Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to side Quest. This is our weekly
video game show here at geek Versus. I am your host,
the little guy that packs a punch, Dillan must and
I have with me the giant Taylor Field. How are
you doing today, my friend.
Speaker 2: I'm doing good. I am happy to be here for
what we're gonna be talking about because this had a
little bit of a delay to it.
Speaker 1: Lest Yeah, yeah, it's true this and we announced that
on side Quest too, but the release day of this
game was confusing because there was an early access period
that you could pay extra four, but then like the
actual release date was like a Tuesday, which is very
odd for games, or Monday night or something like that.
So yeah, we're kind of thrown off there a little
bit with the release date. But here we are to
talk about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. You're also
getting a second episode of side Quest this week, talking
about the game awards and games have been playing that
kind of that's the standard side Quest episode, but this
is a little offshoot, a little separate thing here, just
to talk all about Indiana Jones. That's what you can
expect here today. So I'll keep it quick. On the
plugs and we can get right into it. Really, I
think the main thing I want to show out here
is like, if you're an Indiana Jones fan and you
want more content, well, last year in the lead up
to Dial Destiny, we did a retrospective of all of
the movies that exist, and then we also of course
did a review of Dial Destiny. So if you want
to go check with that stuff, there's many more hours
of Indiana Jones content. And then other than that, hit
over Patren you get episodes early and add free. A
big shout out to our Patron producers Aaron Braden, April
of Darkness, Jack Grant, Mud, Sam Superbud, Mike TGGLM six
' nine, Jeremy Runner, and Charlie Randell. So thank you
all all of you for keeping the lights on here,
letting us keep making beautiful content here, and in this case,
two side quest episodes in a week, which is kind
of fun. We're gonna get right into it here, Taylor,
Little Indiana Jones action. So as we mentioned this games,
we note for about a week now we've had a
chance to play it in terms of some table setting here.
I beat the game last night. Finally it took me
about I want to say around fifteen hours, and I
kind of mainlined it, but definitely did a couple syquists
here there. And then Taylor, from our conversation, it sounds
like you're just about i'd say, over halfway kind of
at the end of the I don't know if you've
played more. Have you played play more?
Speaker 2: And I feel like I'm kind of on my way
out the door out of Giza.
Speaker 1: Okay, Okay, sounds good. So that's yeah to my estimation,
about halfway through the game. And yeah, so I guess
my other question for you right off the top, boys,
have you ever played any other Machine Games things? So
they didn't make all the Wolfenstein games they've made the
recent Quake stuff. Have you played any of their games
prior to this?
Speaker 2: Oh, I haven't played any of the recent Quake. I
played some of the older.
Speaker 1: Okay, I think they only worked on the motor because
I think Machine Games is a pretty new studio, like
formed like twenty ten or something like that. So yeah,
I played a little bit of wolf and Stein. I
bought one, I'm pretty sure, and I haven't and I
haven't revisited yet.
Speaker 2: And then the old ones I used to play a
lot of the old ones. I don't know if they
had their hand in those.
Speaker 1: Hold No, I don't think. I mean maybe some of
this ones, maybe some of the team members did, Yeah,
but I think they they were kind of formed past
the floppy disc era. As for myself, it's really short.
I've only played Wolfenstein Young Blood, which is kind of
a weird one to go to. But I kind of
wanted like a quick, shorter Wolfenstein game to play earlier
this year, just to get in the get in the
mood of Machine games and see what they've made before.
And I plan to go through some more of them
because they have been recommended to me over the years,
But played through young Blood earlier this year, which talked
about on side Quest, so you can go back and
check that out if you want. So we're both kind
of you know, green and the Gills here when it
comes to the U. I guess machine games as a developer,
But yeah, to talk about the game, I think normally
on a side quest review, we're moreally talking about like
impressions or as we're going through things we don't normally
do like a big review episode. It happens every once
in a while, but when we do. We don't really
normally do like a spoiler free section like a typical review.
I think we should do that in this case for
a couple of reasons. One, it's Indiana Jones. It's a
very like story focused game, and I think for a
lot of people, a lot of people are going to
pick this up on PlayStation when comes out there in
a few months, and so maybe people just want to
get a little impressions now and then they're gonna play
the game in a while. So we'll just do, like,
I don't know, a few minutes here talking about the
game in a very non spoilery light or spoiler light way,
and then we'll kind of announce when we're going to
go deeper into spoilers and we talk more about that
stuff for people who just want to get a taste.
It's also, like, you know, fairly long game, longer than
I would have expected, I guess. I mean, fifteen hours
didn't seem like much, but it seems like I kind
of blasted through it pretty quick relative other timelines I've heard,
so yeah, some people might take a while to get
through it. So yeah, I guess just throwing it over you, Taylor,
how are you feeling about this game as you're about
halfway through here, what are your impressions thus.
Speaker 2: Far, I'd say it's very positive. I've had one very
very nasty bug that occurred, and it was it's basically
like a gameplay inhibitor. You can't continue, and I fear
the worst. If I had to google, I'll just I'll
just put this out there now. I had to google
a fix for it, because otherwise the only fix would
be to restart your game altogether. And basically what happens
is your whip mechanic and using things in your inventory.
You basically can't when you get a little prompt to
use your right bumper to throw your whip up, basically
just not do that. It basically is a bug that
acts as everything that you can use. It's ridiculous, and
so you cannot progress further on. And so the fix
to that is basically go back to you can load
certain points where you started before other missions. Thank god
you could do that, because yeah.
Speaker 1: I did fast traveling essentially to like a previous location.
Speaker 2: You mean, uh no, So basically reloading a previous save,
I guess is what I meant. And so you reload
that previously save before the bug occurred.
Speaker 1: Gotcha. But question about that because I like, as far
as I can tell, there aren't any save slots, So
how does that work? Because the game just auto saves.
I didn't know there was what would actually make a manual.
Speaker 2: It does auto save, And I can't remember how I
got into it, but you go into maybe from the
menu or something you can do it from from ye
when you hit your start button and you go into
like your there's there's a page you can go into
and you can select different chapters and different parts of
your story that you you saved. And so I first
went way too far back. I went to like the
very start of the game, and I was like, oh,
this is too much, and I went back into that menu,
was like, oh, okay, I can go back up and
see like where I can choose where I want to
drop back into the storyline. So you just if you
encounter this bug, you just got to revert back to
a point in the story before this bug happens, and
then you can just you can play okay, But there's
there's a point in the game that I think a
lot of people feel it kind of occurring. Hopefully they
get a fixed for it, because it's really it was
really disheartening. I got all this this way and I
had to redo a whole bunch of stuff.
Speaker 1: That's frustrating.
Speaker 2: Other than that, I think the story is very engaging.
I'm a little bit on the fence about how the
gameplay feels. Some of the stuff I'm not particularly fond of,
but I am enjoying. I'm enjoying a lot of just
I'm enjoying it and kind of send me not enjoying it,
but I'm definitely on the side of more so enjoying
it because you literally are doing everything. If you're putting
a key into a lock, you're turning that key as well,
like if you are moving lavers or anything like. They
are making sure that you are actively a part of
every single aspect of this game, so you feel much
more immersed And I respect that and I appreciate that
because it's a very immersive story and they've really done
a great job at capturing Indiana Jones. I don't I
don't recall the voice actor's name, but he's fantastic, Okay,
he like gosh, he is just on point. The way
that they do the cinematics. It catches me off guard
when it'll be like I feel like six seven minutes
goes by and I'm just getting this whole long cut scene.
I'm like, I'm digging this. This is fantastic. So many
things just make this a wonderful successor. And I'm glad
that this is an actual Cannon story that's just slided
into the Indiana Jones movies because they do a really
really good job with this. And don't get me wrong,
I would be happy to have this as an actual movie.
I would be so down for that. But I think
that this has proven itself to be a very, very
worthy successor for this franchise. I remember reading an article
about how a game like this would actually be evident
on a future direction for sequels instead that if you're
instead of doing like a movie kind of thing, a
legacy sequel or something like that, basically do something like
this because you can actually you can flush things out more,
you can make it a little bit more of a
true experience. Then maybe just I don't know, copping out
on fandom and that nostalgia of doing like a legacy sequel,
where most legacy sequels and maybe don't always get the
best reviews. I was telling Travis that after we played
some of this game, he was playing it, I was
playing it, that man, they should do this for Star
Wars because I think that that would just be a huge,
untapped kind of market. We've had so many other takes
on it, but this on a Star Wars scale would
be absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 1: Well where do you differentiate this from Star Wars Outlaws
that came out?
