Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Summary of "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review" – Kinda Funny Gamescast

Release Date: December 6, 2024

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Introduction

In the December 6, 2024 episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast, hosts Tim Gies, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, and Paris Lily delve into their comprehensive review of the highly anticipated game, "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" developed by Machine Games and published by Bethesda. The discussion navigates through their personal experiences with the franchise, detailed assessments of the game’s story and gameplay mechanics, and concludes with their overall impressions and ratings.

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Hosts' Background and Connection to Indiana Jones

Before diving into the review, the hosts share their personal histories with the Indiana Jones franchise and Machine Games:

• Paris Lily emphasized her deep-rooted passion for Indiana Jones, stating, “I’m a huge Indiana Jones fan. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite movies ever” (06:14).

• Greg Miller contrasted this by expressing a more casual appreciation: “I enjoy Indiana Jones, but I would never say I’m a huge fan or a big fan” (07:00).

Their diverse perspectives set the stage for a balanced review, blending fan enthusiasm with critical analysis.

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Overall Ratings

• Greg Miller rates the game a 6.5/10, noting it as “very close to being good” but hampered by several detriments (09:55).

• Paris Lily assigns a 7/10, attributing her slightly higher score to nostalgia and her fondness for the franchise (12:01).

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Story and Narrative

Both hosts commend the game’s narrative fidelity to the Indiana Jones legacy:

• Greg Miller praises the voice acting, particularly Troy Baker’s portrayal of Indiana Jones: “Troy Baker is Indiana Jones. He owns the role” (14:22).

• Paris Lily echoes this sentiment, highlighting the authentic depiction of characters and the storytelling: “They nailed what makes Indiana Jones Indiana Jones. The music, the characters, the voice, the comedy, everything works” (14:53).

However, they critique the integration of side missions and open-world elements, which they feel disrupt the main storyline and dilute the overall experience. Greg mentions, “The side missions are done, then I went off... It takes me so far removed that getting back onto it is difficult” (19:11). Paris adds, “The side missions take away from the main story, which I think is pretty good” (19:16).

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Gameplay Mechanics

The core gameplay receives mixed feedback:

• Combat:

  • Greg Miller criticizes the AI and combat mechanics, stating, “The AI is bad. The combat is also, I would say, bad” (24:36). He illustrates this with a clip description where enemies exhibit minimal intelligence, making combat repetitive and uninspiring.

  • Paris Lily concurs, noting the lack of meaningful repercussions in combat: “There was no reaction to anything that I was doing, regardless” (26:23).

• Exploration and Open Zones:

  • Greg finds the open zones unengaging and monotonous, arguing they hinder the exploration experience: “The exploration just isn’t fun in this game” (20:31).

  • Paris reinforces this by suggesting the game would have benefited from a more linear design: “This would have played out a lot better as a linear adventure” (35:11).

• Puzzles:

  • Both hosts agree that the puzzles are a standout feature, providing enjoyable and rewarding challenges. Greg states, “The puzzles are really good” (48:06), while Paris acknowledges their fun factor despite occasional frustrations: “The puzzles are the highlight of the game” (50:31).

• System Mechanics:

  • The inclusion of upgrades and currencies felt unnecessary to both hosts, with Greg highlighting the redundancy: “They missed the mark on these and that holds back the entire experience” (11:22).

  • Paris points out the lack of meaningful rewards for exploration, making the system feel superfluous: “The exploration was too simplified when it came to the combat stuff” (51:46).

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Technical Issues and Bugs

Both Greg and Paris encountered bugs that detracted from their gaming experience:

• Greg Miller describes a persistent companion bug causing repeated interruptions: “My companion... will scream ‘Oh God’ over and over again” (22:53).

• Paris Lily experienced similar issues, such as being unable to access certain game areas: “I had a bug where I couldn’t go into the fountain” (26:23).

These technical flaws contribute to their overall dissatisfaction with the game’s execution.

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Comparative Analysis

The hosts draw comparisons to other franchises to contextualize their critique:

• Uncharted: Both admire Uncharted for its seamless integration of story and gameplay, contrasting it with Indiana Jones where linearity breaks immersion: “When you turn a corner, it feels like a dead end” (35:49).

• Starfield: Greg appreciates Starfield for engaging open-world exploration, highlighting the missed opportunities in Indiana Jones: “Starfield is one of those... so many things that pulled my attention” (42:34).

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Final Thoughts and Conclusion

In wrapping up, both hosts acknowledge the game's strengths in narrative and character portrayal but lament the shortcomings in gameplay mechanics and technical stability:

• Greg Miller expresses a bittersweet conclusion: “I really do enjoy Indiana Jones, but it takes away from this end product that I think could have been something really special” (54:25).

• Paris Lily emphasizes the game’s potential tainted by its execution: “It is Indiana Jones. Again, I cannot praise Troy Baker enough... but it is the video gamey stuff that I have a complaint about” (54:25).

Overall Verdict:

While "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" delivers a compelling narrative and stellar voice acting, its flawed gameplay mechanics and technical issues prevent it from reaching its full potential. The game is recommended primarily for die-hard Indiana Jones fans, though it may leave broader audiences wanting more polished and engaging experiences.

Notable Quotes:

• Greg Miller ([09:55]): "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a 6.5. It is an okay video game. I think it's very close to being good. I also think it's very close to being mediocre."

• Paris Lily ([12:01]): "I'm probably going to be a little higher and I'm going to say a seven, but it's the nostalgia of I'm an Indiana Jones fan."

• Greg Miller ([14:22]): "The voice acting in this is fantastic. Troy Baker is Indiana Jones. He owns the role."

• Paris Lily ([50:31]): "The puzzles are the highlight of the game."

• Greg Miller ([54:25]): "I have more of a complaint about it. ... It just takes away from this end product that I think could have been something really special."

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Conclusion

This episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast offers an insightful and thorough review of "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle", balancing fan appreciation with critical analysis. Listeners can gain a clear understanding of the game's merits and flaws, helping them decide whether to embark on Indy’s latest adventure.

Transcript

[Greg Miller]

My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big roas man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laugh at me to this day.

[Paris Lily]

Not everyone gets B2B but with LinkedIn.

[Greg Miller]

You'Ll be able to reach people who do.

[Paris Lily]

Get a hundred dollar credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com campaign to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com campaign. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn the place to be. To be.

[Tim Gies]

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Thursday, December 5, 2024. Of course, I am your host, Tim Gies. I'm joined today by the big daddy himself, Greg Miller.

[Greg Miller]

Hello, Timothy.

[Tim Gies]

And joining us, it's the best voice in the business, Paris Lily.

[Paris Lily]

What's up, Tim?

[Tim Gies]

It's always good, always good to have you, Paris. I'm excited for this crew. I'm excited for the energy that we might bring today as we review Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Yeah, there he is.

[Greg Miller]

He's right there behind you.

[Tim Gies]

You'll love that. It's been a long time coming, but we're finally about to give our thoughts on machine Games latest. We're doing that because this is the kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us record them live and you get a daily exclusive show that we like to call Greg Way Greg. Yeah, what did the Greg Ways been recently?

[Greg Miller]

I reviewed yesterday or they're always a banger with me. All right, first off today, Snowbike Mike did it. So that's a big one for you. All right. You know, it's going to be crazy. Yesterday I reviewed Superman, the documentary about Christopher Reeve. You got that going. There's always a fun Benny story in there from that. Some video game take, you know. You got it. I'm reviewing things. I'm talking magic. I'm having fun over there.

