Dev Discusses Indiana Jones And The Great Circle's Immersive Skill System

Key Takeaways

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle refuses to have a skill tree system, instead providing hidden collectible bonuses.
Rewards seek to blend immersion and exploration, providing a more authentic Indiana Jones experience.
Some secret collectibles are still likely to be revealed when the game releases on December 6th.

Modern approaches to game design often bog us with a litany of skill trees and ability systems, constantly taking the player out of the action of the core experience. Luckily, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is going against this trend, as Machine Games implemented a much more natural approach to player progression.

Unlike other games from Machine Games, such as the latest Wolfenstein titles, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle has no perk or ability system that utilizes the traditional menu-based design we’ve come to expect in the latest AAA releases.

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Instead of a traditional skill or perk system, the game only advances Indie’s stats if the player goes on to find specific books throughout the in-game environments, akin to finding a bobblehead in the Fallout titles that directly boosts a specific given skill of the player.

When discussing this topic in an exclusive interview with GameRant, the design director, Jens Andersson, explained precisely why they decided to take a step back and give this Indiana Jones experience a different approach that they’re sure many fans will come to appreciate.

A skill book boosting take-downs from Indiana Jones And The Great Circle.

In the interview, Andersson explains that the core reason for this decision was to give fans a truly authentic Indiana Jones experience. They state how:

We wanted to make this game as grounded and immersive as possible, so having a more traditional skill tree would detract from that.

This approach was combined with another idea they had about gameplay, as they additionally “wanted to have really nice rewards for exploration and for solving the mysteries you discover around the world.”

Parallel to the groundbreaking movies that inspired it, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle attempts to immerse players wholly in the international entourage alongside Indiana Jones. Refusing to break the curtain of immersion and keeping players in the adventurer’s perspective really helps enforce this idea.

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Machine Games hints at what players can expect from Indy’s post-release adventure.

Because we’ll be in the shoes of Indie for longer than the length of a feature film, it’s great that they’re getting into the minute details of the world. Rewarding Exploration is a great addition, and combined with Troy Baker’s fantastic acting as Indiana and the exciting story, it forms the game into quite a complete package.

What To Expect From Skill Collectibles In The Great Circle

Indiana Jones and his companion exploring a new area in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle.

The interview further examines how some collectibles scattered throughout the levels may be harder to find than one would think. Even though adventure books that upgrade skills seem essential to collect as you play, the developers honestly don’t expect each player to collect every single one.

The biggest challenge here is that they are all optional and many of them are quite hard to find, so we couldn’t really be sure of what abilities the player has unlocked at any specific point in the game.’

Unlike other games, which require extensive hand-holding when advancing player stats, such as giving players an XP bonus to level up stats periodically, The Great Circle refuses to do this, instead forcing players to find these advancements for themselves.

While many of the abilities will be fairly standard, such as whip and mele bonuses, there are some more secret ones “like the Lucky Hat ability that gives you a second chance if you are taken down in the iconic Adventurers outfit with your fedora on.”

With Indiana Jones And The Great Circle releasing December 6th on Xbox and PC, we’re excited to explore the world for these abilities and possibly discover a few completely secret ones we haven’t heard about yet. If you find any secrets when Indiana Jones And The Great Circle finally comes out, be sure to share them with us below!