Speaker 2: Star Wars Outlaws is just so open world, and I
was afraid, like, I'm at a point in my life where, like,
you know what, the open world stuff it's just getting
a little bit too far out for me. I just
don't have that kind of level of commitment. But this
where it feels open world, but it's still contained and
it doesn't feel overwhelming. It's like, Okay, you know, you
get objectives, you can do different things, but it's not
this whole, whole massive world. It's it's it's still a
forward pushing narrative and I actually feel like, Okay, everything
in here is within reason. I can muck around for
a bit and spend a few hours here and do this,
but it's not it doesn't feel like a huge, huge
time sink like it can be if you have no
idea what you're doing, and you're stuck on some puzzles.
Speaker 1: Pick up every piece of medicine, pick up every relic. Yeah,
you could really that time count.
Speaker 2: Yeah. But other than that, I just I think it's
just it's it's proven itself to be engaging for me
because it's just this consistent narrative, moving the story forward
and everything like that. And that's where I kind of
differentiated from Outlaws. Outlaws was just it got so overwhelming
and there's just so much going on and all this stuff.
But this they've got so many appropriate little details and
so many fun little things, and the dynamic between the characters.
I love all these characters and this way, I love
the the villain. And there's one moment I can't talk
to you about because it's it's hilarious and there's just
there's so many Indiana jonesisms in this game. They really
nail it. And Yeah, I think that this is This
is a great game and I highly highly recommend it
if you have not tried it yet. Very nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's funny hearing you described this. I didn't
have that game breaking bug as you as you did,
But I feel like otherwise I had a very similar
trajectory to you, but then things may be changed in
the second half of the game. So I think that
the best way I can really describe this for myself
was that I feel like this is a great Indiana
Jones movie. I think all that element of it is
is stellar, like the same same as you like. I
think that the story is very fun. Like the cinematography
is really great in this. It feels like a like
a movie in that way, just the certain camera angles
of the way it's like following an action scene or
that's just characters talking or conversation, the voice acting in
the characters across the board. I'm really enjoying them. Voss,
as you mentioned the main villain there, I think he
is so fun. I'm not gonna say I like him
because he's a Nazi, but like as a villain, he's
very entertaining. The game's funny, and like I feel like
a lot of games when they are funny, it's because
of like jankie mechanics or maybe just like silly crazy
things happening, like a Hitman. But in this I feel
like it's just, oh, it's just well written, and because
of that that's why it is funny, which is kind
of a rare thing for me in like video game stories.
So yeah, and in terms of it being like an
Indiana Jones movie, I think it's it's great in that way.
And as you mentioned too, like I think I saw
an interview before it came out that there's like about
almost four hours worth of just straight up cut scenes
in this game, like like you know, straight up like
kind of filmed cut scenes with specific camrangles and all
that sort of stuff. So that's like, that's a long
Indiana Jones movie. And then you add in like the
character things and the story stuff that's happening in between
actual cut scenes. There's a lot here, really, I guess,
feels more like a TV show of an Indiana Jones
thing rather than like just one movie. And I think
on the opposite side of things, it's with the gameplay
where I feel like this is where it was a
great movie. I feel like it's a pretty mediocre game
and that really changed for me in the second half specifically,
and that's not an uncommon thing for games. I think
a lot of games really try and make those first
areas super duper good so that people who just play
a bit of the game, or are just getting into it,
love the game right off the bat, and hopefully stick
with it, or if they only played a bit, they
have a good impression of it, and then usually those
later levels get a little bit less iteration, a little
bit less content, and that kind of feels like the
case here, and just in terms of some of the
design of the later areas. So it's funny like to
where you are in the game. I feel like I
was very, very hot on the experience, and then in
that back half it really kind of dropped off. But
I think there's a lot of little things like the
combat in this it's very messy, which leads to at
times some really fun like slapstick moments, which feel very
fitting for the franchise. Then other times it feels so
messy that I can't really get a handle on it.
Or you get so many enemies eggered on you what
one time, it's like, I don't know how you're possibly
supposed to fight all these guys. Like I've seen clips
on Reddit and people are really good at this game,
but I am not a time I'm like, I feel
like I'm a pretty mediocre player. But some of these
things feel impossible. I think the stealth is like really
under baked, and that's definitely like a bias thing because
I play so much Dishonored and hit Man and other
stealth games that I maybe have a little bit higher
expectations there. I think the puzzles are generally okay, but
none of them are like particularly great, and some of
them don't make any sense. And I had to look
up some walkthroughs and like, I don't know what you
want from me here. There's not enough guidance. And I think,
really the biggest point against this is kind of what
I said earlier, is like the pacing there is I'll
say this without spoiling the location. There is a water
focused area in the back half of the game, and
that was like three hours of my life that I
wish I could get back. It was awful. I hated
almost every second of that other than like the character
story stuff, but the actual gameplay of that area just
I was parrying my hair out. I was so mad
playing through it.
Speaker 2: Which is times Water Temple.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's classic water stuff, right, every game's gonna have
a bad water level, you know. And then some of
the other stuff with like the second half of the
game a lot more linear, and I think some of
that is okay, but it's not fantastic. There's one area
that a very cold location, I'll say, and I did
like that part a lot. So yeah, I'm feeling kind
of mixed on the game overall, and even some of
those earlier areas, I felt like there was so much freedom,
as you mentioned early on, but I can bring up
some examples when we get into the spoiler section of
how I felt like that freedom kind of faded away
a little bit when I was pulling more on some
of these strings. So I can talk a little bit
more of that in a bit, But I think that's
kind of my overall thought. Considering how expensive games are
these days, Is this a recommendation for you? We're both
playing through game Pass, so it feels like a much
easier pill to swallow. But let's say there's the PlayStation
listeners out there who trying to get an idea of
they should pick this game up when it comes over there,
and they have to pay ninety bucks for eighty bucks?
Is this a recommended recommendation for you? Only if you're
a super big Indiana Jones fan. Where would you put
that recommendation.
Speaker 2: If you're a super big India Jones fan, and I'd
say buy it, buy it now. If you are, you know,
just scraping by and you're trying to save some dollars
this Christmas whatnot or just in the New year, then
I think you could get away with waiting for a sale.
If even if it was to go five ten bucks off,
that's a win and you could buy it then. But
if I guess, like I said, if you're a big
fan and you love Nina Jones and the stories that
you know we've seen so far, then I think this
is the game for you, because it's just it's pulled
me in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a I completely agree with that.
Any other non spoilers thing I'm gonna bring in Clay's question,
but do you have any any other non spoilers thing
you'd like to mention right now? I guess music, you know,
they pull all of those themes in here, but the
new stuff's really great as well. Also, I want to
say this that I feel like when I saw the
trailers for this game one, I thought it was gonna
be very different in structure, Like I didn't think it'd
be as open as it is at times, but also
I thought the game looked not great and the trailers. Like,
visually speaking, this game is beautiful. I think the cut scenes,
you know, not quite that top echelon, But when you're
just walking around the world, you're in like vaticated and
like the lighting and like the tiles and all the
art on the wall, and obviously in terms of historic
relics and things like that, this game is beautiful when
you're actually in game. That's that's one thing I feel
like really misled me a little bit from seeing those trailers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree. Visually it's just astounding. There's lots of
things to discover, and you don't have to feel like
you're rush to go through like the main story, because
you can just invest yourself in an area for a
very long time if you want, and just indulge and explore.
And they've done a really good job at giving you
different things that you can engage with and have fun with.
And yeah, like there's a lot of surprises in here,
a lot of surprises that I was not expecting, and
I really do appreciate it. And as much as I
wasn't a fan of the way the movements were and such.
At the beginning, you kind of like, Okay, you click
into it and it kind of kind of makes sense
as you kind of progress further through the the story.