[Tim Gies]

And what's cool, if you're a Kind of Funny member, you can watch the old Greg Ways as well.

[Greg Miller]

You right now, it's the beginning of the month. You went in, you became a Kind of Funny member. You have literally nine years of content to catch up on.

[Tim Gies]

Go for it, everybody. Nine years of Greg Miller for a Chance to be part of this show though. No, we can't do it. You can't. Super chat. Because we're technically not live right now.

[Greg Miller]

YouTube Premiere.

[Tim Gies]

YouTube Premiere. Why is that, Greg? Just off the top of your head.

[Greg Miller]

They'Re have what I would call a little bit of an funky wonky donkey embargo for this one of a 4pm Pacific Time embargo for indie. So usually we say oh, we'll wait for the gamescast, but we want the gamescast to be timely and be the most important thing and the indie review is a big deal. So today we're like, you know what, we will pre record the gamescast. We will load it for 4pm we will pop there. Of course, this is the global launch of it in early Access as well. December 9th is the official release date but Xbox does early access. And then of course depending on where you are in the world, your time zone, even if it were waiting for December 9th, it'd be December 8th in America and so on and so forth.

[Tim Gies]

Yeah, yeah. So that's why we're here right now on YouTube.com kind of funny games as a premiere. But still. Leave your questions and comments. I'm sure the chat's going to have a great time answering for you.

[Greg Miller]

They got to talk on Friday. There's got to be some kind of Kind of Funny Games Daily. You know, follow up.

[Tim Gies]

Right, exactly.

[Greg Miller]

It doesn't really have to be. I'm not here either so I can't do an faq.

[Tim Gies]

So that actually doesn't make sense. You'll be back eventually.

[Greg Miller]

Go watch Greg Way and put him into that chat, into those comments and I'll respond there.

[Tim Gies]

Remember, we are an 11 person business all about live talk shows. Today you already got I'm sure an amazing episode of Kind of Funny Games Daily and then a stream that was Mike and bless Looking for love in an FMV game. Another stream that I'm sure was an absolute classic here.

[Greg Miller]

Oh yeah. You know how it's got to be.

[Tim Gies]

And then if you're a kind of funny member, you're getting today's Greg Way. Like Greg was saying, it's Snow Bike Mike. What's he going to talk about? We'll have to wait and see. But I'm sure it's going to be good.

[Greg Miller]

How short his shorts get. I bet he doesn't got short shorts. He's wearing shorts right now, I can tell.

[Tim Gies]

Okay. Actually I'm seeing a lot of thigh. Yeah, it's good, it's good. Thank you to our patreon producers Batman.

[Greg Miller]

It's like if there's an X cast set, if there's a green thing, he's just over there in the darkness, watching.

[Tim Gies]

He's there, he's there. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Delaney Twining and Carl Jacobs. Today we're brought to you by Shady Race and OR Frames, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start with the topic of the show. It's Indiana Jones and the great Circle developer, Machine Games publisher, Bethesda. Release date is technically December 9th, but like Greg was saying, early access is going right now. So that's why we're here with this weird 4:00pm Pacific Embargo. Greg, we have you here, we have Paris here. Mike's just over there listening. Why is that?

[Greg Miller]

I think Mike just really likes us. I think he likes us and he likes video game talks. I think Mike came over and watched me play Indiana Jones in the Great Circle for a good 45 minutes. And so I think he might just want to know how it all shakes out.

[Tim Gies]

Yeah, yeah. And you're the only one that got the code, correct?

[Greg Miller]

Well, yeah, Paris had a code too, obviously, but for kind of funny locals. Yeah. Well, only one code was shared here at the office, so that.

[Tim Gies]

That's why it's the cast. Mr. Uncharted is right now. And then. And then Paris, of course, you've played as well. Before we get into your actual thoughts on the game, I do want a little bit of history from the two of you, of your history with both Indiana Jones as a franchise, but then also your history with machine games.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, okay. Interesting one. Yeah.

[Tim Gies]

So, Paris, and also I want to know, did you beat the game? Let's start there, Paris.

[Paris Lily]

I have not. Because we got code kind of late and it was over the holiday and had family, so I had to kind of power through here during the week. I will finish it. By the time people watch this, I'll be completely done with it. But I had played enough that I feel pretty confident to discuss the game.

[Greg Miller]

I always love getting into the inside baseball of that. Yes. Terrible turnaround on this review code. Of course, we're kind of funny. We talk about games in a very different way, I think, than most delivered on Friday after Thanksgiving. We are recording the Wednesday following that. So five days, you know what I mean? Maybe if we would have been able to do this at 4pm, live a sixth day. But still, for a game that has this much going on, pretty shitty embargo for that.

[Tim Gies]

But have you beat it Greg, I have beaten it.

[Greg Miller]

Yes. Yeah. 14 hours later, I have rolled credits on the great circle.

[Paris Lily]

Cool, cool, cool.

[Tim Gies]

All right. So Paris, Indiana Jones. How big a fan are you?

[Paris Lily]

Huge. I'm a huge Indiana Jones fan. I literally grew up with Indiana Jones. Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of my favorite movies ever. I have fond memories of no, you know, short round, no Dr. Jones, you know, the whole Temple of Doom and Last Crusade was fantastic. Not a fan of the last two movies though. Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Knowledge was their treasure. Yeah. So I come into this basically being a huge fan of the original trilogy, so to speak. But I think the last two movies didn't land where they should. But yeah, I'm, you know, and even the series, the young Indiana Jones stuff I was a fan of as well. So yeah, I would consider myself a huge fan of Indiana Jones.

[Tim Gies]

Greg Miller, what about you and Indy?

[Greg Miller]

This is a great question, Timothy and I had a very big realization playing the game. I enjoy Indiana Jones full stop. I've. I enjoy watching the movies when they're on and I'll stop and look or whatever, but I would never say I'm a huge fan or a big fan or anything like that. In playing it, I had this really, really like look in the mirror moment of like, oh, the way I feel about Indiana Jones is how you guys always describe how a normal person feels about Ghostbusters where it's like, oh, this is. Oh, people really. I'm. I'm glad everybody enjoys this. I mean, I enjoy Indiana Jones, but I've never been like, bro, I need to dress as him. I need a whip. I need to do this. I need more. I need more. You know, I've never been that guy for Indiana Jones. I enjoy what I get and move on with my life kind of thing. I. It's like I always describe Jen with Ghostbusters where. But you know, eight years ago, to Jen, Ghostbusters was a movie she saw once and was. Had fine feelings about. Never thought her life would be defined by it later on.

[Paris Lily]

Good Lord.

[Greg Miller]

She'd be enabled to escape the no Ghost logo.

[Tim Gies]

Exactly. And then. Well, let's switch over to machine games then. Greg, what's your, your history? Fandom of the Wolfenstein games.

