Overview

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, man, what a game. One that prior to its release flew under the radar for me, where I thought "yeah that looks cool", and then moved on. Over the past week, I have been absolutely obsessed with this game, and I can absolutely tell you with certainty that The Great Circle is in every way, an iconic Indiana Jones experience.

I remember falling in love with Indiana Jones and the Emperors Tomb back in the day, it was an Indy experience that would have you travelling to many different locations, solving puzzles, and brawling Nazi's. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle feels like an evolution, a modern Indy game that throws me back to that time when I was a kid feeling the sense of wonder playing through that game. Whether it was contemplating where our favourite whip-cracking archaeologist would be travelling to next, or whether it is what mystery we'd be uncovering in this window of the past.

Machine Games have absolutely nailed this game from the environments you explore, the approach to stealth and inversely how they handle combat, like man the feeling and sensation of punching Nazi's or smacking an unsuspecting foe over the head never gets old. The thrill of adventure is alive here, and the Great Circle is a fantastic game that closes out the blockbuster season of 2024's games, and I'm here to tell you why, so let's get into my review for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.

The Story

The best place to start with The Great Circle is the story, which falls between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, and kicks off this journey shot for shot retelling that opening sequence of Raider of the Lost Ark. It's a great introduction to this story that serves to get players familiar with the basic mechanics of the game such as how your whip works, and how Indy interacts with the environments, but more so it is a moment to showcase Troy Baker's performance as Indy compared to the legend himself Harrison Ford, but more on that later.

Despite the fanfare and homage that this moment plays in getting the player invested into The Great Circle's story, it is easily the weakest part of an incredible journey that is yet to come. The more broader story of The Great Circle begins to take shape when one night Indy discovers that there has been a burglary gone wrong and one of his precious artifacts.

This sets Indy out on a new adventure that unfolds with whole host of twists and turns that'll see Indy team up with interesting allies, face off against interesting foes, and travel to various scenic wonders of the world.

Speaking of the characters there are many memorable characters in this game, and Baker's portrayal of Indy makes the character as lovable and memorable, as we remember in the original films. Your companion Gina, is your companion and is quite likable and much like Indy she really grew on me throughout the story.

The real standout is Voss The Great Circle's central antagonist, one who you just want to punch in the face. He serves as an interesting inverse to Indy, two men in the pursuit of knowledge, the thrill of unravelling the mystery but a wedge of ideology. It's awesome man, the feels throughout but still musters that feeling of a megalomaniac and a style of bad guy you'd find in an 80's action film.

Gameplay

Combat

The combat for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is really satisfying, with the iconic sound of Indy's punches that are replicated from the films, the the brutal and satisfying improv weapons you can you to thrash, bash, and slash on a whim. It is unbelievably fun and it never gets old and throughout my playthrough, I would continually look for opportunities to just engage in combat, it was fun and satisfying. Indy's punches feel weighty, and the satisfaction that come from breaking a weapon over an enemy is as satisfying as it is concerning for my mental wellbeing. But seriously, this game is an absolutely nails how the combat feels, and it provides you many methods to approach its combat, as you won't just have your fists, but also your trusty whip, which will allow you to disarm enemies, and pull them towards you too. You are also able to get into gun fights with enemies, although the moment you're in a gunfight or are spotted by multiple enemies, it usually is a game over where it becomes easy to be overwhelmed, reminding you that Indy and playing as Indy is a power fantasy for sure, but one where you are still only one man. So it will provide many methods to pick off enemies if you choose to, or avoid them entirely.

Stealth

This brings me to how stealth works in The Great Circle, providing Indy the ability to sneak past camps of enemies, or to slowly takedown enemies as necessary. The enemy AI can be a little funny at times, feeling a little inconsistent, but overall they feel pretty dumb, however I did play this on the standard difficulty. But overall, I think that despite this, it never does feel like something that hinders the experience, because in an Indiana Jones game, you want to feel like a badass using wit and creative ways to takedown foes, or simply sneaking by without causing a scene. There are also various different disguises that you can wear that will grant you access to different areas, avoiding combat all together, having Indiana Jones take a note from Agent 47's playbook.

I think The Great Circle's greatest strength is how dynamic the combat feels and how easily the player can switch between stealth and combat. It doesn't lock the player into a particular playstyle of playing one way or another, but the layouts of particular locations, camps or caves, does hint to the player which method would provide an easier time.

Exploration

Semi-Open worlds

Unlike prior Indiana Jones games, The Great Circle has many levels that open up Indy to explore and take on side-quests. I like to think of these as semi-open levels that have a central hub. It makes for some interesting exploration that isn't overbearing in its size, but intentional in its design, having a lot of cool monuments or standout places that can draw your interest or attention to a potential quest or discovery. It isn't anything revolutionary in concept, but it is how The Great Circle tactfully executes these areas of the game, where your time never feels wasted exploring, and the side quests and discoveries feel like nice rewarding sub-threads to The Great Circle's overarching narrative.