But other than that, yeah, score is great. Everything about
this just feels like Indiana Jones and it's just a
dang good time.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, So let's just bring in
Clay's question here and then we can go to our
first a break and get to the spoilery stuff. But yes,
do you think that the positive reviews of Great Circle,
if paired with good sales, could lead to more Indiana
Jones movies or video game content? If so, would you
be comfortable with that moving forward without Harrison Ford or
would you rather keep his likeness and stay in video
game format. So, I mean, I think, first of all,
even if this game does sell amazingly, which I think
it will sell pretty well, especially when it hits PlayStation,
I think that's gonna capture a big part of the
audience because this seems like I feel like the kind
of people who typically buy a PlayStation are into games
like this. Maybe I don't know necessarily the Indiana Jones ip,
because that's just kind of like an old man ip
I feel like at this point, but in terms of
like the gameplay style, it feels kind of like one
of those prestige PlayStation sort of games. I don't think
this is going to lead you a movie in any
sort of way, just because of how much dialedness any bombed,
Like it was a pretty big bomb for them, lost
Disney a lot of money, so I don't think they're
gonna take that risk now. I think in the future
they could try it again, but I think that maybe
they would, I don't know, try a TV show or
a special or I don't know, something else, just to
see if the general audience is more into that before
maybe dipping into a big movie. But I think if
this does sell well, I could definitely see Machine Games
just working on Indiana Jones games for the next decade
and just make like a trilogy of games or something
like that. And I think I'd be down for that,
even though if I have issues with this game, I
feel like that's the kind of stuff that would get
cleaned up in a second game, Like the story stuff
they nailed. I think it would just be gameplay that
I'd like to see her find in that sequel. But yeah,
I think that this could definitely lead more games if
it sells well, but not a movie. Even if this sold,
even if it was the best selling game of the year,
if it sold twenty million video game copies, I don't
think Disney would green light a movie because of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question, and I think that the
success of this will definitely warrant another game a follow up.
I think as well, though, that you could see something
live action. But Dialad Destiny definitely did set them back
a bit, and it's unfortunate because that was the last
hurrah with Harrison Ford technically, I mean, that was him
donning the character once more. But we also know that
they successfully did the deaging thing, and we got a
whole sequence of a young Indiana Jones and that movie.
So you take that and you take this voice actor,
and you put them together, and you've got a pretty
dang spot on Indiana Jones because that deaging tech is
just going to be getting better. And as the weeks
turned to months and months turned to years. But I
think unfortunately with Dialad Destiny, it was really just the
story and some of the relations with the characters and
whatnot that just didn't pan out, and there just wasn't
a lot of like juice or sustenance and a lot
of Indianism's in that movie necessarily at least for me.
And then when you look at this game, it's like,
holy crap, this is living, breathing Indiana Jones right here,
Like this is a fantastic game and the story feels
like Indiana Jones. And it just makes me wonder because
you have people writing these movies, and you give people
write in the games, and so what are the headspaces
between the two? Because I think if they wanted to
do another live action project with an India Jones, then
they should get writers that are thinking the way that
these writers are, because these writers clearly know how to
write a fleshed out Indiana Jones story that is a
great successor to the original one that everybody loves. So
I think that's one of the big hiccups. They just
got to make sure they get the right team and
the right minds that are writing up a good story because,
like you said, Voss and all these their characters, like, ah,
they're so good like you just you love to hate
them and you hate to like them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean even like the side characters, Like I
love that every shopkeeper in this game is like a
named character, and not all of them has like a
fleshed out storyline, but they all have like a unique voice.
They have a name. Before you can bind anything from them,
you have to talk to them and have like a
full on cuteane conversation. And then like all the supporting
cast as well, like each area kind of has like
a support character who's helping you through that particular location.
For the most part, I really enjoy all those characters too,
And it's not like they all have a huge arc
or something like that. It's just the little things of
the performance. They have a cool look, they have a
good demeanor, all that kind of stuff that I feel like, yeah,
as you mentioned, like it's not just Indy and the
villain like they get, they get the whole cast, right.
That feels like, yeah, a roster that could fit in
kind of these movies. And then I guess the other
part of that question moving forward without Harrison Ford, I
feel like that's just something that would you know, in
nobably twenty years from now, when we get like an
Indiana Jones reboot situation and they have Indiana Jones again
and it is Indiana Jones, but it's just a new
guy playing him. I think that's when you could maybe
go for that kind of thing, but right now it
wouldn't really make sense. And I think even like, you know,
Harrison Ford, I don't know how old he is, but
like he's probably not gonna live for another twenty years,
so like at some point there will even be that
cool down period where people be like, oh, it's too
soon Harrison Ford past the play, Like we don't want
like some other guy playing this iconic character. So that's
where I think it would take a while. I don't
I don't think I would want Troy Baker to transfer
over to the live action side of it. He has
done some live action stuff, like he was in the
Last of Us show, if anyone doesn't know, he plays
Joel in the Last of Us and then in the
TV show he played like a minor character in there,
but obviously that was live action. I don't know if
I'd want that, but I think he should definitely hopefully
stick around and continue to voice this character for a while,
because at times I did like Troy Baker is such
a noticeable voice that I sometimes just picking it out
as him him trying to be Harrison for but then
other times I feel like he really completely faded into it.
So I feel like he did just a really good
job obviously there. So uh yeah, I guess do you
have any any thoughts on that second part of the
question in terms of what they would do without Harrison
Harrison Ford or recasting that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: Ooh again, I just think they would they would resort
to the de aging CGI stuff and yeah, just find
a a voice actor or maybe he's just get I mean,
with the way AI is working now and all that
kind of stuff, I mean, Harrison Ford just has to
say a bunch of words and then AI can just
generate him saying anything. Really, it's kind of crazy. Uh
you do you.
Speaker 1: Know what's funny about you saying that? As There was
a controversy a couple of years ago where Troy Baker,
the voice actor of Indiana Jones here, he like signed
up with like an nft AI voice company for like
them to use his and his voice in doing exactly
what you're saying there, And then I think he like
pulled out of it when like everyone on the internet
was like, fuck you, why are you doing this like
this is awful for voice actors and everyone in the
whole industry. So it's funny that you say that because
there's some precedent there, and I mean, hey, if he's
willing to do it, and like Indiana Jones can continues
with his voice, then there you go. Maybe there's a
possibility for that he could make some big money by
like being a Harrison Ford impersonator and like selling his
voice out to NFT. Well maybe not NFT companies because
I don't think that's gonna be around for too long,
but AI Voice companies I'm sure will be huge forward.
So that's that's funny.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's take our first ad break and then we
will get into some spoilers. We will be right back. Okay,
we are back, all right. Spoilers. I guess here's where
Taylor is here at the end of Giza, presumably just
locking down this final mission or two, So that's kind
of where the spoilers will be broken out into. I
don't really feel the need to spoil anything beyond that.
As I mentioned, I like the snowy cold area, uh,
and then the water I absolutely hate, but I don't
really feel the need to spoil anything beyond that, especially
for you, Taylor, like I guess you will. I'm guessing
you do plan on seeing this game.
Speaker 2: I'm planning to see this game, yeah, through. And I
was gonna say, can I just make like a my
prediction or assumption of where I think this is going.
Speaker 1: And you want me to confirm or deny these things?
Speaker 2: One guess I'll do. One guess that's sure. Are we
going to be like looking into like Noah's Arc kind
of stuff?
Speaker 1: There is some Noah's Ark stuff in here, Okay, sure, yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, I only the trajectory of that stems from certain
things in the Vatican. There's certain symbolisms. And then the
big thing with this story being the Nephilim and the
giants and how like I know Noah's Ark, like the
flood was supposed to come in. Everything about this story
and that kind of the religious aspect, I've been eating
it up and it's just it's just fascinating and wonderful
to be touching on all these different historical aspects and
just seeing it brought to life in this game. But
like the flood comes in supposed to wipe out the Nephilim,
and everything because they fallen angels, we're sleeping with humans.
And then they had giants the Nephilim, which people think
is bigfoot as well, which is why I was getting
super excited that this game was just diving into all
this stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, I'll say I did not see any bigfoots, but
once again, I did do all the side quests. Maybe
there's a big foot side quest. But I mean, dude,
you are truly embodying Indiana Jones. You're figuring out here,
like good, good read on the cap. I think you'll
be satisfied with Yeah, the ways that goes there, But
I mean, it's it's like a dance game. There's a
lot to it, and obviously you're going you're globe trotting,
so you're finding like all sorts of mysteries from all
over the place. Right, there's a ton of locations in
this game. But okay, yeah, going forward, I guess we
probably won't really be spoiling anything very specific beyond geez up.
But now that's like fully fully broken open, so we
can we can get into that. I guess we can
maybe just start from the beginning and and just the
first area is really more of a shout out, but
kind of recreating the Raids of the Lost Arc opening sequence.
I mean, I think that one that's like a fun
little tutorial section of like learn the controls, walk around
a little bit. And that's also when I was immediate like,
oh wow, this game looks great. Like visually it looks fantastic,
except for maybe some of the character faces at times.