[Greg Miller]

My fandom of the Wolfenstein games, I would always say is non existent. I've never disliked them. But a first person shooter, that's a shooter. Shooter. Shooter has never been my jam. Right. I want a narrative, I want characters. You've known this. I think people who know me know this Quite well. So I have played the Wolfenstein games for sure, beat New Order and then it gets hazy on how much I ever did because it strikes me a lot as the same thing with Call of Duty. Dude, this campaign sounds awesome. I'm going to jump in and I jump in and eventually. All right. I'm just. I don't like this moment to moment gameplay. So as a huge fan of, you know, Uncharted, the pulp action genre. Right. That is sprung out of the DNA of Indiana Jones, I was very excited to finally enter into a game from machine games where I was like from the ground floor. This is something that's up my alley.

[Tim Gies]

Yeah. It's interesting because I'd say the machine games, Wolfenstein games are a bit more narrative focused while they are more student.

[Greg Miller]

BJ Blazkowicz and the Nazi thing and they were fighting giant mecha robots and stuff. It's just never like. That's just not my cup of tea in terms of a narrative. Right, gotcha.

[Tim Gies]

Paris, what about you?

[Paris Lily]

I'm a fan of machine games as well. As far as the Wolfenstein games go, Youngblood was disappointing of them, but first one and then Wolfenstein two and what was it? Old. What was it? Old Blood. Right. That was kind of like a little DLC thing they had as well. Yeah, I love those. I. I thought they were great, but Young Blood did not land for me at all. Which. And we'll obviously get into this now with Indiana Jones. I was very curious to see how they were going to follow that up. And here we are.

[Tim Gies]

And here we are. Let's get into it. I want the thoughts on the new new on Indiana Jones in the Great Circle. Greg Miller, kick us off. What would you give Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on the kind of funny scale?

[Greg Miller]

On the kind of funny scale? I think Indiana Jones and the Great circle is a 6.5. I think it is an okay video game. I think it's very close to being good. I also think it's very close to being mediocre. The problem I have, which I'm sure I will monologue about many times in this and I hopefully monologue many times about the things they do right. Because there is a lot they do right here. But what I think you see, or at least through my eyes in my very subjective review, is two things getting mashed together. And you could almost visualize being in the Machine Games office whiteboard up there and be like, what is Indiana Jones? It's Harrison Ford. It's the hat, it's the whip. It's adventures, it's temples, it's puzzles, it's this. Yes, yes, yes. But that's the movie. What about what is an Indiana Jones video game? And I think they made some choices there that really detract from making this the definitive. Oh my God. This is an amazing game. I think the open zone, because it's not open world, but open zone nature of it is a detriment to it. I think they want you to explore and they give you very few things to glom onto. I think that they just fail to make exploration fun in this game. I think the game struggles to be intuitive and I think that's a whole bunch of them piling on video game systems that don't need to be here in terms of, hey, let's have upgrades. Hey, let's have currencies. Hey, let's have like they missed the mark on these and that holds back the entire experience.

[Tim Gies]

Oh, well said, Paris. With your. How many hours have you put into the game?

[Paris Lily]

I mean, I think I'm probably 12ish.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, great.

[Paris Lily]

So that's why I. That's why I know I'm pretty close to being done with it. I'll knock it out tonight, but yeah, about 12 hours. I'm very close to the. To the end of it. So like I said, I had played the vast majority of the game to be fairly confident to give her score here. And ironically enough, I'm listening to Greg and in my head I had a lot of these same thoughts as I was playing the game. Score wise, I'm probably going to be a little higher and I'm going to say a seven, but it's the nostalgia of I'm an Indiana Jones fan.

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Paris Lily]

That gets it up to a seven. So I struggled a lot with this, like my thoughts about how I was going to present this because I feel that if you take this as a proper sequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Fan effing tastic. As far as a story goes, this should have been an animated movie, honestly, more so than a game because of everything that Greg's talking about. They made a mistake with the open zones. I think this should have been a more linear game because I quickly realized once you got to the Vatican, because I did the preview, so only played like a little snippet of the Vatican during the preview, but now playing it full on. I realize, man, I'm backtracking a lot in this. This is not necessarily fun. I understand what they were trying to do is from a discovery, exploration standpoint because you Know, you go off the beaten path a little bit, you find these secrets, you can kind of get the points, you get the books, you can upgrade indie stuff like that. I get all that. It got monotonous, honestly, it really did. I mean, I would get to, you know, some. A puzzle or whatever. And none puzzles felt overly challenging, like I was beating my head against the wall. But, you know, I'd have to think a little bit. I'd have to go through my notes to figure out, oh, okay, now I see what I need to do. And you would solve it. The combat just did not land it. Unfortunately, it did not. And that was my work is if you go back and watch the preview, when we talked about it then, I was a little concerned then about the melee and getting into the combat. And it never, even as I upgraded Indy, it never advanced to where I was hoping it would be. And again, I bring in the machine games DNA as a first person shooter, you know, single player experience. They didn't do that. I think the best way I can describe this is they tried to be a jack of all trades, but they were a master of none. Because there's stealth elements in this, but you didn't really land it. There's melee in it, but you didn't really land it. There's gunplay in it, but you didn't really land it. You know what I mean? The puzzles is probably the strongest gameplay element that they have in here, but they're. They're not enough to carry the game, so to speak. Right, yeah. Positives. The voice acting in this is fantastic. I mean, again, Troy Baker is Indiana Jones.

[Greg Miller]

Troy Crush is this. As somebody who knows Troy so well and would consider him a personal friend, right. The way that I'm playing and being like, oh, right, this is Troy. Like, I'm lost in the fact that this is Troy. He's doing such a good job being Indiana Jones, stopping Harrison Ford being Indiana Jones. I think that's incredibly impressive. Let alone the cast he's surrounded by, whether it be our big bad villain, right. The late, great Tony Todd, who I think they don't do enough with. But he's there, you know, giving you a compelling, interesting. What's this character? And then Gina, his companion there, who's out throughout the game.

[Paris Lily]

But. But to see, that's the thing. That's why I even said before, if this was just an animated Indiana Jones story, it's great. They look, they nail what makes Indiana Jones Indiana Jones. The music again, the characters, the voice, the comedy, everything that is in Here they nail that part of it. It's that moment to moment gameplay that there just wasn't enough here to tie it all together. Because I even said this during the preview. If you walk into this thinking this is uncharted, you're going to be sorely disappointed. But even if you're thinking this is like a Tomb Raider or something that is a full on stealth action game, you're going to be disappointed, unfortunately. And I was really hoping they were going to at least nail that part of it. Like, I feel like I am Indiana Jones and I'm going on this global adventure. From a story standpoint. Yes. From a gameplay. Gameplay standpoint. Like I said, those open zones hold it back. It really does. I think this would have played a lot better if it was just linear, in my personal opinion.

[Tim Gies]

I want to stick on story for just one sec.

[Greg Miller]

Fine.

[Tim Gies]

Because we got a lot of gameplay stuff to get to, but just stick it on story because Paris is definitely saying it's a highlight. And as an indie fan, he's like, the story's hidden for me. This is exactly what I wanted. Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. You.

[Tim Gies]

Everything you just said about not you respect indie and respect the stories. Do you think that this is a good story and do you think it's a good Indiana Jones story?

