One of the staples of entertainment media is the roundtable interview—whether around an actual table or not, it usually involves a few creatives and a room full of journalists. Each reporter gets one shot at a question, so they’d better make it count.

That’s exactly how it went last year when someone asked MachineGames: why is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle told in first-person instead of third?

Their answer was thoughtful and immediate. They pointed to their legacy with first-person Wolfenstein titles, the immersive advantage when examining mysterious relics or cracking ancient puzzles, and above all, the desire not just to play Indiana Jones—but to become him.

MachineGames didn’t seem caught off guard because they likely weren’t. That question wasn’t just one journalist’s passing thought—it echoed a broader public debate that had been brewing since the game’s debut trailer.

Frankly, I’ve always found the fixation strange. Why wouldn’t we step directly into Indy’s worn leather boots? I suspect the hesitation isn’t really about what Great Circle should be—it’s about what came before. Uncharted was third-person. So was Tomb Raider. We got used to it.

New viewpoints

After 9 hours, I can't bear to leave The Vatican in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Sure, there are solid reasons to use a third-person camera in action-adventure games. Platforming feels more intuitive when you can see your character’s full body, helping you judge distances and landings. And if your hero is iconic, keeping them visible makes emotional sense—you want to see your Indiana Jones in action. But when camera perspective becomes a genre checkbox rather than a deliberate creative choice, innovation suffers. We miss chances to try something bold.

Thankfully, MachineGames held firm. Even though it "took years" to perfect, first-person was never up for debate. "We love that perspective," said design director Jens Andersson in a recent Develop:Brighton talk. "It's a powerful way to tell stories." The final product—a game earning five stars in our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review—proves how perfectly perspective can align with character and gameplay. And it does so without needing to show Harrison Ford’s face every few minutes.

Just consider the journal tracking your missions: a battered leather diary left behind by Marion Ravenwood “for your next adventure,” stuffed with rough sketches of ruins and faded photos of inscriptions. You flip through it with grime-streaked fingers, feeling every crease and fold. Then there’s the combat—defined by the thunderous snap of the whip and a constant undercurrent of clumsy chaos. Stealth helps, but getting caught rarely means death; more often, it ends with the comedic clang of a shovel hitting a Nazi’s jaw. Guns are available, but intentionally awkward and inefficient. During my first real gunfight deep in Act Two, Indy yelps, “Jeeesus!”—a reaction that felt just as raw for him as it did for me.

In short, you never forget who you are as you blunder and bond your way toward the game’s cinematic climax. And in that moment, the strength of first-person becomes undeniable. Could Uncharted have captured the suffocating dread of an Egyptian tomb flooding with sand—where escape means wading through shifting dunes and squeezing into a stone passage barely wide enough to fit? Unlikely. Would Tomb Raider, with its distant camera, deliver the same tension as tiptoeing across a dark treasure chamber, avoiding jingling coins while a monstrous guardian looms above like Smaug on his hoard? Probably not.

Fans of first-person games love them because it’s like diving into cold, deep water—shocking, immersive, overwhelming. When you fully inhabit a character, you stop watching and start being. You’re shaped by their world, pressed in on all sides, and begin to understand their instincts, their fears, their choices.

For licensed games using first-person, it’s like waking up inside the movie, not just controlling it from afar. That’s the magic behind Alien: Isolation—a licensed title so powerful it’s getting a sequel ten years later. It’s why The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay is remembered more fondly than the films it’s based on.

And here’s the kicker: the team behind Riddick is the same core group now at MachineGames, crafting The Great Circle. Maybe next time, we should just trust the experts when it comes to turning legendary characters into interactive experiences. When it comes to perspective, studios like this know the perfect angle.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has quickly become one of my favorite adventure games of all time, and the upcoming DLC promises to give me exactly what I crave—more of it.

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