MachineGames’ Indiana Jones

[DKDetective]

This is what happens when you have passionate fans of the source material making the game who have all the skills to bring their own vision to life. I'll admit I was originally thrown by it not being third person as I'd always imagined my ideal modern Indy game to be, but I also always had faith in Machine Games, even more so as I read how hardcore into Indy many of them were.

So far every one of my friends who are Indy fans & gamers have said exactly the same on it being (easily) the best Indy material since Crusade.

Speaking of how hardcore fans the team are, they actually got the Raiders hat right! None of the films or other media since have ever gotten the hat right. After the first film was made, the makers of the hat, Herbert Johnson, in London changed their block (basically the mold for the hat), and so from Temple onwards the hats were actually quite different.

As a result a real cottage industry of Indy hat enthusiasts developed and reverse engineered how to make the original har, such that Herbert Johnson was actually replaced by a fan hatmaker for KOTCS. Ford and Spielberg had gotten used to wrong hats from the sequels so they had the fans make the KOTCS hats as a mix between Raiders and Last Crusade.

The promotional art for this game appears to use the Last Crusade hat, but the in-game model is very close to the Raiders hat.

 

[Iceman]

Speaking of how hardcore fans the team are, they actually got the Raiders hat right! None of the films or other media since have ever gotten the hat right. After the first film was made, the makers of the hat, Herbert Johnson, in London changed their block (basically the mold for the hat), and so from Temple onwards the hats were actually quite different.

As a result a real cottage industry of Indy hat enthusiasts developed and reverse engineered how to make the original har, such that Herbert Johnson was actually replaced by a fan hatmaker for KOTCS. Ford and Spielberg had gotten used to wrong hats from the sequels so they had the fans make the KOTCS hats as a mix between Raiders and Last Crusade.

The promotional art for this game appears to use the Last Crusade hat, but the in-game model is very close to the Raiders hat.

Thanks for that very interesting hat-history lesson!

I'll nominate you as a consultant for the next game with that level of inside knowledge.

 

[DKDetective]

Thanks for that very interesting hat-history lesson!

I'll nominate you as a consultant for the next game with that level of inside knowledge.

Thanks, but I'm an amateur. There is a whole forum of real experts on this stuff, just like there are folks at RP who know exactly what vintage flashbulbs and other parts you need to make an exact replica of the OT Lightsabers.

 

[Deck Rickard]

So I haven’t played this yet but apparently it’s great. Does that finally buy Todd Howard some goodwill among gamers or has the YouTube community determined that he mostly contributed nothing to this game and thus will he continue to be branded as the Talentless Hack Who Ruined Everything in Gaming Forever?

 

[DKDetective]

So I haven’t played this yet but apparently it’s great. Does that finally buy Todd Howard some goodwill among gamers or has the YouTube community determined that he mostly contributed nothing to this game and thus will he continue to be branded as the Talentless Hack Who Ruined Everything in Gaming Forever?

Well, to be fair, Howard was basically just in an indirect studio exec role regarding the development of this game.

It wasn't even his team or studio who developed it. It was MachineGames who is owned by the same parent company as Bethesda (pre-Microsoft purchase). The things that are great about this game are very much consistent with MachineGames' past work going back 20 years to this game's spiritual predecessor, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Howard hated the idea of them casting Troy Baker as Indy and was annoyed when all of the test audiences loved him. It was the director at Machine Games who fought to cast Baker as Indy.

Now to be fair to Howard, he is kinda like George Lucas where he does best with strong collaborators who stand up to him and push him beyond his very vanilla sensibilities. He was the project lead on Morrowind, which remains one of my favourite games of all time. Thankfully, he had Michael Kirkbride as the lead artist and writer to offset him and push him there.

As Howard has become in unchallenged control at Bethesda, without anyone to challenge him creatively, their work product has become more and more uninspired and boring. Howard's indirect role here, with strong studio leads to challenge him probably had a strong effect in making sure his influence was only positive here.

 

[Drizzle]

 

[DKDetective]

It's also part of a side quest where you help a Vatican priest find his missing cat.

 

[Gee]

I watched a streamer play this. The scene where

Spoiler

a soldier confesses to "Father Indy" about sleeping with his MIL and knocking her up.

That gave me a good laugh. The kind of humour I quite enjoyed from Machine Games' Wolfenstein games.

 

[DKDetective]

I watched a streamer play this. The scene where

Spoiler

a soldier confesses to "Father Indy" about sleeping with his MIL and knocking her up.

That gave me a good laugh. The kind of humour I quite enjoyed from Machine Games' Wolfenstein games.

I've been sending that scene to people to convince them that the game nails the Indy tone/humour. It was so good.

 

[JazzyCrusader]

I'm going to start playing it sometime this week. I don't want to sound too surprised, but I'm really impressed with its reviews. It's making me even more excited to start playing!

 

[psylockolussus]

I wouldn't be surprised if its nominated next year for GOTY.

I still dislike the first person camera perspective, but the word of mouth is really good.

 

[DKDetective]

@Iceman MachineGames are even bigger Indy hat nerds than we realized. Not only did they nail the Raiders hat but they have incorporated the different variations from the movie into the game.

Crisp, clean "Idol Grab" Hat in the opening scenes and levels becomes the sandy, distressed "Streets of Cairo" Hat when you get to Egypt.

 

[Iceman]

@Iceman MachineGames are even bigger Indy hat nerds than we realized. Not only did they nail the Raiders hat but they have incorporated the different variations from the movie into the game.

Crisp, clean "Idol Grab" Hat in the opening scenes and levels becomes the sandy, distressed "Streets of Cairo" Hat when you get to Egypt.

This is the kind of crazy dedication I need from devs!

What a perfect match MG & Indy have been.

My friend who is a huge Indy fan (Raiders his absolute no.1 all time film) but decades behind on gaming is having his mind blown right now by the experience.

 

[Dave McFly]

I know this has been said before but Troy Baker NAILS the indy voice!

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Mani-Man]

True that.
I think Indiana Jones is an IP that has a lot to offer in terms of video games.
Something like what machinegames did, you could do a modern point and click, you can do a puzzle focused game, i still think a Uncharted like third person game would be awesome etc.
There is just so much potential in the IP in the games market.

 

[henzINNIT]

Happy for Indy fans that this has turned out nicely. I love a good licensed game. There's so many I'd love to see get similar attention.