[Greg Miller]

I think it's a good story. I think it's a good Indiana Jones story. The problem is, and. But I'll stick with the story, I swear, because I do enjoy it, is that they put so much on the rack, they put so much on the skeleton. They've made that when I played the Vatican. And that's the first open zone you get to. Right. And again, open world, it's. You can do whatever you want. Right. But there's like, it's just a giant zone you can work within. Right. I did the thing of, I'm Greg Miller. This is how I play the game. I am doing everything. You get to that, you know, moment of like, Indy's like, all right, I should go do this thing. But before then I got a wrap up and I'm like, I got you, Indy. And I go. And I'm like, okay, cool. I've done all the main side quests. Like, there's discoveries and stuff like that. But like, like the side quests are done. I've done everything. Right. And then I went off. When I went to do that, I got back onto the main great circle storyline and it was like, wait, what's happening? Okay? And it was like, oh, you know, what's happening there's so much video game bloat put to this of side missions and things to go do. You're taking me so far off the Golden Path that I'm having trouble getting back onto it. And so what I did was. And I think I had a conversation with you actually of after that first night or when I came in, I was talking about this. I'm like in the next section. I'm just Golden Pathing it because I'm very perplexed because the side missions reference the main bad guy. So it makes it seem. Or the main bad guy for the Vatican making it seem like their main mission. So can I do it without doing that? And da, da, da, da. And it sure shit, you can. You can just Golden Path this and do this. The side missions they've created are going to tie back into the main path of explaining why this villain in this area has done this or what he's done. Which is very cool in theory, but I think in practice gets you so far removed that once I got to the Golden Path and just committed to it, I think it takes a long. I went around the whole. Everybody, everybody asked me how this game is immediately. Right. So I'm giving everybody updates here and there or whatever. And I think it was day two that I finished in the office and went home and had a section that cooked that literally was like, this is what I'm talking about. This is, this is great. And what, what was this section? Without saying it. Paris, I know you'll know. Oh, shockingly, it was back to back levels that were linear, that weren't. Go do all this stuff. It was, we're gonna rope you through this thing and do this thing and that's happening and you're falling and then bam, this is happening. You've seen it in trailers. But I don't need to spoil what's going on. Right. And I was like, that was awesome. And so then to get back to them, that was like the jump start I needed for the main quest to keep going and just Golden Path, Golden Path and Gold Path. And by the end, when we get to where we're going, I think it was like one of those. Okay, cool. I like how this wrapped around and did this. Earlier on I would have told you, I don't know who's who or what's what or that. Like to get to it. I was like, you know what? This is a good. I, I like this is an Indiana Jones story in the traditional. These, these fucking Nazis out there trying to find their supernatural things to you know, win the war or whatever. I was like, okay, I. I like where we got. And I liked how this developed in the very end. But again, the game gets in the way of itself, which sucks.

[Tim Gies]

Paris, any. Any thoughts on story to wrap up that section?

[Paris Lily]

I mean, he said the one part that I was going to bring up, there is a part there where it's more linear. And then like, yeah, this. This totally makes sense. You know, from a story standpoint, it is, ironically enough, the side stories that kind of hold it back because they seem to be all over the place, but then they reference this and do you really need to do it? No, you don't. But, yeah, you could do it because it'll help you upgrade Indy. Okay, I guess I'll do it. But it's. It takes away from the main story, which I think is pretty good because it is classic Indiana Jones. There's. There's Nazis, there's mysteries, there's all that you have, your sidekick, characters, things like that. There's the comedy elements to it that all work. They totally work. I think anyone that plays this for the story, that is an Indiana Jones fan is going to really like it. I really do. I am concerned because I had an offline conversation yesterday about this, too, where I was like, my main concern is going to be people that are not big fans of Indiana Jones or are brand new to Indiana Jones. I don't know if the game, again, I know we're not. We're talking story, but I don't know if all the other stuff is going to distract you away from a main story that I feel is pretty good.

[Tim Gies]

All right, let's jump over then to gameplay.

[Greg Miller]

Greg, that's a big question or not even a big topic.

[Tim Gies]

What do you think is the most important aspect of gameplay to talk about here? Is it the combat? Is it the traversal, the puzzles?

[Greg Miller]

I think in terms of what holds it back, you get into traversal and you get into combat. Yeah. And I think that's where it really shines through. I think I, again, echo everything we're saying about story and characters. And the game is gorgeous. We haven't mentioned that the soundtrack is awesome. That. But it is this. These stagnant moments of staleness that break this thing down and make you go, I don't. This is where it all starts to unravel. Right. I felt this much that I made clips to try to demonstrate at least where it is. And these are going to be clips we show, and you're going to go, well, that's how you played it, Greg. Or that's how I did it, right? This is my review and this is how I did it. And I feel like this is how the game pushed me to do it, but this is my thing. And why would I ever do this otherwise? To try to. Whatever. Kevin. Can we start with fighting the combat one I put up or whatever. The clip you're about to see is a stealth takedown inside of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which is how I did everything. Because the enemies in this game are dumb. The AI is bad. The combat is also, I would say, bad. So as you see, I have a sledgehammer here. I'm moving into this section. This is one of the side missions. I need to go do this. And as I come in here, there's where I need to go. You come around the corner, there's going to be a guy at the end here. Oh, pause real quick if you can, Kevin, Real quick note for everybody here. I have a bug here that is now just permanent in my game where my companion, as you will hear, will scream oh God. Over and over again. There's some other. Oh, that was too close in. Oh, God. Over and over again. It will. It will interrupt me talking to other characters. I have reloaded. I have not only, oh, this is bad. I quit out, came back in, redid the thing, save still has it. I reset the save because they give you three checkpoints within your save. Reset the save, went back, called her call. She's pilots your boat. When you're not there, call her on the boat. Same thing. So my game is permanently bugged, at least for the moment where she will scream, oh God. And that was too close throughout, meaning. And it's not. Doesn't matter. That's why she's screaming, oh, God. Anyways, though, let it play, Kev. You see here, this. This is a guard staring inside of this hole. Inside of this fucking hole.

[Tim Gies]

Hey, Watching the hole.

[Greg Miller]

Just watching the hole, which is not his thing. And so what do I do? I come over here, I hit the button, ream back, boom. Hit him in the thing, cave in his skull with the God triple H Sledgehammer. A triple H tile sledgehammer, right? That is the gameplay that I did throughout the entire game. Like it is. There are. There's melee fisticuffs in this game, right? You only have to do it you. I feel you only have to do it in boss fights or when you're found out, which we can jump to another clip if you want. In a second where I'll I'll tease you, you'll see a thing. But it's only because I screwed something up, right? And so. And then I had to do it or whatever. So I'm stealthing everybody this way. Which again, the game is dumb because I'm always having a weapon, right? So I will come around a corner and even if I see the things start filling in, if they know where I am, I'll do the room check of like, okay, well, there's you and one other guy. If I take you out before you can scream or whatever, no big deal. And I run over there and club them to death with a thing, pick up their club, club the other guy, right? And again, the AI is so bad that you can do this in our studio on this side of the room with Mike over there. And Mike won't understand that I've just done that. So I'm able to do that part of it, right? So that is Combat 101. And for me, where it starts and stops, this is. And then the game has all these different pamphlets of. Okay, now you found this pamphlet. And if you want to invest your indie coins, which you're getting from discovering with your camera, you take photos, it gives you like sets of like 40 indie coins. They don't call them indie coins. Exploration tokens. I don't know what they are.

[Tim Gies]

I was really.

[Greg Miller]

But they put it. They give you the coins that when you get these plant flits, you can go and do it. And guess what? Now you can reload your revolver faster, you can repair your revolver faster. You can aim or reload your double things. You. You can have a stronger grapple so it's harder to break out. And I'm literally getting these things going. I haven't done this once in the game. My. I picked up.

