Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: an acquired taste, but a barnstorming classic

2 weeks ago 4

To some, the name Indiana Jones conjures up images first and foremost of a professor, a genius of deciphering history and unlocking the mysteries of the ancient world. Others, bluntly, think of action: of whip cracking, and shooting swordsmen rather than engaging in one-on-one duels - or in battering a nazi’s head in atop a speeding tank. Both are right. Indy is both of those things. Which makes video games a problem.

Think of James Bond - one of the direct inspirations for Indy’s cinematic adventures. Everybody loves GoldenEye 64, and rightly so - but ultimately, that game is a 90s DOOM clone with some spycraft thrown in. The entire Bond gaming pantheon more or less only represents one side of the character, because the nature of video games makes it easier to build around blowing stuff up rather than all of the other things the character does. Indy has the same problem; he does too much stuff. In the past, he’s been an action game star or an adventure game star - and never the twain shall meet.

Until now, that is. The greatest miracle of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t that it’s one of the best licensed games in recent history - it’s that it actually does a great job of representing all of Indiana Jones as a character - the adventurer, the professor, the ladies’ man, the action hero - it’s all here, and much besides. The result is a game that is, in my opinion, a barnstorming classic.

I also think that it’s a game that’ll likely divide. I don’t typically like to think about other critics when I’m reviewing a game, but I’ll indulge myself on this occasion: I know that some are going to love this game and some are going to find it mid af. Your mileage is going to vary enormously depending on the sort of game you have the patience for. If you're the sort of player willing to stop, smell the roses, and pick up what developer MachineGames is putting down, you’re going to have the time of your damn life.

So, what is it? It’s brave, for one. I also think to some degree it defies most comparisons or genre conventions. There are strands of other games here - the first-person exploration of immersive sims, the improvisational panic of Hitman, more than a touch of Riddick, and even the occasional shade of MachineGames’ past work on Wolfenstein. Ultimately, it’s a genre mash-up that results in something that feels familiar but fresh. Much of the familiarity comes from the conventions and tropes of Indiana Jones being lavishly respected, as it should.

The core structure of The Great Circle is fairly simple: you’re dropped into various open-ended zones such as the Vatican City or the area surrounding the Pyramids of Gizeh - and Doctor Jones is set loose. In any given area there’s a slew of activities to undertake. These activities are led by clearly-signposted story missions, but much of the most satisfying stuff happens when you meander off the beaten path and explore these zones to their fullest.

There’s a bunch of stuff to do in each zone - artifacts to find, puzzles to solve, the occasional NPC to help out. You can break into fascist bases and loot upgrade books and cash. The cash can be used to buy books from location-exclusive vendors that’ll help to fill in your map and ensure you find all the collectibles, which in turn will grant you the vital resource required to activate the various upgrade books you find. Alternatively, you can just explore alone and see what your intuition guides you towards. It becomes a complicated but satisfying mesh of content in each zone.

On a couple of occasions my eager exploration allowed me to trip into story beats before I was actually ready for them as a puzzle that I thought was just some random side thing turned out to actually be story critical. Any game that you can accidentally sequence break through sheer tenacity of exploration and puzzle solving, even if only slightly, is a winner in my books.

As soon as I was set loose in the first area, it didn’t take long for the game’s tempo to click. I was zipping from one side of the Vatican to another, donning a disguise as a priest to avoid detection, sneaking, smashing fascists over the back of the head, occasionally getting into open brawls. Sometimes, I’d run away - and that felt okay! So did the fact that while you have easy (but strictly ammo-limited) access to guns, I got a good six or seven hours in before I ever actually fired one. Crucially, all of this feels right in part because it all feels precisely like what Indiana Jones would do.

That is the greatest triumph of this game, like I said earlier. A lot of licensed games based on beloved IP trade on that promise: you’ll feel like James Bond! Live the Jedi life! Become the Batman! But, honestly, for my money few licensed games that ply the reputation of a character as iconic as this live up to that promise. Of the three I listed above, only Batman has truly had that treatment, in the Arkham games. But The Great Circle is remarkably Arkham-esque in how it squares the circle of marrying video game design to the myriad ways people think of the titular character.

In Arkham, a key component of this was paying lip service to Batman as the world’s greatest detective in a game that was ultimately about smashing convicts’ faces in with satisfying combos. Arguably Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the opposite - Indy is an adventurer first, brawler second. The result is a game that feels like just about the biggest-budget adventure puzzler ever made. If you play your cards right, hours can pass without you ending up in an out-and-out fight (though some stealth takedowns here and there are unavoidable). Instead, you can noodle through each of the game’s open zones unearthing long-lost secrets, snapping photos, and being made to feel delightfully clever by some canny puzzle design.

A clear message about the game’s design principles is sent in the way puzzles play out and the difficulty settings. For a start, there are separate toggles for the difficulty of the combat and the puzzles. If you want to play this more like an Adventure game, with breezy combat but brain-busting riddles, you can. If you want to be hand-held through the mental challenges but showcase your lightning-quick reflexes in mega-tough combat, you can do that too. It shows the philosophy of the game: that you can channel the version of Indy that speaks to your memory and interpretation of the movies.

Whatever difficulty you choose, the puzzles are satisfying and fun. The difficulty doesn’t change the solutions, but tweaks how hand-holdy the rest of the game is. If you’re someone who gets frustrated when a character verbally voices a solution to the puzzle you’re on before you’ve barely had time to think about it… that setting is for you. Indy’s camera, acquired early on, also becomes a puzzle helping mechanic: if you’re stuck, there’s usually something in the room that you can snap a photo of in order to prompt verbal hints from Indiana or his companions. Snapping multiple photos gradually unearths hint after hint until things are pretty obvious. It’s clever, and allows those who want to be trapped in a room for ten minutes to figure it out to do just that. All mindsets are served.