But that sequence was really fun. It was really cool
to get to play through that, and I think it
was I think it was framed while in the story
of like it was like a nightmare, right and it
like wakes up from it or thinking back on it
kind of thing. So I really I really liked that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was really unexpected, and that's one
of the things immediately that made me just kind of
want and crave for a Star Wars experience like this,
a game like this that is Star Wars oriented, but
they do a flashback and I couldn't even imagine it,
like just getting to experience something Star Wars related like
they did with the beginning of Writers of the Lost Star.
Speaker 1: What's you keep mentioned this Star Wars thing, Like is
there a specific character you're wanting this sort of experience from.
Speaker 2: I was when I saw this, and I thought, wow,
just that but translated to something in the original trilogy.
It could be I don't know, any one of just
Luke doing something. It could be Han solo, whatever character
they picked, or I mean, heck, like even like Anakin
or like a Jedi. I don't know, something like that.
There's just it's a sandbox. And for them to well,
for them to not just create their own like Indiana
Jones doing his own thing, sure, but actually do this
homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark and having him
here and just as you said, using this as a tutorial,
it was great. Everyone. Whenever people think when you hear
any of Jones, you think about this, this moment, this
Raiders of the Lost Ark is definitely in this scene
in particular, this is what my mind goes to, even
though we have so many other movies to to think
about as well. But the ball rolling behind Indie and
him switching the little figure on the pedestal with the
bag of sand, and then him just escaping, all of
that is just what's implanted in my mind when I
think any of Jones, and so to actually get to
experience that and be moving and it's like frame for
frame what the movie was, but your experience there you know, yes,
I don't I doubt he voiced it, but Atli's goetting
in there. So that was just that was great. It
was a really really good starting point and everything that
followed the setup and just again Marcus Brody popping in there.
It was just so much fun. And again this is
where it's just it puts its foot down and you
really know, Okay, this is Indiana Jones. This is an
experience and it is very, very immersive, and so I'm
very thankful that they managed to pull that off because
it could have gone so bad, but it just puts
that right flavor in your mouth and you just want more,
so you keep going mm hmm.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and then the next section and then after
this we can kind of more go all over the place.
But yeah, the next section being like the college more
of an introductory area and really kind of I guess
that's kind of like the act one of this movie,
really setting the scene of like the adventure you're about
to go on, and maybe like dipping into Vaticant too.
That's when you kind of are making more of these
grander connections and that kind of sets you off on
the globe trotting journey. Yeah, I don't think there's much
to say college on the College is a gameplay wise,
like it's a pretty simple section, pretty short as well.
But that's also when you get introduced to the to
the Giant and I guess that's something I should have
mentioned when we were talking about Clay's question there, But
like that is in terms of like the future of
Bana Jones. Well, next, there is a DLC for this
game that is confirmed and they've talked about, and it's
called The Order of Giants, and that's part of the
pre order bonus that they had, which the pre order
if you get like the Premium edition upgrade from the
Game Pass version, was forty bucks. I don't know if
that's how much the DLC will be or if it'll
be a bit cheaper. I think it's another thing too.
Like I as much as I've enjoyed but also not
enjoyed other parts of this game, I don't think i'd
I don't think i'd be shelling out forty bucks to
play like the DLC section for it unless I heard
it was just super good or maybe based on the
locations that it takes place in But yeah, I should
have mentioned that earlier, that there is technically already are
kind of next step for what's gonna come for you,
Nano Jones will be that DLC, which I imagine would
come out next year, would be my guess. Maybe they
try and tie it with the PlayStation release or something
like that. But anyway, I just wanted to throw that
out there quickly. But yeah, any any thoughts on the
college section of this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it was it was neat to just
kind of explore and kind of just think, okay, yeah,
you're picking up things, you're examining things and whatnot. Yeah,
it was. It was fun. It was neat to just
because this is an iconic location from from the franchise.
So yeah, it was just a good stepping stone, I guess.
Speaker 1: So what do you think about the combat in this game?
How would you describe it? How would you explain this
combat as someone who hasn't played it.
Speaker 3: I do, I'm not a big fan of it, and
I'm amazed, and I give them props for how many
things you can pick up and use his weapons, but
I don't find it very consistent when I'm trying to
knock guys out from behind or when I'm trying to
actually like fight and whatnot.
Speaker 2: Like you can repair certain weapons that you have, which
is great.
Speaker 1: I never used that once, Like were you supposed to
repair improvised weapons or I thought it was more for
your gun, like your gun will jam at some point.
I did not.
Speaker 2: So you can use your gun as a melee weapon,
and so that's when it breaks and you have to
and so that's the only time I've ever actually ever
had to use it because I don't have any melee
weapons around. I had to whip the gun out to
do some extra damage, and then I have to repair
it and so forth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, gotcha. Yeah. I think that there was a lot
of fun but also a lot of frustration when it
came to the combat in this game. I love the
improvised weapon system. I just think it's so fun to
pick up like a dirty toilet brush or like a
guitar or a violin or a wrench. The wrench felt
very purposeful because I feel like this game shares a
little bit in common with like immersive sims like there,
especially in Vatican City. Man. There there's a level in
dishonor two called the Dust district and I was like this,
it feels exactly like dust districts. Obviously, if it's given
me dishonored vibes, it's a good vibe. But in general,
like some of the things in the multiple ways you
can use certain items, like the whip is a combat thing.
It helps you with puzzles, it helps you traversal. It
feels like it's a very immersive sim thing, And I
feel like a lot of immersive sims have like a
wrench in them. That was like system Shock had a wrench,
it's main weapon. Prey had a wrench in there, and
so I feel like that was intentional. That's one of
the things you can pick up in this game. But
I really love that you know pickaxes their sledgehammers and
kind of like the different tiers within them. I agree
with you, there was definitely inconsistency of one. Like I
feel like most kids that have like where you can
sneak up behind someone and do like a stealth takedown.
It's like that's just a one button prompt thing, so
you don't have to like get the timing right. But
I feel like in this like I'll charge it sometimes,
but like if I don't charge it up fully, maybe
it won't do the like takedown animation. Then other people
maybe you just can't do it on them. And then
if someone's wearing like a helmet, often you like can't
one shot them, I've noticed, but like that also didn't
seem to be consistent. Some people with helmets you could
one shot. So yeah, there was in terms of the
stealth takedown, I feel like I was it was a
gamble fifty to fifty every time if it was gonna
work out, But otherwise, like yeah, so mixing improvised weapons
which just like hand to hand combat and the whip,
which you can like knock weapons out of people's hands
seems like in Traders and stuff, I feel like you
can grab people with the whip and like pull them over.
I feel like I could never figure that out. I
also feel like grabbing. I could never figure out how
to like consistently grab someone and like suck them, not
suck them, suck them in the face with a punch.
Speaker 2: Is that like the parrying or actually grabbing the character?
Speaker 1: There is like a straight up grab as well, Like
maybe it's from a parry, maybe you have to block
first and then grab it that's the thing. I could
not figure it out consistently. I eventually realized in the combat,
like you can change the settings, you can change the difficulty.
You can also do like custom setting and change like
all sorts of specific things. And one of the things
you can do is make it so that once you
if you're blocking, you'll automatically perfect Perry if someone talks
a taxi while you're blocking. And I turned that on
for the last few sections of the game, and I
really like that. I think that added a lot to
the combat for me and I having to do the
timing and just getting like that ability.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I found like I think maybe my one
of my biggest stopping points of the combat was like
the stamina just felt really limited. I feel like I've
very quickly burned through it. And yes, you can eat
fruit to boost your stamina, and I'm sure there's books
you can get that increase it as well, but maybe
I just wasn't getting those things or using them enough.
But I found the combat really challenging at times, Like
if I was ever having to fight like three people
or more, I would be reloaded to save, like there's
no way I'm gonna win this encounter that point, especially
with people firing guns, people smacking with weapons, I feel
like you go down pretty quick in this game. So
I found it kind of challenging. In general, I.
Speaker 2: Relied on Gina a lot. It was my partner. There
was one brigod distraction I had to go. It was
going through the I was in Giza and it was
the excavation escape and it's right before you get that
whole cut seat with Voss and like his his kernel
guy and there was this.
Speaker 1: I love that cut scene, by the way, so it
was funny. Great when he pops to the floor, just
drop it in like all these little quips. I thought
that section was super fun.