[Paris Lily]

You don't need to.

[Greg Miller]

I picked up repair kit after repair kit, not understanding what this was for. Finally, in the final section of the game, I was using my revolver and it jammed and I need a repair. I was like, oh, that's what that's for. It's like you're getting all these video game ass video game tropes that you just don't need to do in this game. I want to real quick for me picking These tokens up 40 at a time right at the end of the game right now I've bought everything I've ever gotten thing for it. Because why not at the end of the game right now I still have 4800 tokens ready to spend on anything I get. And it's just like, what? What are you talking about?

[Tim Gies]

So I want to jump from there because there's a lot of interesting stuff there, Paris. Like, is there anything that you disagree with, with what Greg's saying? And is there anything that you're like, wholeheartedly. You're right.

[Paris Lily]

And his. His main theme of what he said, the AI is dumb. I mean, there's just no other way to say it. So much so that it becomes disappointing. So. So I remember, like, early on in the van, and again, you talk about bugs. Like, I. I had a bug, too. I had to scroll back checkpoints to clear it, and it was no spoilers. But to get in the fountain, it wouldn't let me go in. I was like. I was. I was losing my effing mind. I couldn't figure it out. But anyways, so because I knew, I was like, all right, I gotta go back. I was just purposely trying to die. I just went on rampage mode. And I was fighting everybody and shooting people and all that. And people would just stand there and look around, you know, and then they would call a couple people over, and it wouldn't matter. So there was no reactions to anything that I was doing, regardless. So it was like, you realize this. You're in a game. You're in a game where there's no repercussions to what matters.

[Greg Miller]

You know, that's such a problem and a detriment to it is that this is such a great Indiana Jones performance Castle story idea that the fact that all this video game shit gets in the way of it to make you go, oh, this is just a game is horrible. And it's not only bugs, it's design issues. Right? One of the things you can unlock off the pamphlet is lucky hat. If Indy gets knocked down and he's in his indie outfit, because you wear disguises, you can look around and grab your hat, and then you get a second wind to go at it.

[Tim Gies]

Super cool.

[Greg Miller]

Very cool. On paper. And so Kevin's about to show you. I swung in here, fell by accident. Because, of course, we'll get back to how unintuitive so many of those systems are. But I swung and fell here. I was like, I'll fight my way out. Let it play, Kevin. So I'm here. All right, cool. I don't never fight. I'm like, okay, I'll punch the shadow. This guy, he has a gun. I'm down. Okay, that sucks. Oh, wait. Because this is, I think, second time I've ever had this pop up. Maybe I'M like, oh, right, I have the hat thing. Grab the hat. The two guys walk away from Indiana Jones who just resurrected from the dead. And he puts on his hat, turns around. I'm ready for them to fight me. They stand there like fucking robots with your back. Like, what? Why would.

[Tim Gies]

Look at it.

[Greg Miller]

I just blow my brain.

[Tim Gies]

Oh my God.

[Greg Miller]

Blow this Boy Scouts brain out. Right?

[Tim Gies]

And it's like so much more violent than I expected.

[Greg Miller]

It's one of those like, okay, that's. That sucks. I don't like that. Another thing that sucks. Kevin, if you want to show Running with a Lemon, this is like again, exploration the open.

[Tim Gies]

I want to see this running with 11 and I want you to explain it, but I want you to do that. Greg After a word from our sponsors.

[Greg Miller]

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[Tim Gies]

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[Paris Lily]

So you want to be a marketer?

[Greg Miller]

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[Tim Gies]

So I had to leave you on a cliffhanger here. Maybe the greatest cliffhanger of our time.

[Greg Miller]

Running with Greg Miller.

[Tim Gies]

Talk about running with a lemon. What's going on?

[Greg Miller]

So don't start it yet. Kev. I think we've. We've talked about combat, we've talked about AI and how neither are great. Right? The other big part I have for a game that has these open zones, these worlds to go explore, is that the exploration just isn't fun. And I think and. Or rewarding. But that can be eye the beholder kind of thing. I think with a clip we're about to see, kind of is a great picture of all of that. So, Kevin, if you want to start. I was walking through the deserts of Gaza. No, no. Giza. Right. And as you. I forgot that I. It was my first time out and about in the open zone and the Nazis like, oh, there he is. I'm like, I start running. But I was hurt, so I started to heal and I was like, oh, no. And then pause it right here. Kevin, you can't see it because of us being on screen, but there's a stamina meter hidden underneath there. Because again, in what I would refer to as we need dumb video game shit, in this video game, they're like, we will give Indiana Jones stamina. Which for running. Okay, I guess that makes sense. But I don't think you run enough in this game where we really need to worry about that. Then they have it for climbing. Okay, so you're climbing, and it start to get dark. But if you stop climbing and just hang on the ledge, the stamina fills back in, and you're really never being chased in a way that. That's a like. It's a system that seems to just be there, to be there. And one of the reasons I would assume it's there to be there is because if you eat fruit, you can buff your stamina. So I'm walking through Giza. I am spotted by the Nazis. I take off running because I don't want to fight them, because I don't enjoy fighting them. I start to run out of stamina. So I eat a piece of fruit, and then it switches over to the next piece of fruit, which is his lemon, where I just then continued to just book it to the objective. So please play, Kev. You see me just running. Just Nazis are screaming at me. They're running. They know where I am. This now we're talking about how I don't like to fight them, so I don't want to do the fight because of the combat. Then we talk about AI. These guys see me, I'm red. They know I'm bad. I fall in the hole.

[Tim Gies]

And you're not in disguise.

[Greg Miller]

And they just erase it. They're like, fine, you're here. You're going to talk to the. You're going to talk to your character and move on the story. And again, that's not fun exploration. That's not fun traversal. That's not fun combat. That's world breaking. I feel in terms of. I'm eating this lemon.

[Tim Gies]

I ate a lemon Domino. The lemon is. You get punched off.

[Greg Miller]

Punched by this other Nazi that I then ran past and did. It's like, again, you could say, well, Greg, you're choosing to play that way. You're choosing to break it and run. Sure I am. But why not just have it be that you're giving me a name. Cut the game down from 14 hours to 7 hours and have it be nonstop action. When I was complaining about this in the office, one of the things Nick pointed out is a joke. Was like, yes, you know, well, how would they have a blueprint? It's not like the Indiana Jones movies are well paced, when in reality, obviously, the original trilogy is so per. It's like one of the things those movies are lauded for, right? And the fact that they missed the mark this way, to the point again of how unfun exploration is. Kevin, can you show my final clip of boating in one of the areas it is all water. So you need to boat everywhere. And the boating is so boring. And to compare. Pause it. This is again the bug. She's going to scream, oh God, that was too close. Over and over again. So go ahead. Sorry. This is just me trying to get to the next objective and it's like, what the hell? Like think of God of war in that boat in Mimir telling you stories and all this stuff. Occasionally, Gina here will engage with Indy about a conversation about what's going on or where you're going. But instead I'm doing this and I don't know, you know, I'm using the Xbox built in thing. So I'm just doing. In a minute. You can, you can bring up your paper map and you have to look at it and then you got to put it down and then you go to the. And there are fast travel points inside of the open zones, but they're signposts. So you actually have to physically get to the signpost and then choose the sign you want to go to. Which annoyed the shit out of me so many times when I. For as much backtracking as Paris already pointed out in the preview.

