MachineGames’ Design Director Jens Andersson did quite a bit of humblebragging on why fans should trust them to do Indy justice for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.
In an interview with Xbox Wire, Andersson dropped this reminder on us:
“We knew this was super important challenge from the get-go. Luckily, this is not our first rodeo. Big parts of the team have worked together on story-driven first-person games all the way back to The Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness. Also, I think the Wolfenstein series surprised the world by having a very interesting and relatable character with B.J. Blazkowicz, so we have had a lot of experience with this.”
Indeed, the first thing most gamers will remember when they hear the name MachineGames will be the last decade of Wolfenstein games. But as Andersson pointed out here, MachineGames’ very inception came about in the fallout of Starbreeze Studios’ 2011 reboot of Syndicate.
No less than Starbreeze founder Magnus Högdahl joined MachineGames, and with him came the team that made The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay and The Darkness video games. Starbreeze would go on to acquire Overkill and become best known for the Payday franchise. While these studios would each forge their own path, Wolfenstein fans know well that it was MachineGames that really inherited the staff with the video game storytelling and character development DNA.
Creative Director Axel Torvenius also chimed in on this. In the same interview, he said:
“One important thing that has been part of our DNA for a very long time – and is definitely something that helps create great characters – is that we put story front and centre. We always start with a strong narrative, and we always end with a narratively strong ending. And our experience is weaving those stories tightly with solid gameplay.
Having the perfect mix of strong cutscenes and interesting gameplay, driven by an interesting character that is complex with many nuances, that continues to evolve throughout the game, is crucial. A good story survives everything and that’s why we’re always so very focused on getting the story just right.”
And, lest you’re too young to have known, or too old to remember, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay was heralded as an outlier as the rare good video game adaptation of a movie or TV show at the time it came out.
Today, that sort of thing is a lot more common, between the likes of Alien: Isolation, Robocop: Rogue City, and the Walking Dead, Batman Arkham, and Shadow of Mordor franchises. So expectations are a lot higher than to be more than a lazy cash-in. But Indiana Jones and The Great Circle previews have continued to impress since the official reveal, and it really feels like MachineGames is still holding back on what they have actually accomplished, for us to find out when it releases this month.