Speaker 2: I don't know how you could move that floorboard without
being detected. I feel like stuff would fall, like that
was nailed in. I just keet to my mind. But
there was that back alley there with three guys and
I jumped in. I didn't know there was three guys there,
and so I was like, oh crap. So I fought
one and then I was like, I got a bandage up,
so I backed off and then Gina just takes on
the other two. It just knocks him down. It was great,
So she's a good teammate. But that that cut scene
though that he mentioned it. There's a moment there when
you have Voss and the colonel and they were about
to like kill each other almost but after Indy and
Gina drop in and you get this whole thing going on.
Gina gets knocked out but fires a shot. It grazes
past the German colonel and it it hits the painting
of Hitler and it does like a close up on
the colonel's face.
Speaker 1: And he's a cinematography was it's so good.
Speaker 2: He does like a double take and just just like
forgets the fight and is staring at this painting with
the bullet shot like in the painting's forehead and is
like in fear and awe and like a shame, like
it's so fricking funny. And even then like he's like,
oh I Voss, I owe you my life, Like oh
my god. And then they're both like acknowledging each other
and Indiana Jones is like hey and just takes smell
with a chair. Those are the Indiana Jones isms that
I really do like.
Speaker 1: So I think that for the most part picked really
good moments when combat would happen through a cutscene rather
than the player doing it, and something like that, like
turn it into a cinematic turn it into a movie
moment where you get like the slapstick funniness of it,
but then like, also, it's not something you have to
reload five times to do. This boss battle I think
was really smart, and I think the opposide of side
of that, every boss fight in this game, in my opinion, sucks.
I hated every single one of them. Didn't like a
single one, So I feel like I wish I wish
all of them had just been cut scenes, like for
those big story moments against certain characters. I understand why
they didn't because I think that for a lot of
people that'd be unerwhelming if all of those almost were
taken away from game. Like we're playing a video game here,
you know you want to do the boss fights. But
after playing through all of them, I feel like I
can confidently say I would prefer they were all cut scenes. Now,
maybe I'm just saying that I would prefer to this
whole game with cut scenes, but I don't think that's true.
I think there's some areas and sections that I did
really enjoy figuring out there and then along with the combat,
so you have a pistol at all times that you
can use as long as you're using like the regular
indie I guess, not disguised, but just as regular uniform.
Now that is very limited. Ammote also takes a really
long time to reload, which are things you can upgrade.
But I found like, Okay, that's kind of a last
ditch effort, and even for the first few hours, even
as like me kind of role playing in his India,
I'm like, he doesn't really just go around shooting people
in the head very often, So I'm gonna try and
not do this a whole lot. I was like, I'm
gonna go through the whole game. I'm not gonna use guns.
I'm not gonna kill people. I'm just gonna knock them out.
But then the game got really hard and I was like, okay,
I'm gonna break my own rule here pretty early on,
and I think they can textualize it like you're not
killing them necessarily, you're just knocking them out, even though
you shoot them through the head with a bullet. I mean,
that's that's a good way to kill someone. Then I
really liked how they improvised weapons system the way that
interacts with the ranged weapons too. I thought that was
really fun. Where you're picking up a rifle or a
shotgun or something and you have like a clips worth
of AMMO and you can use that and it's really powerful,
but you only have that one clip, so you're gonna
burn through it pretty quick, and then it like transfers
into a melee weapon you can like bash someone into it.
I think that was just really fun, a good way
to like like Machine Games is known for making first
person shooters, and I think they easily could have gone
over the overboard with you having a huge inventory of
guns that you need us at all times, but I
think that would not have been fitting for the character
of Indian. So they did a really good job there
making it silly and slapstick and like Indy always just
barely gets through these tough fights, right, And I feel
like because of the improvised weapons stem, especially with the
range weapons, they really were able to nail that that
part of the character.
Speaker 2: Yeah, caught me off guard with the extra firearms that
they threw in here, because yes, we had the pistol,
that was something I was aware of. And then when
I was getting near the end of the Vatican trying
to get onto the Oh gosh, what are they called
the blimp? Is that what they're called?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess so, yeah, the Zeppelin.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So I was at the top of the Vatican
Tower and I stuck into this room took out one
of the Nazis and I was like, oh my god,
and you got it. It's automatic, like an SMG. So
I picked it up and I was like, you know what,
screw this. Like I was just running out there. I
just gunned down like these four guys and got to
the top and then exec the cut scene. But you
mentioned the boss fights. Now I'm as assuming I have
one coming up pretty quick in Giza. But the one
in the Vatican, the with locus, Oh my god, that
took me a few tries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was. I didn't have a lot of I
put so many bullets into that guy.
Speaker 2: Oh you were shooting him. I didn't even I.
Speaker 1: Was, And it still took a long hasstime, even though
I was pelting him with bullet Oh.
Speaker 2: See, that's where I was repairing my gun because I
didn't have the bullets. I was just smashing my gun
on this guy. But then I eventually figured out, Okay,
there's definitely a routine here, or like a rhythm, like
if you can get him to like come in and
like mis grabbing you, which is grab is his reach
is crazy, Yeah, and then you can like just start
wailing on him and just like rinse and repeat. So
I'm hoping all the bosses and the boss btals have
that kind of rhythm that you can kind of take
advantage of an exploit. If not, then I'm gonna get
more bullets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of tricks.
Like I don't feel like I'm very good at this game,
and maybe that's part of where my combat criticisms come from.
And maybe when I if I play the game ole
or replay it, I would get a bit better at it.
Maybe could iron through some of those things. Can I
do a minor spoiler thing for something that happens later
in the game, So minor spoilers spoiler warning for people.
A little bit later in the game, you fight Locus
again later in that water in that water world, and
you have to do a boss fight against him in
like shallow water where the water's like up here knees,
So you're like super slow and you can't move or
dodge very well, and it's like otherwise it's the same
fight as like when you fought him prior. But my god,
I had to redo that so many times and I
was so frustrated. I was like yelling at the TV.
I'm glad MUDs wasn't home, because I was like, I
was just an angry little gamer, rage baby. I was
not happy with that sequence. Random question. Are the giants
like smaller than you would expect a giant to be?
I feel like they kept talking about these the giants
and like they're big people, but I kind of wanted
them to be like more fantasy giant, like even bigger
than they were, and that might be a miner, Like.
Speaker 2: That would have been nice if they were. I mean,
the Netflin were bigger than this, like much bigger. Uh.
And the way I see, like we're talking like a
few thousand years of just kind of like genetics kind
of like bringing him down, so they're just getting a
little bit smaller. That's how I view it. I really
was not expecting to see giants and like possibly Nefelim
descendants in here. I think that's pretty pretty interesting. Uh,
what was I gonna go with here with with Locus.
I really that's surprising that he comes back again in
the future as his hospital because in the Vatican, I
really thought that, Okay, after we fight him and then
he sees that father, not Antonio, he's the good guy,
but the other guy who sells out to Mussolini and
voss uh, and it pisses off.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I thought that the Vatican had some kind of connection
with him, but this guy just seems to immediately be like,
oh you monster, kill the monster and sends like the
Italian fascists against him, and then you see a whole
flock of giants come out and they just like start
throwing them around. And I thought here India and him
were gonna be kind I'm on a team because he's
hanging from the blimp, he's looking at Locus, and I
just felt like there was kind of a mutual something
going on there. But maybe they do become friends. You
don't have to tell me, Yeah, keep that a secret.
Speaker 1: Well. I think one of the fun elements of this game,
and I think I can say this without really it
being a specific spoiler, is like a lot of people
in this game, Locus, Indie Vos others like are after
the same things, right, Like they're all after these same
stones whatever they're called, right to complete all this this stuff.
And I think that's where like a lot of this
stuff leads to where there's like sometimes people are working
together or they're against each other, but like they're not
necessarily just It's not like Locus is trying to kill
Indiana Jones. It's not his goal in this His goals
like stop him from doing this thing, get these these
gems and whatnot. So I feel like that's kind of
where it comes in and where you can have people
kind of switching sides or maybe they'll have to work
together for a bit, maybe they go against each other.
And I think that side of it is actually really fun.