[Tim Gies]

I would say in the preview, two of my high. I had three highlights that I want to talk to you about here, Greg. One of them was I like the signs. I thought that that was cool. I thought that was a nice like in world way to. To kind of a very Indiana Jones way to be able to fast travel. Yeah, I liked that. The map actually you could pull it up and see where you are, move around as you are moving in the 3D space.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gies]

I'll say my third thing for later because these two are a bit more connected in a longer experience. You didn't like that way Paris, you had your hand raised there.

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, I had my hand raised because the map actually annoyed the shit out of me after a while. Because again, navigation isn't intuitive. I noticed in your gameplay you constantly had the question mark thing up. I had to pull the map up for that to be highlighted to see. So I'm constantly pulling the map up when I needed directions on where to go. Because you're constantly backtracking through these open zones. And again, this is why I keep saying this would have played out a lot better as a linear adventure than them trying to make it semi open world because it just, it just became boring, unfortunately.

[Greg Miller]

Let's pull off a thread out of that. Right. You notice that I had my objective on screen at all times. One of the things they're pushing with this Indiana Jones game, of course, is customize it to your heart's content, but they want it to be an exploration. They want you to kind of have those discovery modes. So stuff on screen is very limited when you start or depending on what you picked. I picked the middle of the road for adventure and combat because they wanted.

[Tim Gies]

To be cinematic like the movie.

[Greg Miller]

Normal difficulty, right. And what I found was that it wasn't making me feel more like Indiana Jones. Because when you. I stop and I think of any of the open world games you love, right? It is that you're running and you can go left, you can go right, you can climb over that thing, you go under that thing, you can get where you need to go. Whereas Indiana Jones felt like, I turned a corner. Ah, it's a fucking dead end. I'm in the boat. Ah, there's. There's a. There's a tree here. Turn it around slowly. Get back. So it became really quickly when I'm like, all right, I know the question marks over that way. I'm going to go, oh, fuck. Well, hold on. Where? How do I. You know what? I'm looking at the map, pulling the map up. I feel like I'm a lost tourist in Italy, right? So I was like, I'm going to go in and turn that question mark on and just have that on. And I customized it to have that. Right? This goes back to how I think unintuitive this game is to its detriment again, you know video games, when you got these people who want to hate video games. The ledge is painted yellow. That thing's blah, blah. You know what I mean? They're calling these things out that are that way for a reason, right? So you're not frustrated playing it? The amount of times I'd be in a room, Paris, and I'm like, I don't know what the fuck you want me to do. Go into the menu, go to accessibility, turn on the highlights, highlight what's interactable. I don't know where you want me to go. I have things pointed down. I'm in a room, there's spikes coming down in a trap. The woman I'm with is like, oh, my God. And then she. Then she would go, that wall, it looks fragile. And it's again the same AI so it's just this crouched character saying that. No pointing, no question mark. Even with the highlights on, no highlight going up. I died like three or four times in this thing. Being like, all right, well, I'm going to run to where she. Only four Walls. Then get in front of her. No, it's like it was a much bigger room than that. Grab the thing. I know what a breakable wall looks like in this game. I just could not find it. And it would happen with, oh, yeah, there's a handle here and there's one over there. And so I'm like, oh, shit. Well, in the other one, it was across the room. Run across the room. This isn't it. Run across. Oh, it's right there. Eventually, it's like there were so many things that get in the way of this feeling like I'm Indiana Jones. It makes me feel like I'm an idiot. You know what I mean?

[Paris Lily]

If I had to go to Antonio's office one more goddamn time, I was going to lose my mind. Not to mention. And again, I'm trying to not spoil anything, but there's another puzzle earlier. Earlier on where you have to get these beacons of light. I don't want to spoil it, but anyways, the point is, there was clearly a thing where you have to use the whip. I'm like, okay. But again, it wasn't intuitive on what to do next, because I know what the objective is. But I'm sitting there just scanning the room, trying to figure out what's next to do. And it was like, I don't want you to hold my hand, but at least make the level design more intuitive for people to figure it out. I mean, obviously, I eventually figured it out, but it just. It didn't make sense to me. And even during the preview, when I had a chance to talk to someone from Machine Games, I was pointing that out with something that happened in Giza as well. I think I said this in the preview where I needed something to complete it, but the game let me get to this point without it. So I'm sitting there banging my head against a wall, not understanding why I can't progress in the game. And there's a. I just think there's multiple examples of that as I play it.

[Greg Miller]

I have so many more written down that are that where it's. Again, like, all right, co there are all these scorpions. Gina's gonna use light to scare the scorpions off. She says as much. The light is pointed to this one thing where the scorpions are. I hop to it. The scorpion starts stinging me. And then the light moves a little bit and I'm like, all right, hop back off. That's not. Hop back in. That's not what she wants. Run over here. Run over there. Okay. Then finally, I'M like, okay, wait, climb on this thing. That doesn't look like I should climb on it. Jump. All right, I'm on the wall. Great. Crawl along the wall. Now there's a piece blocking the next handhold. Okay, I do the 360 turn. And look, I don't see anything drop. Fall to my death. Okay, come back in. Maybe I'm missing. Fall to my death. What? Finally, like, I come off. I'm like, that can't be right. Run around, do stuff. No, come back. Get over there and finally get the camera in the right position. That it actually cued the grapple for the whip. And what it reminded me of so many times again, being the Uncharted fan. It really reminded me of every time we'd get a new Uncharted and you would go, oh, man, they fixed something from before. And really, you are playing Uncharted 1 here for machine games of. Hey, this is a. There's lots of cool things here, but there's so many little annoyances that games like this have overcome because they've had so many shots at it and they've done so many things with it. And you just don't get that here. You're getting those little mini frustrations again. We are bagging on this. I feel like, a lot. I'm saying it's an okay game. I. When I was playing Indiana Jones, I was usually enjoying it enough, but it was that thing of every time I turned it off, I was never like, I got to get back to Indiana Jones. I can't wait to see what happens next. I can't wait to do this thing that. And after rolling credits, like, again, incredible turnaround time here, right? I was like, well, I'd love to do more side stuff. But then I jumped into the side stuff today, and I have a not game breaking bug, but a game annoying as shit bug of Gina yelling. That was close. Oh, God. Like in interrupting conversations, I was doing the side mission, right? And Gina, the character, starts talking to the guy who needs our help, and she's like, what are you. Oh, God. And it just cuts the dialogue then. And that's it. That the dialogue is over. I don't know what they're trying to like.

[Paris Lily]

All right, you know what it is, Greg? It's your point about there's a bunch of little annoyances in here. And like you said, it's 6.5. I'd say it's a 7. But it's those little annoyances that hold it back from being that 8.5, 9. Type of game because you can. There's so much there with the character. Again, like we talk about the character, the story, the IP of what this is, this should be a lot better than what it is. And that's the frustrating thing because a lot of these nitpicks that we have right now, these are things that have been solved in video games a decade ago. So why are we doing this here in 2024 with this game, with the studio, with Bethesda game, with the IP of Indiana Jones? That's frustrating to me because I was saying to someone offline that if this wasn't. If Indiana Jones was out of this, if this was Chicago Jo, you're not playing this game. I'm just being honest about it. You're playing it because it's Indiana Jones, because of the legacy, the nostalgia of it. If this was no name character and you dropped him into the same game with the same story, you would be so annoyed you would not play it, unfortunately.

