Indiana Jones and the Great Circle's director has said nailing the more open gameplay was the hardest part of making the game.
Machine Games may be proficient in Nazi bashing from its tenure as the Wolfenstein series developer, so Indiana Jones was naturally right up the developer's alley. But despite the timeframe and enemy in common, Indiana Jones is no BJ Blazkowicz and is more into the adventure and artifact collection aspects than the mowing down thousands without holding back of BJ (or his descendant Doomguy). And because of this change in character, naturally both games are different takes, while it has shooting, Indiana Jones is an open-ended adventure game, with combat taking a backseat as opposed to the more linear Wolfenstein games.
Speaking to GamesRadar+'s Josh West at Gamescom 2025, Axel Torvenius, creative director of The Great Circle, talked about developing the game with a different focus in mind. "From an internal studio point of view, it's been one of the most interesting and at the same time challenging aspects of making this."
Torvenius explained, "we have a long history of making, like, very linear, still story driven, but very linear type of gameplay with the Wolfenstein franchise. And when we set out to do this, we kind of knew from the get-go that we wanted to make it more open and more dynamic." However, from the sounds of things the upcoming DLC – The Order of Giants – could be the best of both worlds, as Torvenius explains, "the DLC kind of still reflects that. It's more linear to some extent, than parts of the main game, but there are sections, as you enter the streets of Rome, and specifically underneath the streets of Rome, where it opens up."
Personally, I hope that means Machine Games get the itch again and make a proper Wolfenstein 3 soon, but given the success of The Great Circle, it doesn't feel likely.
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