development team has also been doing a lot of bug-squashing and general polishing. Fixes that have been done include fixes for medicine bottles, character animations, and some mission-specific issues. Audio effects have been tweaked, with fixes to enemy voice lines and added sound effects on whip-punches and kicks against blocking opponents. Subtitle visibility issues in some questlines have also been fixed to enhance the narrative experience.
This sweeping update is a credit to the developers’ commitment to backing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and confronting player concerns directly. For those already well into Indy’s latest quest, or those holding off on diving into the globe-trotting enigma until it is more polished, this April update provides powerful incentive to get out that fedora and snap that whip one more time.