[Tim Gies]

Wow.

[Greg Miller]

It's one of those. I'm trying to Google it and get it because I'm so old I don't remember it. Right. What was it? You know Bethesda famously around Skyrim, right? Yeah. No, was to talk about, like, what, every X minutes there should be something interesting. When you're out there doing the open world, I'm butchering this. You know what I mean?

[Paris Lily]

I know what you're talking about.

[Greg Miller]

And I feel like for Todd Howard in this to be a Bethesda game, but Todd Howard be or published a game and Todd Howard to be executive director on it, I feel like that was something that got tossed aside as something that should happen. If you're going to have these open zones, it should be interesting. I should want to engage in combat every chance I get because I'm being rewarded. Something's happening. It's going to be good. I understand that. You know, you can toss me the my opinion out when I say it, but you know how much I enjoy Starfield for what it is. When I'm playing Starfield and I'm running from point A to point B, especially in Shattered Space, there were so many things that pulled my attention. Oh, that's interesting. I want to go do that. Oh, there's combat here. Of course I'll fight this thing because I'm going to loot the guy to get something that'll make the next battle easier. Maybe it's just XP yet that doesn't exist here. Right. And even again, Starfield is one of those of. I'm going to go right, I'm going to go left, I'm going to go over, I'm going to go under, I'm going to get to the objective. I need to. It's off on that horizon. I'm going to find it. Whereas Indiana Jones really does feel like, fuck, what do you want me to do to get to the. Ah, shit. Okay, do this thing. Blah, blah, blah.

[Tim Gies]

So the last thing that I enjoyed quite a bit about my time with the preview was how cool it felt. And authentically Indiana Jones. It felt that there was weapons everywhere and anything could be a weapon. Where you walk into a room and there's a wine bottle, there's a hammer, there's a shovel, there's whatever, you can pick it up and hit people with it. And it felt, in my very limited time playing, I was like, oh, there's way more than I expected here. How does that play out in the full experience?

[Greg Miller]

Paris?

[Paris Lily]

I think it's overdone, honestly. I think, sure, you can pick up the wine bottle, the random shovel, the toothbrush or whatever, and you hit the guy over the head. But that again, goes into the gameplay aspect of it. Like, I feel like you can just cheese it. And a lot of that played into that. I just picked it. I'll just sneak up behind him. He's not going to turn around. I'll just hit him and boom, boom, boom.

[Greg Miller]

And then the big thing of, oh, hide bodies. Why? I'm just going to knock out the guy who walk. Who the same AI that goes back and forth. I'll wait for his ass, knock him out too. And I have to worry this. And then to say over and over again, hide bodies. But not have it like Metal Gear. I mean, fucking Metal Gear Solid. We're talking of being able to put them in a locker or something like. No, we mean high bodies out of sight. Like walking behind a truck and drop.

[Paris Lily]

You would, you would have expected when a body gets found and the other, because an alarm does go off, right, they quote, unquote, get alerted. You're going to just spawn in enemies, right? So you're screwed. So it's going to encourage you to want to actually hide the bodies to be more stealthy, stuff like that. That never happens. It sure, a couple of characters get annoyed for a minute, you could run off, come back, and they're right back to their normal routine.

[Greg Miller]

It just reminds me so much of, and this is a stretch, but it reminds me so much of Jurassic park, the movie, right? When the dinosaurs realize the fence isn't electrified. When I did it, first I moved a body and I put it away, and then I got caught the first time, hours in. And then I was like, wait, you're not. There's. Nobody's dynamically moving. This guy's always sitting on the cot. This one guy always walks in through the door and walks out. So just. Gun, gunk. All right, don't need to pick any of you up, because I'm just knocking every human being out as I go. Which then made the weapons feel slapsticky. And I think, again, take away from what Indiana Jones is, then of course, there's like, I'm just in. So I am in such a. I'm going to knock the shit out of everybody thing. There's this great moment where I came up the stairs. There's a soldier who's just finishing his cycle, and I'm like, I can get him. And I run over to hit him. And he turns. And I was in a disguise as a clergyman. He turns and goes, oh, hi, Father. And I was like, hello. Like I said, I'm like, hello, I'll put the bot. You know, it's like. And I think that that might actually be the time where I was like, oh, cool, I'm in a safe spot, no big deal. And I dropped the bottle. I was like, well, there's a zip line down to the next thing. Like, are they going to care? And I zip line down and it set off the alert. So again, rather than fight, these guys just ran, ran, ran, ran, ran. Eventually got killed, like, right before the objective. But guess what? It gave me a save point well beyond where I was. So I just picked back up no alert, did my thing as a. Put it priest.

[Tim Gies]

So this game has guns.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Tim Gies]

How often did you guys use the guns and did you enjoy it?

[Greg Miller]

I believe, if you don't mind me taking the first one, Paris, I probably had three instances, no, maybe two instances, of using the revolver as an actual pistol and shooting. You saw one there in the clip. I think there was one boss fight where I was like, you could shoot. I think it might have been turned off in the other ones. And then I picked up a machine gun once and shot, and it wasn't. I didn't like it. So I used it as a melee weapon and did that. Then there's a section in there where you have to shoot, like in a boat or whatever. But no, gunplay is not a thing I did in this game whatsoever. So, again, when it's like, here's a pamphlet to do whatever your guns Like I don't, I don't do that. Why would I care?

[Paris Lily]

Paris, he nailed it. I mean that's literally it. I think I had two encounters where I was using Revolver. It's so funny you said that about the machine gun because I remember and I think this again, I don't want to spoil it, but when you one of the first times that you'll get it, I was using it and I was like, hey, this actually works better as melee because I just sneak up behind him and hit him in the back of the head and the gun doesn't break right away.

[Greg Miller]

I don't alert everybody. I can just use it as a club. All right, great, I'll do that.

[Tim Gies]

All right, Greg, here's the challenge for you from a gameplay perspective. Was there something you liked?

[Greg Miller]

Yes, and I'm glad you did that again. I know we're bagging on it. It's event session for a game that this is always the hardest kind of game. You can see it. You can see, I'm telling you, I could see where this game could have at least been good, let alone great. You know what I mean? I feel like there's just design decisions that weren't good. You need to give a shout out, I think to puzzle design. I think the puzzles are well done here. They are enjoyable. You know, I felt at to Paris Point like they're never fuck. I am stumped and I'm going to be here for hours figuring this out. Sometimes they are incredibly brain dead of oh, there's a lock box here. And then I think I did this in front of Mike. Oh, there's a lock box here. Like why I just walk from into the other room. Oh, there's the piece of paper. The combo is X, Y and Z. There's a few of those, but there are a few that are like. There was one code breaking section that I was like, I put in the wheels and I got the thing and I looked and I had two sets. Oh man. Like, am I going to have to take notes actually to figure this out? And I was like, oh wait, hold on. And I did take notes and I did the thing. I was like, that's great. And there's a few like, you know, statue puzzles of this and that and figuring it out and then cranking giant wheels and moving light and using these keys that spin things and it's like, man, this is fun. And this feels like Indiana Jones again. Like if they could have just half the game. We're dropping you in. You go through, you actually fight. Rather than 50 enemies you could possibly engage with. That's probably too many. 25 you could actually engage with. We will give you seven that are really well thought out. Through this, you know, bunker, you're going through whatever. You have to figure out different things to do it. Like that's a way better idea than what they did here, which I feel is just a watered down thing. But puzzles are really good. You know that there is that exploration of like, oh, this is fun, this is cool. Again, I don't find the exploration to be rewarding as much. You know, you can go off the beaten path and find this relic and it's like, cool, I found a relic and you put it away. Okay. And then there's, you know, I think one of the things I complimented Dragon Age so much on was like, you want me to go right, I'm gonna go left. And inevitably there's a treasure chest, there's a piece of armor, there's something cool down there. So many times in India, oh, you want me go that way? I'll go, it's a dead end. There's just a. I went down this thing and there's a blown out wall. Nothing here. Maybe another melee weapon to pick up, but nothing that made me go, oh, cool. And even the notes and stuff like that, you're picking up so many recipes. It's like, okay, like it's quirky a few times, but then you put in here like, well, why do I want to pick any of this up? It gives me the exploration books or whatever to upgrade Indy when I get the thing, I guess, but nah.

