Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s Gina Needs to Break One Franchise Trope

Highlights

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle aims to deliver a classic Indy adventure with all the highlights fans expect, including a female companion in Gina Lombardi.
• The game should move past the cliche of a female companion who falls for Indy, offering a fresh take on the central relationship.
• MachineGames has shown promise in creating strong characterizations, which suggests it can avoid tired storytelling tropes in the Indiana Jones franchise.

Indiana Jones is one of the most iconic action figures in all pop culture, remaining generally popular even when at times the quality and reception of certain entries in the series proved somewhat divisive among fans and critics. There have been a helping of attempts to adapt the character and his pulpy globe-trotting, treasure-hunting feats into video game form going back decades. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, being developed by MachineGames, is the most recent title set to bring Indy to the medium later this year.

At the Xbox Developer Direct showcase, MachineGames gave fans a more in-depth look at what the latest Indiana Jones game will offer. From what was shown, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is aiming to hit all the highlights that would be expected in a classic Indy adventure. Something that usually goes hand-in-hand with Indy stories is a female companion, who, more often than not, ends up being bedfellows with Professor Jones. This trope has been seen so often in the same way that it’s time for MachineGames to either sidestep or move beyond it.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be a Microsoft exclusive day one Game Pass title.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Should Avoid a Stale Series Cliche

Indiana Jones and His Constant Companions

Of the women who have joined Indy on his most well-known adventures:

Each were distinct with interesting backstories and strong personalities. Yet, it was almost inevitable the leading ladies found themselves in the damsel in distress role at some point, and would predictably fall for Indy’s advances eventually, even if, as it usually did, it took a daring escape from a dangerous encounter to act as a narrative excuse for it. Fellow academic Dr. Schneider even outplayed Indy himself, as she was a quintessential femme fatale archetype, although this still led to a tryst with him. Indy’s relationship with most female counterparts is likely to, sooner or later, take a romantic turn. While this was a standard and often expected component of the story and plot dynamics in Indiana Jones, it’s become obvious and overdone.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Could Put a Better Spin on Its Central Relationship

Newcomer Gina Lombardi, an investigative reporter, will be the latest companion to accompany Indy in his upcoming tale. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, meaning its plot will presumably account for events and characterizations seen in those. MachineGames’ previous work on the modern Wolfenstein titles displayed strong storytelling skills alongside tightly designed FPS gameplay. With well-realized and relatable characters, the studio has shown it can create and deliver excellent characterizations in an established IP, starting with B.J. Blazkowicz and expanding out to his circle of trusted friends and fellow resistance members.

This gives good promise that MachineGames will continue to advance bombastic action-centered stories by including more mature and thoughtful character angles, especially when it comes to Gina, and avoid the franchise’s usual trappings in this area. Of course, Indiana Jones has a recognizable demeanor as well, and it will be a balancing act to make him feel familiar and believable without tripping into tired territory. Hopefully, MachineGames has found a way for Gina’s relationship with Indy to evolve in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and be more interesting than the standard fare.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle releases in 2024 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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