And there's an interesting commentary I felt in here where
you know, a lot of people in the world are
like lost, terrible guy's destroying cultures and stealing all this stuff,
and then a lot of people are like, well, Indy,
how are you any different than him? Like, yeah, you're
not a Nazi, You're not just like killing people in
the street. Well, I guess you are killing people in
the streets if you want to in this game, But
in terms of the same thing, Like you're going around,
you're stealing you know, all these like cultural items from
these different civilizations and whatnot. And I feel like I
wish they almost went there a bit more, like especially
at the end of the game. But I do think
it goes some interesting places and kind of critiquing Indy
for being a bit of a hypocrite at times in
terms of trying to stop these forces who are like
doing the exact same thing he is, and like maybe
they're just coming at it from wanting to do something
a little more evil or sinister with these relics or
with this power, whereas he's just like interested in studying
them and learning about them. But like he still was
going through and like stealing shit from all these these
like places that I don't know, maybe that's pretty messed
up that he's stealing from.
Speaker 2: So for a museum, that's that's his excuse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess so until someone comes to his museum
and cracks open the case and steal that's away from
in there, you are a big Assassin's Creed fan. Of course.
I don't know how many other stealth games are your
favorites or ones that you play a lot, But what
did you think of the kind of like that's that
this game kind of has that same thing of like
go in loud or go in or go in stealthy
for like a lot of the encounters you can kind
of pick and choose. Did you find that you were
using stealth a whole lot or how did you How
did you think of the stealth in general?
Speaker 2: I'm using stealth a lot, but I'm not really enjoying it. Yeah,
I feel like it's a little bit hard to make
things go the way I want. Where I'll pick up
a glass bottle, I'll throw it as a diversion and
make some guys move, but it's not very refined. It
doesn't really really work. It kind of triggers them to
kind of walk to where the bottle was thrown from.
I find, which is very annoying. But I could appreciate that.
You get different outfits and disguises. Those are a lot
of fun, especially in Giza, where you get like the
Nazi uniform and you get the Dick Site uniform. Those
are both really really interesting and fun to use because
they give you different benefits to go into different things.
I guess is the is the the neat thing.
Speaker 1: In in Vatican? Did is that where you got the
Nazi uniform?
Speaker 2: The boy, No, I'd missed. I missed the Yeah.
Speaker 1: I could not like the black shirts, the black code,
I think the black coat. Yeah, maybe the black shirts
one of the two. Yeah, I could not find that
in Vatican. I looked like I spent a lot of
time in Vatican and then when I got to Giza
as more kind of speeding through things a little bit.
But yeah, I could not find that. So I definitely
want to because there's definitely a quester too tied to uh,
tied to that. So I'm gonna have to go back
and dig through and try and find some of these things.
Speaker 2: But you got the one from Giza.
Speaker 1: I did not even find that one. Actually, I just
had the workers uniform, uh and and his standard uniform,
but I I didn't end up finding the Nazi uniform
and in Giza.
Speaker 2: So and it's because with that one, you basically can
go into the camps n'sy camps without anyone calling me
out to recognize you accept the officers. If the officers
stare at you too long, then they you know, they'll
come after you think and call you out.
Speaker 1: So Yeah, I do think a lot of my criticisms
for the stealth in this game might be feel unfair.
But it's just like I've played so much Dishonored and
Death Loop and Pray in my day, and then just
recently just playing like tens and tens of hours of
hit Man again, which is like such a great stealth game,
especially has like the social stell stuff with like disguises,
and so this game just feels really underbake compared to
those games. Now, obviously that's like an unfair comparison because
they're some of the best stealth games ever made, right,
and this game's doing a lot more than just stealth.
But yeah, there are certain things like like for me,
the classic stuff of like making distractions within as you mentioned,
it's not quite as refined as you'd want. I found
like enemy vision, I found it really hard to gauge
like what they would see and what they wouldn't. And
then also the thing with like, yeah, officers can like
see through your disguises, but I feel like it's kind
of unclear like what an officer is like Sometimes in
a certain situation where there's only like three or four guys,
it's like, okay, that guy is an officer uniform. Then
different locations maybe they will or won't. And then sometimes
it seems like a guy who's in an officer outfit
is like not catching on to me, but the other
times they are, and like hit man solution for this
is like they just have a white dotter on their
head if they're and enforcers what they call it there,
and they can see through your disguises and you know
you can turn that off if you don't want that
UI breaking part the white dot. But in this game,
I found it really hard to pars like who was
gonna see me? I also feel like people find, like
more than any other stealth game, if someone starts to
spot you, the counter to go like it fully spots
you was really really fast, so a lot of times
I got caught. Another thing too, is like I got
really excited early on in this game when I took
out an enemy for the first time and realized I
could pick up and move their body, because that's always
as a mechanic I like in stealth games in general,
is that kind of clean up your mess and making
sure people aren't finding those other guards in their route.
But I found like I stopped doing that after a while,
because I found people guards were like walking by other
bodies and not doing anything, or they'd look at it
like I don't know what happened to him, and then
they just continue on with their past. And so after
a while I was like, I guess there's not really
a point to do this. Weorring a game like Dishonored
or hip Man, it becomes a lot more essential to
hide those bodies or you're gonna create a lot of havoc.
So that was something that felt a little unread underbaked.
There's like a specific camp I went through where I
knocked out like half the people. A dog caught on
to me. The guards like found out that that was happening,
and then probably within like thirty seconds, they all just
went back and like stood there, And it's like, man,
there's clearly evidence like someone bringing into this camp, but
it doesn't seem to do anything. This one might seem
a little unfair, but I feel like a lot of
stealth games, and this is not a good thing about
stealth games, to be fair, is like a lot of them.
I feel like it's a lot about saves coming of
like constantly saving and then when like whenever you get caught,
reload that save, try that sequence again, because you can't
save in this game manually. As you mentioned, there's like
some way I guess you can load back previous saves,
but that's more like story beats rather than like, you know,
saving in a particular moment. I think it's something too
that leads through it, where it's like maybe I spent
like fifteen minutes slowly going through this camp, but then
eventually I fuck up, and then one guy feels like
a As soon as one guy finds you, they're like
the scream out to their buddies and all of them
are after you. And then if there's twenty guys out
of you, there's no way you're gonna survive that encounter.
And then it's like, ah, now I got to redo
that whole stell sequence again. Then I get frustrated. Then
I just rushed through it and I ended up like
skipping stuff, and so I don't know. None of it
feels great. Leaning as well as a classic like Dishonored
thing leaning around corners. It is so awkward to do
that in this game. You like hold the left trigger
down to like prepare to throw something, and then you
click the sticks in and then you and then you
have to click it.
Speaker 2: You can lean.
Speaker 1: You can lean, but it is so awkward and I
don't feel like it. Usually when you're leaning in games
like enemies can't spot you because you're considered to be
like still behind that ledge, But in this game, like
they can see you very well, so it's not really
that helpful. So anyway, there's my kind of laundry list
of issues I have with the with the stealth in
this game.
Speaker 2: I had no idea you could lean. Again, There's there's
so many things that I'm still trying to figure out
with the movements, a lot of stuff with the combat too,
trying to figure that out. I mean, I know how
to like push guys off, which is great because when
I'm up high. There's one mo missioning Giza where I
was trying to get up to this this like scaffolding
and they were following from behind me, and so I
would just kind of cite them around, back them up
against this edge and just push and then they'd fall.
I just rinse and repeat like three to four guys.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I love that. I feel like the game
constantly makes fun of like Nazis are so stupid. They're
not gonna think of this, Like they'll be like hiding
something in playing sight and they're like, yeah, Nazis are done.
They're not going to figure this out. And I feel
like that's same in the Comet, but it's like intentional, right,
Like they want them to be like kind of dufices.
Like even Voss at times is a very like dopey character.
And then I forget the name of that guy, but
the other guy in that scene with him that you
talked about there where the Hitler Painton gets shot, Like
that guy is like a total goofball. But it fits
the material right, like they we're not dealing with here,
but like they take it in a little bit more
of a lighthearted way while still being critical. One one
I guess criticism for the openness is because I was
like amazed when I got to Vatican, especially after those
first two areas that were pretty linear. Like I guess
in the All you can technically walk around different ways,
but it's a pretty small area. But Vatican, when I
got to it, I'm like, man, I can go anywhere.
I can go to these shops, I can go do
side quests, I can climb up super high on these buildings,
I can find hidden hindrances, and I was loving it.
