Indiana Jones and The Great Circle Preview: An Adventure for the Ages

At a recent preview event, Restart learned more about Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, the upcoming adventure game from MachineGames (the developer behind the recent Wolfenstein series) and executive producer Todd Howard (known for his work on The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series).

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is set in 1937, between the events that take place in the Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade films. The game begins in Connecticut, as Indy has fallen asleep at his work desk at a local college only to be awoken by the sounds of a breakin. Indy finds a towering figure in the school’s museum, who makes off with a seemingly insignificant artifact.

This theft triggers Indy’s latest adventure, as he finds himself in the middle of another grand conspiracy involving the Reich and stones that are believed to hold a special power. As Indy dives deeper into the game’s ancient mystery, he’ll uncover the secrets of “The Great Circle,” a metaphorical (or perhaps literal) circle that can be drawn around the globe connecting key ancient locations.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle will take players to a variety of beautiful locales, from the pyramids of Egypt to the Himalayan mountains to the jungle temples of Sukhothai and beyond. These environments look to offer a combination of intimate exploration and puzzle solving with the over-the-top set pieces and action sequences MachineGames is known for.

While the majority of the game takes place in the first-person, during cutscenes and environmental traversal sequences, the camera will pull back to the third-person. Making the game’s core experience in first-person was an obvious choice, according to game director Jerk Gustafsson, as MachineGames has more than 20 years experience creating first-person experiences.

This setup also allows players to feel as though they’re really becoming Indiana Jones by experiencing the world through this eyes. As creative director Axel Torvenius added, a first-person perspective allows for an extra layer of “intimacy,” as players can get up close and personal with ruins, temples, and artifacts, rather than viewing them from a distance.

Throughout The Great Circle, Indiana (voiced by Troy Baker) will be joined by Gina, a journalist looking for her sister. The pair will face off against a variety of enemies led by Emmerich Voss, who MachineGames has described as an “intensely psychological man” who's “obsessed with the human mind and manipulating it.”

Combat in The Great Circle will encourage players to utilize a mix of stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and the clever use of Indy’s whip to defeat enemies, rather than simply pulling out the guns. At the same time, Indy will be equipped with a revolver and can also use weapons dropped by fallen enemies (he’ll also be able to find and use a variety of non-conventional weapons, including hammers, shovels, and even a rolling pin).

The final result will be a combat experience that rewards players for strategic thinking, with guns being used more as a last resort, or in combination with Indy’s other tools, than a primary means of attack. For instance, during the preview, we saw an encounter between Indy and multiple enemies in a fairly small area. Indy incapacitated one with his whip, pushed another off of a ledge using hand-to-hand combat, and finally pulled out his revolver to dispatch the third, who was farthest away.

In addition to being useful during combat, Indy’s whip will also be used for swinging across gaps in the path and interacting with distant objects, like switches in a temple.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle will feature main story quests that take players through a linear adventure, as well as some larger, open areas full of secrets and side activities to discover (like a bazaar). MachineGames said this is the largest game it has made to date, and that even if players choose to just run through the main story beats, the game will still be longer than anything the team has made before.

As players explore environments, key items will glow, letting players know they can be interacted with. These key items may come in the form of weapons, tools, and even documents that will offer clues as to what to do next.

During the preview, we watched Indiana and Gina on their quest to recover an artifact inside the Great Sphinx of Giza. After coming upon a locked door with a recess in the shape of a medallion, Indy read a nearby document to learn the medallion’s location. He then donned a disguise (another of his available tools) to infiltrate the enemy’s camp and retrieve the medallion before returning to Gina to continue deeper into the Sphinx.

In addition to having access to his whip and other tools, Indy will carry a journal and camera that can be used throughout his adventure. The journal will document everything players do, and can sometimes provide hints about what to do next, while the camera can be used to snap pictures of the environment to learn historical information, or, again, reveal clues that may be helpful for moving forward.

As players take pictures and complete missions, they’ll earn Adventure Points that can be spent on upgrades giving Indiana new skills. MachineGames said this will allow them to customize their version of Indy to suit their playstyle. As one example, the “True Grit” upgrade will give Indy the chance to come back from an otherwise fatal attack. Players will also have the option to tweak the game’s difficulty, with different settings being catered to the game’s action sequences and “adventure” features, which includes its puzzles.

Gustafsson said great care has gone into retaining the tone of the older Indiana Jones films throughout the development of The Great Circle. This includes capturing the series’ comedy. At one point, Indy will find himself buried in sand up to his shoulders, but he still has enough wherewithal to headbutt Voss who has laid down on the sand to taunt him – a move that perfectly fits the character fans have come to know over the past 43 years.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle will be released on Xbox Series X/S and PC on December 9, 2024. It will be available at launch on Xbox Game Pass. The game will come to PlayStation 5 in 2025.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, there will be snakes.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

Release Date: December 9, 2024

• Windows
• Xbox Game PassBuy
• Xbox SeriesBuy