Indiana Jones and Great Circle PS5 DualSense Haptics and Adaptive Triggers Enhance the Experience and Here’s How
[summaraize]
The PS5 version of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just a lazy port of the Xbox game to the PS5. Developer MachineGames has even taken advantage of the PS5’s DualSense controller to introduce new haptic effects that even Xbox gamers might find surprising if they experience it themselves.
Effects implemented in combat, movement, and even puzzles add a little spice to an already impressive game.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on the PS5 Takes Advantage of the DualSense Features Significantly
Here’s a list of new haptic/HD rumble cues I found in the opening hour:
Movement
- Water – When jumping into water, the controller will emulate a splashing effect. The same happens when walking over a small puddle; vibration will have a splashier feeling.
- Doors – Opening doors that are locked have a click effect when you insert keys and turn them.
- Hanging and moving on ledges – You can now feel Indiana Jones’s hands on everything he picks up to move along a ledge.
- Ropes and Repelling – As with ledges, you can feel Indiana Jones grabbing and climbing a rope while freely hanging. When he’s climbing up a rope on the side of a building, you can feel each of his steps as his feet make contact with the building.
- Ziplines – Not only is there a rubbing sensation from the zipline coming into contact with whatever Indy uses to ride it, but the haptics will also emulate the feeling of wind.
- Swinging also produces a bit of a wind feeling.
General Gameplay and Cutscenes
- Puzzles – Anything that involves something sliding or moving now offers feedback to emulate that feeling.
- Gadgets – Things like a camera will produce zoom-in and zoom-out effects. The lighter will produce a click.
- Cutscenes—This is where players will notice most of the differences, as several cutscenes now feature unique haptics. Here are some examples, and these are all from the intro.
- When you enter the cave and cut away at the spiderwebs, a feeling of wind passing by can be felt through the controller.
- The scene with the spiders. Someone at Machine Games not only wanted to make sure they got this scene right from the movies, but they also wanted to ensure you could now feel them. Even if it’s for a quick second, as Indy wipes them off the other character’s back, you can feel them falling on Indy’s feet.
- After this scene, when Indy lifts his hand into the light, the controller will emulate a tingly feeling, followed by a swinging and rumbling of the trap springing. The controller will then emulate a sliding effect as Indy pushes the trap back into place.
- The next scene has Indy using his whip to swing across a gap. The Xbox/PC version gives feedback when you use the whip, a quick vibrational jolt. The PS5 version adds a bit more feeling to it, though it also adds the sense of swinging (some emulated wind) that isn’t in the Xbox version.
- When Indy comes to the booby trapped room with all the pressure plates, and uses a stick to push the plates down, you can feel the plates rubbing against the stone floor as it slides down into place.
- When Indy springs the trap after lifting the Idol, there’s now feedback of the place falling apart. When the giant rock begins to roll, there’s a rolling feeling.
- When you first encounter Locus in the academy, he’s pretty intimidating due to his height. To add more to this, the intensity of his footsteps has been increased—a small but effective change.
Combat
- Guns have unique feedback and trigger effects – Every gun feels different, and provides a different type of feedback.
- Rifles will produce a strong kickback effect on the triggers.
- Submachines will have a lighter kickback, but constant due to firing rate.
- All melee weapons and pickups produce unique sounds when picked up and struck with. Examples of things I tested by hitting a wall: Strings on a guitar vibrate the controller to emulate that. Hitting a metal shovel against a wall has a metallic clink, and a wooden baton has a wobbling effect.
- Additionally, adaptive triggers are unique not only in the way guns feel but also when throwing an object. The heavier something is, the more resistance there is when throwing it. Objects that require Indy to use both hands will give more resistance when attacking with them and throwing them, compared to objects that only require one hand.
- If a dog attacks you, you get put into an animation where you have to fight the dog away by mashing L2 and R2 – The effect is powerful, and it feels like really playing a game of tug of war with the dog.
There might be more intelligent ways MachineGames applied the DualSense’s haptics and adaptive triggers in the game outside of what we noticed. For PS5 gamers, this is a bonus that turned out better than expected.
Make sure to check our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle PS5 review and tech piece comparing its performance to the Xbox Series version.
Stay connected to MP1st and the latest news by following us on Bluesky, X, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and Google News.