I was like, this is cool, and I like that it's,
as you mentioned, not too big, it's not too overwhelming
where I feel like I can get around this the
whole city pretty quickly and it feels like the perfect
amount of freedom. And then Giza is even bigger, and
then I kind of feel like those are the two
biggest and most open areas in the game. Honestly, after
that it gets a little bit more linear for a bit,
and then there's another somewhat open area. But one of
the issues I had was in Vatican City, kind of
right where you entered the library. Normally there's a camp
right there of Nazis, and I after a few hours
in the game, I felt like a little bit better
with the controls and the mechanics. I was like, I'm
gonna sneak through here and like try and find whatever
goodies are hidden throughout here. So I was sneaking through,
jumping behind boxes, jumping through tents, end up having to
take out a couple guys, but I did it quietly,
didn't make a huge stir hiding behind these guys throwing
a ball that was dracked one then knock them out,
and I went through and like dispatched this whole camp
from the inside. Felt great, and then I got to
like the last door, like the entrance, like the final
area in there, and then it was locked, and I
was like, no, that's too bad. I didn't find a
key anywhere, but you know whatever, I guess. I guess
this just happens. And then at that point I was
kind of like, I don't really I feel like I
wasn't really being rewarded for exploring. I'm just gonna go
do main quest. That next main quest mission I did
took me through that camp that I was just did
so I had to do it again though, like it
respawned all the enemies and then that door was just
magically unlocked that time, and I feel like that was
the moment when I was like, Okay, this game is open,
but it feels kind of like a fake openness, Like
I feel like the proper way for me to engage
with this is played through the game just mainline. It
only do main quests and then go back to a
previous area once I've gotten passive attic, and then I
know I'm not gonna have some weird progress block thing.
But that happened like two or three times for me,
and then it got to a point where I was like, yeah,
I'm not really gonna explore much anymore, Like maybe if
there's a minor quest like directly on my path to
the main quest, I'll stop and do it. But it
kind of just it felt like there was a bit
of fake openness to it, which was kind of a
frustrating thing. And there was another camp to where I
went all the way through and I was doing like
help break this kid who was like prisoned, and I
could just not find the key for this thing. I
don't know where the heck this key is supposed to
come from, or if it was hidden somewhere and I
couldn't find it, but I looked for quite a while
I could not find it, And so got to a
point where I was kind of turned off of I
don't really exploring the game's edges, and I felt like
I should just really kind of mainline it. So I
don't know where are you at with it now, Like
are you are you doing a lot of side quests?
Are you kind of just mainlining it? How have you
kind of been playing with the freedom of the game.
Speaker 2: I thought I was doing a few different side quests,
but I think for the most part, I'm just mainlining it,
which is fine by me because the main story is
just so engaging for me. That's that's my favorite thing.
I haven't really taken much of an interest in some
of the side stuff, like, oh, if you see fifteen medicines,
get them for me? It's sure. Wow, I don't think
I'm gonna do that, So I'm curious, can you revisit
some of these places? Like when I left the Vatican,
I was thinking, am I done? Can I go back?
And I wasn't sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if so. Once you if you pop up in
your menu that has like your journal and stuff, and
you scroll over to the far right tab. I think
it's called travel, you can just go back to any
areas that you've been to before. I don't know if
any of them are limited. And now once I beat
the game, it's really nice, by the way, go ahead
beat the game rule credits, and then it like takes
you right back before the end of the final quest,
and then all the areas are on lock now, so
you can go back and explore all of them freely.
But yeah, you can at least go back to Vatican,
and I think you can go back to college. I
don't know if you can go back to the Raiders
the Lost Art sequence where you're at in the game,
but you can at least go back to like the
open areas and yeah, go do quests, go do things.
So that's a good way if like you're feeling underpowered,
you know, go back to an earlier area, get some
more upgrades, that kind of thing. But yeah, I think
that's another thing too, is like there's nothing disincentivizing in
you from just blasting through the main game, seeing the story,
and then going back and doing the bonus stuff, the
main quests you want to do later. And I think
for me, like, I don't know how much more I'm
gonna go back. I think there's a couple more side
quests I'd like to do that seem interesting. But yeah, yeah,
definitely don't be scared that you're not gonna lose any
access to anything if you just kind of mainline through
the game. Okay, good, Yeah, yeah, I think what else
do I want to say on Vaticans specifically, I mean,
I really liked that sequence. I didn't think I'd like
it as much as I did, But even like the
opening intro to it, when it's nighttime and you're kind
of sneaking around the walls, I found that was like
that was a really fun stealth sequence for me. That
worked really great. And I think it's just like when
the game's linear, it can make a really good stealth level,
but when the game's more open, it's harder for them
to get it right in my opinion, especially when, like
you know, when there's twenty guards just outside this one
area you're stealthing through and they can all get triggered
immediately if you get caught, Like that's not a great feeling.
So yeah, but I really enjoyed exploring Vatican, like finding
little hidden puzzles all over the place, going through like
the doors leading to all sorts of crazy places. And
as I mentioned, I did have a couple of annoying
like progress block moments, but for the most part, I
really enjoyed exploring that, and honestly, I think that is
kind of the peak of the game for me. I
think I even overall liked Vatican that section more than
the Giza section like as a whole. And then I
think it kind of goes downhill a little.
Speaker 2: Bit there for me.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I really liked Vatican, all the story stuff,
all the characters at all, the kind of gameplay out it.
I thought it was kind of the game's best area.
Speaker 2: Cool. Yeah, I think it was. It was definitely an
eye opener because you're in this first area here I
guess you're a third area, but it was just like, wow, okay,
we're we got so much going on, and it took
me a while to figure out. Okay, now, it's not
very linear here. It's all one open area that you
can explore and do different things, and so that took
me a fair minute to actually figure out and recognize.
But I enjoyed it because, yeah, you're doing different things,
you're unlocking different things, and it was actually a lot
of fun, and that kind of sets the tone for like, Okay,
when we get to our next location, it's gonna be again.
It's rinse and repeat the same thing in a very
good way, not a bad way. So I really did
enjoy that. And there's there's so much to do and
a lot going on in the Vatican City, so it's
it's a lot of fun that really I really enjoy
doing those puzzles, and you get you get your camera,
so it's it's fun to just be kind of around
taking photos of certain things because it's your clue tool,
which I think is a great kind of incorporation and
utilization for that in your inventory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great point. I love the camera in this game.
I want. I think it's fun that it really if
I'm walking around and everything in a place looks crazy
and historic and like interesting, I don't really know what's
actually some big historical thing and what just like is
a cool piece of art that the art is made.
But I think the camera can help like contextualize some
of those things and show you like, ooh, this is
a four star find, like this is a very rare
thing that you're finding. But then also as you mentioned,
like that being the way that you unlock clues, I
think it is really smart. Like sometimes characters in the
story will like, hey, can you go get a picture
of this thing? Like Father Antonio was like, hey, go
get pictures of all these different wells or these symbols
whatever they were, and then like bring them back to me.
And that was like a fun thing. I liked doing that.
And then there's even there's a really cute moment like
way later on in the game where you're in like
this kind of smaller village where they don't have as
much technology, and I guy's like, hey, can you just
take a picture of me? Like, I just want a
picture of myself, and I'll give you some money. I'll
give you a few coins. I didn't even want to
take his money. I'm like, I just want to give
this to you, man, I don't mind taking a picture
of you. And that was like a very cute thing.
So I thought that was like a really really great
just tool in the game in general. And then you know,
mix in with that, like I just love that the
menu and all that is like contextualise within like the book, right,
like yeah, his classic journal where he keeps all his
notes and yeah, like I'm usually I'm just like reading
the actual text on there, but I like that and
all that he opens up the book, like the pictures
that you've taken, not the exact ones. I think they're
kind of more stock image ones of the things that
you're taking pictures of are put in there, little notes,
little sketches, and then like the descriptions are put on
either side around that. I really love the UI in
this game. I think it's very simple and effective, and
even like that's kind of how you access the skill
tree too, which not really a skill tree, but you're
just getting like skilled books and you can put points
into them that kind of thing. So yeah, I really
like all that, like the I like I like that
all the maps aren't just like some default map thing.
It's like an actual map that would have been made
for this area, so it's always contextualized, like the look
or the technology, or like the esthetic of the area
of Vatican being fancier, or maybe like a rough sketch
that you're getting whether you're in a dungeon or the overworld,
you kind of have like different maps, and I really
enjoyed that part of it. I feel like they really
nailed that archaeologist explorer feel of the game.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, well said.
Speaker 1: Uh, let's take our last break here. I don't think
we have much more to discuss, but we'll take one
more break and we'll be right back. Okay, we are back.
Any other highlights from Giza as an area, considering that
you're kind of right near the end of.
Speaker 2: It, Small little things like dealing with scorpions, I had
a lot of fun with that. You light a torch
and just like.