But overall in the overall pacing of The Great Circle these semi-open locations feel like they do a great job at breaking up the more linear parts of the the story, providing a sense freedom and time away from the story if you so choose, along with further fleshing out the games systems, such as the various disguises you'll uncover, different medicne bottles laying around that increase your health or stamina, or different relics collect, and pictures to snap.

One thing that I do feel like could have been improved is the map and how regularly I'd need to be checking back to it for directions, and sometimes how reliant on it I would feel. It's a minor complaint but in two out of three of this open locations, I do feel that they could do a better job visually pointing you towards I location than having you reference your map. But I feel like this wasn't a major draw back, nor did it really hinder the experience, but it was something of note that I noticed.

Puzzles

One of the major things you'll be taking part in throughout your playthrough is solving different puzzles, and overall I think that the way that the way puzzles are integrated into this game are quite solid, mostly feeling like they strike a good balance of feeling not too sophisticated that they'd turn off someone from continuing, but not so simple that they're inconsequential or redundant. There is a tightrope that is often walked when creating puzzles in a video game, and I think here in The Great Circle, Machine Games have done a great job creating these different puzzles and can I say that it is great to not have NPC's every second yelling out the solution to every single step, before you've even had the chance to figure it out too.

Gameplay Systems

Progression

Points and Books

So now we're moving on to progression and the way that Indiana Jones rewards the player is primarily through discovery, which I think is excellent it fits within the theme of Indiana Jones' character. What do I mean by this, well there are two components to progression, the first and easiest one to tackle is these books, that look like manuals you'll find scattered across the different locations you'll travel too. These will provide abilities that upgrade Indy's arsenal whether it is how effective high heavy attack is, or how good he is with improv weapons. But acquiring the book isn't enough to claim the ability, you'll require points, and these points can be obtained through picking up notes scattered across different camps or locations, discovering relics or an item of interest, and lastly taking photos of history with your trusty camera. It rewards the player for interacting with the world and taking the time to soak in the environments, and rewards that discovery that comes from exploration more than the thrill chasing of combat. The points acquired from these interactions allow for unlocking the books you discover and in turn it creates this satisfying loop of beating up your enemies and searching the room and leaving no stone unturned in the process.

Exploration Items

One aspect of this games progression that I didn't expect was how The Great Circle handles things such as exploration items that you'll acquire throughout your playthrough that make areas previously unavailable in other semi-open areas more accessible like our trusty lighter, and I've already touched on the disguises too, but many of these are pick-ups that you'll stumble across that make new opportunities available too. It's a great addition and it is a really satisfying and engaging means of progression that keeps exploring these areas feel rewarding, and exciting.

Visual and Sound Presentation

Visuals

Now I'd like to talk about the visual and sound presentation for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, and man this game looks beautiful, with Indy being placed in contemporary environments brimming with life, detail and flare that mirror the contemporary presentation of the time. It really does feel so finely detailed, with locations feeling believable and lived in with the amount of ornaments, memorabilia and that occupies a Nazi compound, or how brimming with books, antiques and scattered documents the rooms of quest givers like Naval and Antonio.

Sound

The soundtrack for Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is just as wonderous and adventurous as its visual counterpart, and fits in perfectly with the John Williams-esque soundtrack by Gordy Haab is excellently crafted and you'd think Williams had done it himself with how well and on point it fits into each scene, set-piece, location or moment. Speaking of feeling like the real thing, Troy Baker's performance as Indiana Jones is absolutely top notch, and with in moments you'll forget that this is not Harrison Ford, and it is a damn good performance. On top of that the sound effects used for Indy's fists or the iconic whip crack, all mirror the sound-effects found in those original films, and it makes The Great Circle feel like another grand Indy adventure, one that feels like it fits and blends perfectly within the time and world of that trilogy, and one that feels like it has always belonged there.

Conclusion

So to close out this video, I would like to say that Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is a fantastic experience, one that taps into what it feels like to being Indiana Jones on one of his various escapades across the world, it in every way accentuates what we love about the Indiana Jones series, tells a story that feels fitting and charming that you would feel it had released during that golden age of Indiana Films in the 80s. The semi-open worlds are tweaked to offer up enough content to provide an interesting backdrop to the world and broader narrative, whilst not making any of the optional content feel redundant.

The Great Circle is an incredible accomplishment for Machine Games, and is a fantastic video game to close out 2024, it's one that may have missed the cut-off to receive any Game Awards, but it is one that will be in gaming memory, and will be talked about for years to come, so whether it is Game Pass, PC, or you're waiting for the PS5 release, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is a video game that I thoroughly enjoyed and I highly recommend.