Some modern games have one common feature: chatty protagonists who actively help the player by giving him suggestions on what he must do to proceed, often even moments after entering an area. The most famous of all is certainly Atreus, Kratos’ son in the last two God of War games, whose chatter has become proverbial, but there are also others, such as in Horizon Forbidden West.
Smile!
MachineGames, developer of Indiana Jones and the Ancient Circle, has adopted a very simple solution to this problem, using one of Indy’s (the game’s protagonist, for those who don’t know what we’re talking about) trusted tools: his camera. Speaking to Edge magazine, game director Jerk Gustafsson explained: ‘With this trick, we were able to include some medium-difficulty puzzles, which is one of my favorite features of the game. We don’t have to worry about making it too easy to get people stuck, which would have been a tough problem to solve otherwise.’
Thus, players can decide when they want a hint, while at the same time giving MachineGames the freedom to create more challenging puzzles. Its use is also something else, as emphasized by design director Jens Andersson: “You get adventure points for every photo you take, so it’s necessary to power up your character. In this way you fill a diary in which you are collecting all the information about the adventure. So it serves as a stimulus to explore.”
Indiana Jones’ camera is a tool that is entirely up to the player to use, whether they take it out to take a picture or simply look at the world around them. According to Andersson: “It helps you see Indy’s point of view on what you’re looking at. Every time you take a picture, Indy comments on it.”
We’ll see if MachineGames’ solution to Indiana Jones and the Ancient Circle’s aid will be effective when it launches on December 6, 2024 for PC and Xbox Series X and S, with the PlayStation 5 version arriving in spring 2025.
#Indiana #Jones #Ancient #Circle #Wont #Atreus #Hints #Players #Trick
