This New Year, I’ll be killing Nazis.
Not in real life but in the videogame Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which came out a week ago. Because Donald Trump got elected and I’d like to do something that feels more satisfying for a month or two. The last time I played a videogame all the way through was during COVID, when I found “Firewatch.” Then before that, it was more than 30 years. But seeing the previews of this Jones game brought something out in me. I ended up buying it for my nephew and then “borrowing” his X-box. I suppose I was buying it for myself, if I’m honest. I can admit that to you because I’m an evolved personality with all the complexity and nuance of an amoeba.
The game takes me back to my teens. Back then, puzzle-solving and storytelling were an important part of videogames. Since then, there’s been a dumbing-down. You can cheat at the puzzles by using the Internet, the theory goes. But sure, I’ll cheat on the puzzles by using the Internet. It doesn’t mean I don’t like doing it and feeling smart afterwards! I prefer that to the violence and sensationalism of most other games I’ve seen. My wife has emphasized that having an X-box in the house must be temporary, and I’m on board. My nephew will be getting it back in due course. I guarantee it as much as the new president does with all his promises.
Why is this game so good? The atmosphere is like being in an Indiana Jones movie, right down to the lead character’s voice. He sounds exactly like Harrison Ford in 1981 and looks like him, too. The settings are transporting, from the Vatican to Egypt. The music adds to it all and so, I’m sorry to say, do the Nazis. At first they were blackshirts in Italy but then by the time I made it to the pyramids, I started seeing swastikas. Both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg have been a bit ambiguous about this. One would expect ambiguity at best. Still, the villains are there to be villains, and who’s worse than a Nazi? The recent film cast the villains as vaguer white supremacists but under Trump 2, that’s too real. I’d prefer to go back 80 years and yes, I guess, to the source. It’s not great to see a swastika in a videogame but I’m also not delighted by our reality right now, either. I could be overthinking it?
So far I’ve played the game for about 12 hours and I’m about 14 percent of the way through. That leaves me several years, I calculate, until I’m “finished”, and by that time I’m sure the world will be a better place.
On Christmas Eve, Joe Biden signed a bunch of legislation. I interrupted watching Love Actually with my wife and child to pitch journalists on behalf of my clients. I got them into USA Today. Then on Christmas Day I found myself checking my LinkedIn profile at 9 p.m. as a sign that I’m a “trusted person of value.” I realized, as I was doing it, that I am nuts. Certainly my work-life balance is a tad out-of-whack, and I resolved to commit to Indy full-time. At least for the next week or two. Let me know if you need some strategic communications advice!
Now, I’m going back in…
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Matt Davis is a strategic communications consultant in Manhattan.
