Indiana Jones in First-Person Just Makes Sense

ign.com:

So, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game. This has come as a bit of a surprise to some people, who likely were expecting a third-person perspective thanks to not just the Great Circle’s movie roots but also Indiana Jones’ influence on the video game industry. But do you really want another Uncharted game where the only significant difference is that your sarcastic hero now wears a hat? After six Uncharted games, a reboot trilogy of Tomb Raiders, and uncountable third-person adventures going back to the dawn of the medium, I think developer MachineGames has made a wise move in making Indiana Jones first-person.

MachineGames’ DNA is coded in first-person. Most of its 15-year existence has been spent working on the critically-acclaimed Wolfenstein FPS games. And before that the developer's founders worked at Starbreeze Studios, which also had great success with first-person games The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

But as game director Jerk Gustafsson explained to Lucasfilm, the decision to make Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as a first-person game comes from more than just relying on studio tradition: “It also separates our game from many other action-adventure titles, making it a unique experience that you cannot find anywhere else.” And, at least on the surface, that’s true – have you played anything in the last few years that looks like what was shown at Xbox’s Developer Direct?

The perspective ensures that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just an Uncharted clone. First-person games operate in very different ways to those in third-person. It’s not just that there’s a different vibe; the camera position affects level, encounter, and puzzle design. It can provide a more claustrophobic feel than a zoomed-out, third-person camera, which is perfect for those tight and winding tombs that Indy constantly finds himself in. And, as demonstrated by games such as Portal and The Talos Principle, first-person