I’m finally playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I’ve had a good time so far climbing all over the game’s Vatican map and getting into clumsy fistfights, but one thing that hasn’t been such a good time are the quests that involve the in-game camera, because I hate in-game cameras.
(Spoilers for the first quest and some early side missions of Indiana Jones.)
Early on in the game, you have to purchase a camera. You need it to move the story forward, but it’s also used in side activities: you’ll overhear some nuns wishing they had a photo of Indy’s pal Father Antonio, so you can go snap a pic and give it to them. A priest is bummed he didn’t get a photo of the Sistine Chapel, so you can take one for him. As I wandered the Vatican, I’d constantly get prompts that there was something I could take a picture of; I’d equip my camera, raise it to my face, and swing the viewfinder around until the game told me what it wanted me to snap.
These kinds of tasks in games drive me nuts. I’ve always chalked this up to being primarily a PC gamer–my whole machine is basically a camera, able to take screenshots with a single button press, so in-game cameras make a simple task more clunky by throwing a bunch of interface stuff in the way. I hate having to swap things around in my inventory just to look at something, the task I’m already mainly engaged in through playing a first-person game. I hate trying to figure out what a game wants me to take a picture of and then trying to take whatever the game thinks is an acceptable picture of it.
Indiana Jones’ implementation of this task at least guides you toward the correct framing by giving you a viewfinder to line up with, and it also gives you visual and audio prompts when there’s something photographable nearby. But last night, when I was playing through the area under the Vatican, I kept getting photo prompts as I was busy evading fascists and trying to escape the labyrinthian area; really not the time to stop for photos! (I should also mention that I’m playing on keyboard and mouse despite the game suggesting I don’t, which makes pulling things out of my inventory slightly more cumbersome than I imagine it is with a controller.) So far, most of the game's camerawork has been optional, so as long as I can deal with ignoring the little prompt, I can mostly pretend it doesn’t exist. I’m not sure how long that will last, though.
I complained about these quests on Bluesky, where many people defended their love of in-game camera quests, or games like Umurangi Generation or Pokemon Snap that are just about taking pictures. I support all of this! I’m envious that you are able to find joy where I am not, through a very popular mechanic that many people seem to like. I know that my dislike of in-game camera quests is a narrow personal gripe, getting into “hating double jump” territory, and I appreciate hearing why other people like them because maybe, one day, I can learn to like them too. Please teach me your ways or, failing that, at least help me feel like less of a killjoy by admitting that you don't like them either.
