New Indiana Jones game annouced!

[happyninja42]

I mean if its some Red Dead Redemption 2 level of pretty and character design and open-world, with a really good looking Indiana, and he's punching Nazis and making one-liners, then I suppose it could be passible.

I honestly think that would be the worst way to do the game. Indiana Jones stories aren't broad, sprawling, open ended things. They are tightly focused, pulp fictiony, action romps with a very linear sequence of events. I don't think the "feel" of the franchise would actually be served by having a game where Indy can get distracted for 20 hours with fishing while his horse shits realistically next to him, and some convict on a horse rides by with a woman strapped to the back, howling like a banshee about drinking and abuse.

I just...no, please don't do that with the game.

 

[SilentPony]

I honestly think that would be the worst way to do the game. Indiana Jones stories aren't broad, sprawling, open ended things. They are tightly focused, pulp fictiony, action romps with a very linear sequence of events. I don't think the "feel" of the franchise would actually be served by having a game where Indy can get distracted for 20 hours with fishing while his horse shits realistically next to him, and some convict on a horse rides by with a woman strapped to the back, howling like a banshee about drinking and abuse.

I just...no, please don't do that with the game.

Problem is that's just Uncharted or Tomb Raider, games based entirely off Indiana Jones' character to be fair, but they're already done. And its not going to be as good as any of the recent Tomb Raiders, let alone the Uncharted series, so why bother? You have to change up the model, and there are only 2 ways to translate the high adventure action of IJ into a video game, linear puzzle/action set pieces exactly like Tomb Raider or Uncharted, or open world.
Nothing else fits the character, themes, setting or time period. You can't do a point and click because you need action, you can't do a racing game, or a sports game, or a walking sim or RTS or turn based, or a dating sim, visual novel, side-scrolling beat em up, tournament fighter, and you certainly can't do an over-the-top superhero shooter like Doom or Wolfenstein with someone like Indiana. I can't imagine him double jumping on the moon with a laser shotgun fighting cyborg zombie Nazis.

 

[happyninja42]

and there are only 2 ways to translate the high adventure action of IJ into a video game, linear puzzle/action set pieces exactly like Tomb Raider or Uncharted, or open world.

Sorry but the terms "high adventure action" and "open world" do not fit well together, at all. They're too regulated, in that you have all that random wander around shit, that's really dull and random, so you can't really script it, and doesn't have anything to do with Indy, and then on the other side, you have those plot missions, which in theory, would be where all the fun, "Go punch nazis in the face" would happen. But like all open world games, having those things gated behind "go talk to this NPC to start" and "Or just go faff about for 20 hours until you remember the storyline" kills all tension and narrative pacing. It's terrible.

I mean I really don't care if they make the game or not, or what format, as I probably won't play it at all, but to think they will capture the magic of the Indy movies, by trying to spread them over a massive maps like too little butter over too much bread. It dilutes all of it. Every open world sandbox suffers from it. The classic "Oh yeah, I was supposed to go save my son or something." or "Oh yeah, my best friend got kidnapped and I was supposed to go race over there and start the mission to save them, or something...I forget, I've been doing side missions for 12 hours of gameplay"

I just, don't see it working well. I mean they might prove me wrong, and it's amazingly done, but I've yet to see a dev team pull it off in a way that doesn't feel like a jarring shift in pace and tone from Free Roam to Scripted Events.

 

[Bedinsis]

Machine Games has so far only done first person shooters. That they have experience under their belt both in depicting Nazis and in depicting historical settings of sorts is good. I do wonder if they know how to make the intended gameplay good.

 

[SilentPony]

SNIP

Problem is Indiana Jones movies are open world. They seem scripted to us, but to Indiana he's traveling all over the world, all the time, doing basically whatever he wants. There really isn't a good way to translate that into a video game that doesn't invite an unfavorable comparison to Uncharted and Tomb Raider.
What type of game would you put Indiana Jones in that doesn't just copy those previous titles?

 

[happyninja42]

Problem is Indiana Jones movies are open world. They seem scripted to us, but to Indiana he's traveling all over the world, all the time, doing basically whatever he wants.