Puzzles and exploration are this game at its best, which means - here it comes - the combat, yes, is probably the weakest part. Part of this is just first-person based melee combat. Few have perfected it, and this isn’t the title to break the mold. It’s satisfying enough, and is at its most satisfying when you’re scrabbling around in the dirt for your next improvised weapon to brutalize a nazi - candlesticks, guitars, shovels, wine bottles - it’s all there for the taking. In the end, though, the nature of the combat always pushes you to a single conclusion - it’s better to stay out of trouble as much as you can.

Even that becomes a riddle, though. The easiest way to stay out of trouble is to find disguises so you can move about freely - but where a less brave game would waypoint you right to an outfit, here they’re genuinely hidden and have to be unearthed through risky exploration as Indy proper. In design terms, there’s a commitment here to trusting the player that is rare in modern big-budget titles, especially those attached to a Hollywood name.

Satisfying stealth with enemies that are just the right amount of dumb work to serve this design well - though I really do wish enemies weren’t quite so omniscient in recognizing Indiana when he’s not fully disguised. But their perceptiveness helps to lend to an overall feel that matches the movies and the character. Indy is a little bit scrappy and sloppy, and frequently snatches victory from the jaws of defeat with a quip and a handsome smile. The structure of the stealth, combat, and limited durability weapon system means you have to embrace that chaotic energy.

Once you embrace that… like I said earlier, the pacing just takes control of you. It’s the sort of game you can get glassy-eyed playing, only realizing hours later that, oh, god, it’s 3am. But who can blame you for your minor zombification? You’re crossing from one side of some globe-trotting location (of which I won’t spoil but to say there are far more than I expected) to the other, finding new secrets and puzzles to unravel, and occasionally moving the narrative forward. You’re stalking with nazi bases like you’re in Deus Ex, scrambling through windows and across scaffolds in order to make your way to safes that you then need to figure out the combination to. It’s a rich feast of content that doesn’t overwhelm. Suddenly, hours have melted away, and you realize: this is just a little bit magic.

Indiana Jones is stood in front of a man wearing a vicar's outfit in The Great Circle.

‘Magic’ is one of those nebulous, stupid words to use in a review. I hate that I’ve used it. Yet by the same token I think there is something to the idea that Indiana Jones is one of those movie franchises that trades heavily in a hazy sense of ‘magic’. Not just in its featuring of face-melting supernatural powers, but in how the movies are made. By its very nature, the movie series harkens back to serials from the days when cinema did indeed feel vaguely like witchcraft. The nature is different here, obviously, in a video game - but the vibe is surely the same.

Something I enjoy a great deal about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is how unabashedly video gamey it is. This can perhaps be owed in part to the pulpy nature of the films - Indy’s adventures aren’t all that grounded, so neither does the game have to be. So I sort of lovingly accept that if Indy automatically changes out of whatever disguise he’s in as you enter a new area, switching to his iconic look, major story stuff is about to go down. I accept vaguely silly puzzle solutions, and I question the forgetful nature of the various fascist guards you’ll come across less than I do in many other stealth games. All of this is because it makes sense within the inner logic of the world of Indiana Jones.

In a sense, all of this demonstrates perfectly well that Indiana Jones is particularly well-suited to the world of video games. At the same time, this is an adaptation that is slavishly devoted to the source material. That vibe probably would not exist or at the very least would not persist if the periphery didn’t feel right and true to the films it apes. But it is all painfully accurate.

In the pre-release, there’s been talk of shooting motion capture sessions on similar gear to that Spielberg used in the eighties, in painstaking research, all that. You can see where the time and money would go - you don’t just have to represent the late thirties accurately, but moreover represent the version of the late 30s that was depicted by 80s cinema. It’s complicated. You then have the job of recreating one of the greatest cinema stars of all time in a heyday Harrison Ford. MachineGames smashes each of these goals as if it’s routine.

Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Much credit has to be given to Troy Baker, who wears the Fedora this time around. It’d be easy to take this role and simply impersonate Ford. Baker’s effort does often sound uncannily like an 80s Harrison, as well. But it also feels like more than an impersonation - it’s an interpretation of the character. Baker is the sort of actor who clearly likes to do ‘the work’, as the thesps call it. He has clearly approached this project not as just channeling a famed and beloved movie appearance - but as a start-to-finish narrative, thinking carefully about who Indy is at this stage in his life and career. Married to an engaging overall storyline, strong supporting characters, lovely cutscene direction, and lush visuals - it all works as a continuation of the movies.

Having said all this, with a heavy heart I come back to my acknowledgement from early in this review: I know this game isn’t for everyone. This isn’t that sort of slam dunk perfect game that will have truly broad appeal. Even reading this review, I think you’ll probably have an idea based on my description of the combat-to-puzzle balance and the overall structure of the game if it’s for you or not. If it is for you - as it was for me - you are going to not only find one of the best games of the year, but a game you’re going to want to revisit again and again.

Every now and then, a game comes along that just full-on surprises you. I love the Indiana Jones movies (at least, the first three) and so always had an interest in this game. I ultimately sort of expected a fun bit of inconsequential blockbuster, though. The sort of thing you play over the Christmas season and promptly forget about. The best thing I can say about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is that I know I’m going to be thinking about this for a long time yet.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arrives on PC, Xbox, and Game Pass on December 9, and comes to PlayStation 5 in Spring 2025. This review was written based on PC code, provided by the publisher.

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