Indiana Jones and The Great Circle Review: A Fine Return to Form

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

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Platform reviewed on: Windows

Pros

• Rewarding exploration and puzzles
• A globe-trotting adventure
• Captures the cinema and spirit of the original trilogy

Cons

• Core combat and puzzles can feel a touch easy
• Enemy AI can be (entertainingly) foolish

ESRB Age Rating: Teen
ESRB Content Descriptors: Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence

Review code provided by the publisher.

Like the cautious, fedora-capped explorer himself navigating a trap-laden tomb, fans of whip-wielding archaeologist Indiana Jones have been given plenty of reason to mistrust glimmering new treasures placed before them. Fortunately, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is no fool’s gold, and the only pitfalls you’ll need to watch out for are those the game has laid deliberately. Developer MachineGames has delivered not just a love letter to the original movies, but a rip-roaring serial adventure that can stand proudly beside its elders in the archives.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

Release Date: December 9, 2024

• Windows
• Xbox Game PassBuy
• Xbox SeriesBuy

Setting the stage for a grand adventure

Set in 1936 after the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark – that’s the 1981 original movie, for the Indy uninitiated – Indiana Jones and The Great Circle sees Jones’ home turf, Marshall College, invaded by a mysterious giant figure. After knocking our hero out, they steal a single cat mummy, leaving an enigmatic pendant behind. Thus, another globe-trotting adventure is sparked. One which sees our hero travelling to Italy, Egypt, the Himalayas, and beyond. Visiting iconic locations in each and, naturally, tangling with Nazis every step of the way.

The first port of call is Vatican City, and it serves as an excellent representation of the core format for this first-person adventure of furtiveness and fisticuffs. And it’s a structure that took me by surprise. Beyond a linear opening sequence that recreates the first movie’s iconic treasure swap and boulder trap, The Great Circle’s main levels are sizable open hubs. Ones you’re largely free to explore at your own pace. Think Hitman levels but with a penchant for hidden secrets and far less emphasis on swapping disguises.

The Vatican, overrun by Mussolini’s Blackshirts, is a maze of courtyards, corridors, and streets. What first appears to be a relatively small region quickly expands as you get a grip on the breadth of verticality and sheer number of interconnected rooms and segments. Following the main narrative leads will take you through the bulk of it in relatively short order, but you’re by no means obligated to stick to that path.

After securing a camera, I quickly lost hours to clambering across rooftops, photographing cats, and sneaking through restricted areas. All for the sake of exploration. The occasional note, puzzle, and small accompanying bundle of Adventure Points – the game’s equivalent of XP – the only reward I needed.

Giza, by contrast, brings a sweltering mass of open sands. The great pyramids shimmer in the distance as coal trains rumble by, spewing black fumes. The landscape is dotted by Nazi-led excavations into tombs both small and large. Several you’ll be pushed toward as part of the story, but there are plenty more for collectionists and the inquisitive to delve into.

I won’t spoil the details of later environments, but each of the main regions comes crammed with optional activities. There are lengthy “Field Research” sidequests complete with cutscenes, as well as Mysteries that typically proffer more complicated puzzles. Your classic video game lockboxes and safes are plentiful, too, though discovering the solutions here often requires a mite more thought than usual. One early extra puzzle involved comparing Blackshirt letters with a code sheet and calendar. To get the solution, I had to note that the the wrong date had been marked, then rework through the code system to generate the correct sequence of numbers. Fortunately, you can return to previous areas whenever you like, so there’s no punishment for pressing ahead with the story.

In a lovely touch, you can also take time to help the ordinary folk around you. In the Vatican, you might overhear a painter lamenting the loss of her brush, or pass two nuns craving a particular baked good. There’s no associated quest or marker tied to these, but if you find and hand over the item they’re after, you’ll generate a word of thanks and few Adventure Points to boot. There’s an evident artifice to it, with NPC dialogue repeating a touch too loudly and often, but it’s still gratifying to engage in something positive – other than punching fascists and Nazis, of course – without explicitly being instructed to do so.

The cinema of stealth

One of the main ways to get about without drawing attention in The Great Circle is through disguises, though you’ll always need to be on the lookout for captains who can see through them. It’s a surface-level stealth system. Your devout colleagues in the Vatican, for example, won’t bat an eyelid when the visiting “Father” pulls out a bullwhip and uses it to scramble up a wall.

Failed stealth is equally forgiving. Get spotted in a restricted zone and you’ll need to fight your way out. But guards have comically tiny vision and hearing cones. A guard barely 20 meters away is unlikely to hear a thing when you scrap with his buddy, even when your spade smacks them around the chops with an audible clang.

Patrolling guards cough, sniff, and whistle loudly as they move. They announce their presence with such gusto that Indy thankfully has no need for a magical, wall-permeating detective vision. In the same vein, leaving unconscious bodies scattered around rarely has consequences. After spotting a downed ally, guards will only search for a few minutes, and the next time you fast travel or load, they’ll be back on their feet as if nothing has happened.