But they're not. He's going to the various set pieces for very specific reasons. Go to Tibet or wherever to get the medallion from Marian. Go to Cairo to get medallion translated by his friend. Go to desert based on information on medallion. Go to nazi camp to save ally and stop them from getting the ark, etc etc. He's not just wandering around and randomly coming across Redneck McHickson and his inbred family of moonshiners, and stopping to have a 30 minute debate with them about whatever stupid shit they think is true or whatever. Those movies are the epitome of linear storytelling, and sequential narrative structure. It's one reason they are so classic, because it's a tried and tested method of visual storytelling. And that translates most accurately in a video game, as an action adventure like Uncharted.

So if the goal is to try and actually replicate the spirit of an Indiana Jones movie, and not just slap an Indy franchise skin onto something for marketing, you'd want it to be at least somewhat like Uncharted.

If you just want to say "It's an Indy Jones game! Buy it!' then sure, make it sandbox, but it won't be like the films, not at all.

. There really isn't a good way to translate that into a video game that doesn't invite an unfavorable comparison to Uncharted and Tomb Raider.

I agree, though considering those games were inspired by Indiana Jones, I don't really consider it a bad thing if they are similar, that was on purpose by the teams making those games.

What type of game would you put Indiana Jones in that doesn't just copy those previous titles?

I honestly don't know. I haven't really ever thought about it. Because frankly I don't think it should be done. I personally feel, as someone who is the primary, target demographic for these nostalgia franchises, that they need to just be left alone, and people should come up with new stuff. Trying to capture lightning in a bottle, from a film series that didn't always have great entries itself, and then try and translate them into a video game, that is simultaneously in the spirit of the era they were based, AND when they were made, AND also accounting for modern sensibilities, is an exercise in futility. Something is going to have to give somewhere, and piss someone off. If they make the game design to feel like one of the films, it's probably going to be something like Uncharted, and that's going to make some players be like "Ugh, just an Uncharted clone with an Indy skin!". If they make it a sandbox, aimless, open world game, fans will be like "This isn't Indy at all! It's just RDR2 with an Indy skin!" If they try and make it an FPS, well, I don't see anyone really liking that, as Indy did very little shooting in those films, compared to punching and swinging about.

So I have no idea what would be a good idea for an Indy game. I think it's probably doom to failure in some way. That at best, it's going to be "meh, it's ok" One of those games you forget a month after release for something more interesting. Though it's shelf life online will probably last much longer, as YTers will post videos with tags like 'How Bethesda MURDERED Indiana Jones in Cold Blood!" probably with a picture of Daisy Ridley looking upset, because they love putting her face up there on everything they want to cry about.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Problem is Indiana Jones movies are open world. They seem scripted to us, but to Indiana he's traveling all over the world, all the time, doing basically whatever he wants. There really isn't a good way to translate that into a video game that doesn't invite an unfavorable comparison to Uncharted and Tomb Raider.
What type of game would you put Indiana Jones in that doesn't just copy those previous titles?

That's a damn good question.

I don't really see how they do that. And honestly I don't think they plan on it.

I think the plan is to make an Uncharted style game that can be exclusive to Microsoft because up till now Uncharted has been Sony only and Tomb Raider (when MS bought exclusivity for Rise of the Tomb Raider) didn't maintain it's quality and ended up being rather lacking.

So i think Microsoft is just trying to do what Sony is doing, to try and get on equal footing in the console market.

 

[09philj]

Well MachineGames made The New Order, so it could be good, but they also made Youngblood, so it might not. I like Indiana Jones though, so hopefully it is.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Well MachineGames made The New Order, so it could be good, but they also made Youngblood, so it might not. I like Indiana Jones though, so hopefully it is.

Ewww i hope they dont make an Indiana Jones FPS game.

 

[XsjadoBlayde]

If it's the same devs as the recent Wolfensteins, I sure hope they have a better level designer, as that pillar was totally the weakest foundation in all those games (apart from the GAAS one I haven't tried so can't say for sure). Like, the ideas of the levels were pretty cool, but the layout was bloody awful and unsatisfying, getting to each end was always some form of anti-climax.

