Back in 2009 MachineGames was formed by people who decided to leave Starbreeze Studios after completing work on The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena – a good expanded version of the already fantastic Escape from Butcher Bay they’ve worked on 5 years prior. The title, that remains one of the best examples of a movie license game, was an incredible mix of different genres and somewhat of an “immersive sim-lite” and managed to perfectly replicate the mood and the style of Riddick movies in an interactive form. However, as MachineGames they’ve worked on titles that were a bit more conventional. While Wolfenstein: The New Order (and The Old Blood to a degree) had its share of curious and unorthodox decisions for an FPS game, it was still a more or less straightforward FPS. While Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and Wolfenstein: Youngblood were showing them going an even more conventional and boring route, including a lot of very generic live service and looter shooter elements into the game.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was meant to be different. An unofficial return to the ideas of Riddick and The Darkness, of sorts. And while it doesn’t stick the landing, it mostly gets there.