Speaker 1: I hate scans, but I love that you like the scorpion.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I had fun with it because you just
like you switch the and it makes them move away.
So that was a lot of fun. A lot of
snakeisms too with Indy, which was that was always good.
That was humorous. What else, I feel like there's just
so many different tombs that you can just go in,
and I think that's because you're trying to find like
the steel a stuff. So because there's there's quite a
few of them that you can track down, you have
four in the initial quest, and then it's funny because
I didn't even get the four that I was supposed
to that highlighted. I just found other tombs and found
other steeling. I was like, Okay, well that's fun. That's
that's kind of neat. Yeah, so it's it's it's just
a really really cool area. It's neat to explore it.
And now that I got my officer's uniform, I'm probably
gonna go check out a few of the bases the
restricted zones to see what I can kind of like
swipe and steal because there's definitely a lot of a
lot of things that you can take.
Speaker 1: Do you remember where you got that output from?
Speaker 2: Yes. So after you escape from the you were going
with Gina into the compound, you find the tunnel that's
painted like with the red markings. You go in there.
So after you go through the whole whole shindig, the
whole thing, and then basically you meet what was her
name and now wall I think, yeah, yeah, so you meet.
Speaker 1: I don't really have a reason why. I just I
just think she's great. Love the performance, love the look,
love she's she's very hopeful as well, So I really
liked her.
Speaker 2: She's fun. Yeah, So she closes the cave behind you. Guys,
you get in and then Gina goes off on her way,
and then you guys go together to get out of
your like go your exit. When you come out of
that tunnel exit, it's right adjacent to the military compound,
there's a tower and basically you can throw your whip.
You can climb the tower and you just knock out
the off two D guard at the top there, and
you go downstairs and you find the uniform and the
uniform also has the worn a schnack key or whatever
and that.
Speaker 1: Ye gates, Yeah that I was locked out of Cool,
that's great, I'll go do that nice. Yeah, I think.
I mean Gis is definitely the biggest area, like biggest
world section in the whole game, and I think it's great,
you know, like whether that's the opening town sequence, whether
it's like ton like tombs everywhere, caves everywhere. Just walking
around looking at the pyramids look like the Sphinx and
kind of feeling the scale of everything was really cool,
even obviously if everything's much closer than maybe it is
in real life. The town area, I really liked walking
around the town. There's not it doesn't feel like there's
actually much to do there, but just like looking around
at all the people and what they're doing, walking around
the little like farm area down below, like the train
that comes by every once in a while, the different
like enemy camps that are set up, really really cool area.
And there's even a couple like bigger excavation sites that
I didn't jump into yet just because they weren't part
of the main quest stuff. So I definitely I think
I want to go grab that outfit and then go
check out more of those. So yeah, really really great
area beautiful as well, And I like that they kind
of contextualize like the bounds of the map by like
it kind of like looks mirage and you like start
to get like a little bit drunk, a little sand drunk.
You start to like pass out a little, but if
you get too close and then you kind of have
to like turn around eventually. So I thought that was
pretty fun. I think my last points are really just
like once again highlighted a couple of the characters here.
Once again Indy. We've talked about him a bit here,
but like he fits right in with the indie of
the movies, and I think that's like the biggest compliment
you can give great voice performance here. Character Wise, I think,
you know, he has about as much dimension as he
ever does in these movies. I think him and Gina
have a really fun dynamic. And of course it kind
of starts out as like just mutual people trying to
help you ou each other out, and then a mutual
friends and then of course like a little bit more
at that kind of stuff. It's always he always has
to have like a love interest in these things, right,
But I think they have really great chemistry. That voice
actress for Gina is also really really great. She's a
really fun character. I think she has like the silliness
to her as well. There's a couple of things later
in the story that come up with her. And then yeah,
I think like she gets some good emotional stuff too.
Obviously part of her story she's trying to find her
sister and that's like what's leading her through this story.
And then Indy wants to help her out too, while
also like she's a good resource to have so and
then yeah, like that she helps you out in some
combat sequences is not too shabby as well. And then yeah,
we father Antonio you mentioned him. I think is really
fun dynamic between him and Indie, just like this old
friend element to it, and like they're just listening to
music each other, like with each other, have music recommendations,
working on things, and it feels like, especially in Vatican,
like who can you trust? The answer is like no
one except for him. He's like the one guy that
you can really trust. So he's like a comforting guy.
Always come back to the library and see what he's
up to. So yeah, like really every character, there isn't
a character I dislike in this game. I think they
really nailed it across the board narratively and voice acting
wise and all that all that good stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the characters are spot on. I think they're great.
They're flushed out, and I love that their relationships with
Indie all really really just deliver. They're all they're all
great and yeah, Gina her her story with her sister missing,
and how everyone just kind of knows each other, which
I really like that kind of such a big global adventure,
everyone still is familiar with each other to some slight degree. Well,
Gina's investigative reporter or journalist, she's not very informed on
the whole archaeological side of things. But when she puts
her sister's name out there that Indy's like, oh, I
know who she is the most, like the number one
on ancient languages or dead languages. And then Ye basically
he's talking to the wall and Noah is like, oh yeah,
Marcus Brody. It's like, oh, you know, Marcus. And then
I love when the bad guys know Indie because it's funny.
In that same cuts you we're talking about, I was thinking, man,
these bad guys don't actually know that India is onto them,
and Indy has such an upper hand right now, like
this is pretty crazy. And as soon as I said that,
then the ceiling came in and Indiana Jones stands up
and Vos is like Indiana Jones. It's like, Okay, this
is just it's so great. Every character is just it's
been great. It's delivered very nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I guess maybe one last thing for me would
just be the you know, big part of this game
is like exploring tombs, being a tomb raider, solving puzzles.
I think that's kind of hit or miss for me, honestly,
Like some of them are a little bit weaker. Some
of the puzzles feel little bit like, Okay, we're putting
gears in places. Make all these gears connect. Okay, I've
seen that a million times before. But other times, I
think there's some really interesting ones. Some of them were
like a bit too confusing for me, or like I
just couldn't understand them at all. I had to use
the hint system. But you know, the hint system is there,
but yeah, I think it's specifically in Giza. That's where
maybe some of the better ones were. Like there's some
fun traversal ones you have to like jump over, you know,
piping hot spots on the floor. There's like the the
I don't know, big blades kind of flipping back and forth,
and then some of the puzzles there I enjoyed quite
a bit. I also really like that one in Vatican.
I think it's when you're going into the like the
Fountain of a Confession, I think it's what it's called.
And there's like that big square thing that's rotating. You
have like set water up in one of this buckets
that move it over and then it like that. I
really like that that set piece. So there's definitely some
highlights in there. I do think most of the best
ones are in like the first half of the game, unfortunately,
But that's just my general take across the whole game
is that the second half like weaker as an experience.
So uh yeah, I don't know any other things that
we have not mentioned here, Taylor.
Speaker 2: I can't think of anything. I think I think we
covered it all.
Speaker 1: Cool, sounds good. Yeah, I don't know when or if
we will talk like spoiler wise about the end of
the game, just because of the time of year that
we're getting two here where they don't have a lot
more episodes before, like Game of the Year stuff and whatnot.
But maybe it'll come up at some point a spoiler
discussion sometime down the road. I know Travis is playing
the game too, so I'm sure we'll hear his thoughts
in the game later down, later down in the future
as well. And then I don't know, like if the
let's presumably say that you enjoy the game as much
as you are now and that DLC comes out and
it is like forty bucks, do you think you'd pick
that up? Would you be that interested considering that pass
kind of put you in the door for free here
ish to play this.
Speaker 2: No, the DLC, I'd probably watch a video for to
be honest, I don't feel like that commitment, especially because
that storyline, assuming it's with uh oh gosh a blank
on his name, giants, yes, a giant locus. Yeah, I
don't really see much of a pull into that dynamic
for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think for me to come down to like
what are the locations that they go with, and presumably
like you'll get at least one or two more like
very open ended levels like Vatican or Giza, and if
like one of those was like, I don't know a
himalay in town with some like caves to explore it like,
that's my jam, So maybe I would pick it up
for that reason, or I don't know, I'd have to
think about what other locations I would like to see.
Uh that would really get me in there, but I
think there may be could be something that would sell me.
But we will see Taylor. That you for joining me.
This is a very fun discussion on Indian Jones in
the Great Circle. Thank you everyone for listening. Enjoy the
second episode of Sidequest this week, which we're about to
go record in the next ten minutes here and uh yeah,
we will see you again next time. Bye bye,