 

[BrawlMan]

side-scrolling beat em up

You were saying....

I know the last example's a platformer, but I was just making a jokingly point.
​

I agree with @happyninja42. If they go semi-open/metroidvania/open-ended level design, I do not mind. I do prefer linear chapters with a mix of platforming, melee combat with weapons included, gunfights without the two weapon limit, and puzzles. The melee could either have DMC style inputs or go the Arkham route because it's more convenient. They should do the thing the Uncharted 1 did where you can get more ammo from an enemy if you finish them off with a certain melee combo or kill. No other UC game did that again.

FTR, the last non-Lego Indiana Jones game came out on Wii.

​

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Reminder that nobody has ever nailed a Harrison Ford voice impersonation.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

If it was just Uncharted 4 with no climbing and a 75% increase in grappling hook usage (I guess his whip in this case), I wouldn't mind at all.

I have nothing against games that aren't innovative or fresh, as long as they execute what they want to do well. If they plan on just making a third person shooter, hell go ahead. As long as its a smooth and fun experience. Maybe not a game I would buy on release, but definitely something I wouldn't mind playing.

 

[Mister Mumbler]

Reminder that nobody has ever nailed a Harrison Ford voice impersonation.

Could get Mark Hamill to do it for the ultimate in irony.

 

[Dalisclock]

New Indiana Jones game, and... no details. Indiana Jones games have had good entries in some different genres, but I doubt it will be an Adventure game like the classic ones that made Lucasart popular.

It won't, sadly. Lucarts/Disney isn't doing adventure type games anymore and anyone who wants to do it wouldn't be allowed to.

There's a fan project or two perpetually in the works but I have no hope at this point of ever seen any of them finished and not get hit by a C&D if they are.

Indiana Jones and the Fountain of Youth: A Game Thirty-Two Years in the Making - Jump Dash Roll

www.jumpdashroll.com

I've been checking in that game for like a decade at this point and if it's progressing at all, I honestly can't tell.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Reminder that nobody has ever nailed a Harrison Ford voice impersonation.

I would suggest making this videogame Indy his own thing and to not try and replicate (no pun intended) Harrison Ford, as crazy as that might seem to even consider. The only way for this game to truly break out, I feel, is to break away from the movies as much as possible, and a good place to start with that is with a fresh, new Indy. Maybe give him a moustash in reference to Tom Sellick being initially considered for Indiana Jones. But just give the guy his own new look. We've also moved far enough away from the original three movies and from Harrison Ford that I feel it's warranted without too much backlash.

 

[happyninja42]

Could get Mark Hamill to do it for the ultimate in irony.

I mean Mark Hamill DID do it in the Bad Lip Reading videos of the films.

 

[happyninja42]

We've also moved far enough away from the original three movies and from Harrison Ford that I feel it's warranted without too much backlash.

Oh....bless you (not really, blessing people is bullshit), but it's refreshing that you think people who grew up on 80s/90s pop culture, now in the nostalgia market, are less insane about those franchises. In fact it will probably be worse, as all those video making neckbeards on YT will invariably be all like "They've already DESTROYED Star Wars!! Now they are trying to KILL Indy!"

 

[Casual Shinji]

Oh....bless you (not really, blessing people is bullshit), but it's refreshing that you think people who grew up on 80s/90s pop culture, now in the nostalgia market, are less insane about those franchises. In fact it will probably be worse, as all those video making neckbeards on YT will invariably be all like "They've already DESTROYED Star Wars!! Now they are trying to KILL Indy!"

I said 'too much of a backlash'.

And Crystal Skull already made Indy a lot less "flawless" in the eyes of fans as it used to be.

 

[happyninja42]

I said 'too much of a backlash'.

Oh I know what you said , I just doubt that anything will lessen their ire over people daring to rape their childhood and all that. Vitriolic hatred at remakes of old properties is a lucrative market. Nothing will quell their anger over these things that don't fit 100% how they think they should be. Which is basically everything.