[Tim Gies]

Paris, any thoughts on the puzzles, expanded on what you were saying earlier?

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, I mean the puzzles is the highlight of the game. And I know we've been kind of, you know, more negative Nancy, you know, in this description, but they felt rewarding once you, once you solved the puzzle. I was like, I like this to your point about going off the beaten path. You know, there was like you said there was dead ends and things, but there were some times where a secret you find find this thing. It's like, oh, I am glad that I went off the beaten path and I found this thing. There just wasn't enough of those moments, unfortunately. It's like again, when I compare this to the movies to. And I get you're trying to. And I think what you said about Nick is probably spot on. This probably would have played out better as a seven or eight hour experience where maybe I'm not having so many combat moments in the game and you can make them a little more challenging, but fewer, if that makes sense. Right to where it feels more rewarding that you're doing it. Be Indiana Jones, be that. That archeologists, and you're solving these riddles and these mysteries and things along the way to get to your ultimate objective. I think would have worked a lot better, but when you had those moments, they were great. There was just too much of that filler stuff in between getting to those moments. I think it's the best way to explain it.

[Tim Gies]

I really, really with what I'm about to say. I want to stick on what this game is, not on what it could have been otherwise, but in the switch between first to third person when it comes to the main gameplay being first person, and when you're on ropes or things like that, it goes to third. Would you describe that? Integration is seamless.

[Paris Lily]

It's fine. It never bothered me, personally.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. When I was playing. I want to say it was Barrett, but it might have been. Mike watched it. Ooh. And I was like, honestly playing it. I never. It was never jarring. The most jarring thing for me would be that when you quit out of the game and reload it, like, the main menu will be Indie standing there, and it'll say continue or your options or whatever. And it's Indy standing there. You're looking at his back or whatever. And it, like, literally is like, where you left off. And so then you click it and it'll do this thing where Indy then takes and puts his hat on, and then you pop in as indie. And every time it got in the beginning, it got me right. Hit, start. And like, why can't I. Oh, Ryan, I'm going to fucking his first person. You know what I mean? I was like, ah, I gotcha. And I really wish it wasn't, like, again, not to get into what it is or what it isn't. Like, I don't think the. I think it's Indiana Jones. You paid for Harrison Ford's likeness, right? Like, I'd much rather see Indy the entire time and feel like I'm watching the movie than feel like I'm him. And again, when it's Indy running around with a fucking lemon in his right hand, chomping on it while some Nazi kicks him in the head. Like, I don't. This doesn't feel like Indiana Jones, which is so heartbreaking because there are the moments when you are like, damn, this feels like Indiana Jones. Like, I think I forget which reveal it was. Whatever. Maybe a developer showcase. You tell Me, where we saw the snow stuff with them on the boat, remember? And there's the grenade and it's snowing and the Nazi monologues and all that. Yeah, exactly. Like, I remember watching it be like, I don't know. Isn't. That's a section where I'm like, this is hidden. This is hitting really well for how we got here, what we did, the performance. Right before that, right before it, there was a moment where I was like, okay, I see y'all acting. You're doing something here. I like that. But then we're back to chomping on fucking bread, so I have more health.

[Tim Gies]

Paris, did you like it being first person?

[Paris Lily]

Yeah, like I said, I was fine with it being first person. That never took me out of the moment. Like, man, this would have been better if it was, you know, over the shoulder kind of gameplay. I don't think that was the problem at all. I just think they needed more. There needed to be. The gameplay was too simplified when it came to the combat stuff. And I don't think that was because it's in first person. I played plenty of first person games where. Where it was fine. So no, no issue there.

[Tim Gies]

Well, wrapping this up, do you have any final thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?

[Paris Lily]

I. I do. If I get. If I could say one thing. Because. Because. Because again, I. I realize as we're talking, it just seems like her. Like, you're like, why are you even giving this a seven? It sounds like. Like you didn't like it. I'm liking the game. I just. It is what it is. I just see something there that could have been more. And it is Indiana Jones. Again, I cannot praise Troy Baker enough. If I ever get a chance to meet him, it's probably the first thing I'm going to say is like, dude, you literally own this role. You're Indiana Jones now. I think the puzzles were a lot of fun. I had a great time with that again, some. You. You already mentioned it, Greg. I wish there was more Tony Todd in the game and obviously Rip with him, but I think he was good. There's great performances in this game as an Indiana Jones adventure. It's fantastic. They nailed that. Machine Games nailed Indiana Jones. There's no complaint here with that. It is the video gamey stuff of it that I have a complaint about. Whereas I thought it could have been better. And that's just unfortunate. So that's why he landed on seven, right?

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I think that's, you know, the final thoughts on this. Right. Are Disappointment. And not that it is a terrible game. It's this, that. It's the fact that I feel like they were close. You can see there's so many. There's so many things they did right, but then they did so much. I feel wrong in terms of making this a video game. Video game. Which, again, isn't bad. It isn't horrible. It isn't. It just takes away from this end product that I think could have been something really special. Getting to be Indiana Jones, play an Indiana Jones movie. But then when it is this, I'm boating around like that, I think that's the most interesting thing. I like the puzzles, I like the side stories, and again, how they connect to the main thread. But to get to those side stories, to get to those side missions is such a chore and is so not enjoyable. I won't turn Indiana Jones back on now that we're done. Now that we're reviewed, it's an uninstall and I move on, which sucks, because I'd much rather it be. First off, I had two weeks with the game and I did everything or I finished it for a review. That's great. And now I can't wait to go back. But today, loading it up and I'm like, let's go do some side missions. You know, one of my other reviewer friends said cool stuff was happening over here and I thought this one sounded cool when I heard it. I'm gonna go do that. I jump in to go do it and I get this bug of Gina saying, oh, no, that was close. Oh, God, that sucks. And I can't fix that. And then even if I could, getting in the boat, you know what I mean? Too few and far in between. Nah, this is. It's over for me, which sucks.

[Tim Gies]

Well, everybody, that is Paris and Greg's thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Let us know if you are still hyped for this, if you are an indie fan yourself, and anything else you want to talk about here are kind of funny. Thank you so much for hanging out with us for this review and for all of our other reviews. Until next time, I love you all. Goodbye.