Stop for too long to think about it, and the facade wobbles. But to me, these choices only spoke to the experience the game is trying to sell. Sure, an unconscious guard in the Vatican would realistically see the entire space locked down in an instant. But that wouldn’t make for good matinee cinema. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle wants you to feel as confident and competent as Professor Jones is on the big screen. Wilfully stopping to inspect and criticize these aspects feels a bit like directing the camera operator to pan to the edges of the set, then complaining that the props aren’t real. To star in the movie, you’ve got to commit to the bit.

Cutscenes with charm and quantity

It’s through these cinematic leanings, and most of all the game’s cutscenes, that some might be turned off. Because Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is as much concerned about delivering on its silver-screen heritage as it is with gameplay. Cutscenes are rife throughout, and many are significantly lengthy. If you’re a fan of the films, that’s no problem. But I can imagine those less enamored with Harrison Ford’s exploits in the ‘80s questioning why an extended comedy rumble between Jones, his ally Gina, and his Nazi rival Emmerich Voss couldn’t have been handled through gameplay instead.

So long as you’re willing to buy into those inspirations, however, these movies in miniature are a delight. From Jones punching a fascist through a confession box screen to desperately blowing at a scorpion scurrying too close to his hands on a ledge, The Great Circle perfectly captures the tone, framing, and slapstick humor so adored in Lucas and Spielberg’s movies. All while extricating the uncomfortable elements of sexism and racist exoticism from the era.

These sequences are aided by excellent delivery from the game’s cast, including Troy Baker’s near pitch-perfect Indy rendition. Core companion Gina is a standout, too, invoking a charming energy which counters Jones’ far drier deliveries. It’s an over-the-top, conspiracy-driven yarn, but one that proves thoroughly engaging throughout. That all involved – developers and actors – have poured both heart and research into capturing that ‘80s Lucasfilm feeling is overwhelmingly evident.

What’s even more impressive is how often it pulls this act off outside of cutscenes. Land a knockout punch on a goon and they’ll stagger backwards, stumbling and spinning like the best of stuntmen as they fail to stay upright. Enemies might brace themselves on nearby objects when struck, pausing conveniently long enough for you to land a satisfyingly meaty finisher to the jaw.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle Collector's Edition

Release Date: December 9, 2024

• WindowsBuy
• Xbox SeriesBuy

Stealth takedowns are riddled with horseplay, too. A hook to the leg, a tap on the shoulder, or even a painful nudge between the legs. Knock a foe out after grabbing them, and sometimes Indy will simply let them go, a gentle push all that’s required to see them tumble like a felled tree. Followed, of course, by one of many minor quips.

A spot of fisticuffs

Combat itself in Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is fairly straightforward. Indy can take swings, block, shove, or charge heavy attacks. Time your guard just right and you’ll counter, blocking a blow to let you hit back instead. While stealth is encouraged, Indy is no slouch as a slugger, and more than capable of taking on a group at once provided none are wielding firearms. Even if they are, a flick of his whip is usually enough to disarm them.

MachineGames is best known for the hefty and gratifying guns of the Wolfenstein series. But impressively, while firearms are available in limited circumstances here, I almost never felt compelled to use them. Not even Indy’s own revolver. Melee is the core focus, and environments are littered with one- and two-handed objects with which to lay into your opponents. Even when you pick up a German automatic, you’re given the choice to use it as a club instead. With such a variety of tools, bullets feel like the boring choice.

Occasionally, some minor frustrations did crop up during my playtime. There’s no ability to manual save or load from a specific point, making it a little tougher to replay a sequence when things go south. Many of the game’s core puzzles are fairly straight forward, and the tougher challenges have understandably been left to the optional Mysteries. But only the core puzzles benefit from the camera-based hints system, making it easy to get stumped if you’re not sure where to begin on the extra tasks.

At intervals between levels, the action also shifts to more linear sequences including some spectacular but far more rigid set pieces. Make no mistakes, and these grant a showy reprieve from the core levels, but lose your direction and instant fail conditions can dampen the atmosphere a touch.

As mentioned previously, enemy AI is far from the brightest. Accurate to the films, certainly, but perhaps not to the degree sometimes witnessed. In Giza, I stumbled upon multiple ruins which Nazi guards appeared to have fallen down into of their own accord, knocking themselves out without Indy even offering a shove. Experienced Hitman or immersive sim players may therefore find the systems a little basic, but the lighter implementation suits the breezy pace of gameplay and narrative well.

For fans of the films, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is an unmissable indulgence, and one that should appeal even to those who’ve never heard the crack of a whip in a cinema or on their TV screens. But further than that, it boldly suggests that, if the character is to have a continued future with further adventures, this may be the best means and medium by which to deliver it.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

Release Date: December 9, 2024

• Windows
• Xbox Game PassBuy
• Xbox SeriesBuy