Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review

Nervous. That’s how I always feel when beloved franchises are revisited years after supposedly finishing, in an attempt to breathe life into the universe for legions of potential new fans and, let’s face it, cash in on the nostalgia. As I’m sure we are all aware, the beloved thrill-seeking archaeologist Indiana Jones (or Indy to his friends), has fallen foul of this. Twice.

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull along with the more recent Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny both missed the mark for different reasons, leaving the franchise feeling out of ideas and somewhat stale. Still, that didn’t dent my excitement when Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was announced. And let’s get this out of the way right now – it’s the best entry in the series since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. By a country mile.

If you want an idea of just how faithful Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is to the classics, then this is made abundantly clear from the very start. This is because you are treated to playing through the opening scenes from the very first film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. I actually only twigged this myself when I thought, “Is that the bloke who played Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2?”.

Treat this frame by frame recreation as the most effective way of making a statement that MachineGames mean business with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and it’s immediately clear that what we have here is something quite special. In fact, after playing I went back to watch the film itself, and the love and attention paid to the source material is staggering.

Still, this is a brand new adventure that sees Indiana Jones scrambling to beat the Nazis in a race to solve the mystery of the Great Circle, a series of significant historical sites that, when linked in such a way, supposedly unlock a mighty ancient power. The game is canon, set in 1937 in between the first and third films from the original trilogy. The script is absolutely spot on; it’s witty, funny with twists and turns and there are around four hours of cutscenes to enjoy here too. The grand, sweeping, epic soundtrack by Gordy Haab is also pitch perfect, bringing together an utterly authentic Indy experience.

This brings me nicely to Troy Baker. I’m a big fan of Troy’s work, from Joel Miller to Booker DeWitt, but when I heard Harrison Ford’s likeness was being used but not his voice, those all too familiar nerves started to set in again. Gladly, I couldn’t have had less to worry about. Troy absolutely nails Indy, capturing the character perfectly without ever feeling like a tribute act. Despite his previous pedigree, I am still blown away by just how good he is.

However, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is in no way a one man show. As any fan knows, Indy needs a nemesis to bounce off, as well as take a few well placed punches. Marios Gavrilis brings Nazi archaeologist Emmerich Voss to life, giving Troy Baker a real run for his money. He ticks all the boxes to make him the perfect Indiana Jones villain, including fully leaning into the camp side of being a baddie, as well as being a Nazi. In fairness, the whole cast is absolutely brilliant. I’m a huge fan of Gina Lombardi too, voiced by the fabulous Alessandra Mastronardi, who accompanies Indy through the majority of his travels.

Another critically important element of any Indiana Jones adventure are the beautifully exotic locations that his investigations take him to. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is no exception, as you’ll be globetrotting via Vatican City, the Pyramids of Gizeh and Sukhothai along with others. There’s a brilliant segment set up in the snowy mountains which boasts a stunning sight, hinting not all is what it seems.

Now seems like the right time to point out just how gorgeous Indiana Jones and the Great Circle looks. Ray Tracing is front and centre here, Indy’s iconic silhouette is highlighted beautifully through the use of lighting and the 60fps performance rarely dips; there’s only the occasional stutter when transitioning from a cutscene back into open gameplay. However, it’s the character animations which impressed me the most. The facial expressions are incredible, and elevate the cutscenes to the point where you could easily be watching one of the classic films from the 80s. It’s another way with which MachineGames successfully make you feel immersed in the adventure.

Talking of adventure, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle defied my expectations, in a good way. With license tie-ins, I’m all too used to linear gameplay which cherry picks the well known hallmarks but does very little to innovate or impress. So, imagine my surprise when I arrived in Vatican City, and was presented with a huge open area to explore. I was almost gobsmacked, but that didn’t happen until I travelled to Egypt…

It’s here where the game really opens up, and admittedly the pace slows. However, you can simply press on with your main adventure quest, or take some time to engage in some fieldwork (this is basically side questing). Calling them side quests is doing these missions an injustice however, as they are indistinguishable from the main story arc in terms of quality.

You’ll still meet new characters, explore different areas and get to watch plenty of cutscenes as you play through them. In fact, I’d go as far to say that you’re missing out on some of the best experiences of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle if you opt to just crack on with the main story. As an example, and without spoiling anything, one had me feeling like I had been thrown into a hybrid between BioShock Infinite and Alan Wake.

There are also mysteries to solve, as well as the more typical item collection quests to tackle. Thanks to the lush, detailed environment design these are a great way of seeing the sights, and do not feel like a grind at all. Also, your journal doubles as a map which tracks you and your objectives in real time, as well as throwing a waypoint up on screen to keep you on course.

Indy is as agile as ever in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but he wouldn’t be going anywhere fast without his famous whip. Used for climbing, swinging and even combat, it feels like a character in its own right. More often than not your curiosity will be rewarded, with each area designed to encourage it. Whether it’s scaling the rooftops of Vatican City, or exploring hidden tombs underneath the Pyramids of Gizeh, the environments are wonderfully designed and always exciting.

As you will no doubt expect, each location is crawling with enemies meaning you can’t simply wander around unchallenged. You’ll unlock different disguises which will make detection less likely, but not eliminate the risk completely to the trained eye. Combat is inevitable, but Indiana Jones and the Great Circle discourages going in all guns blazing, and encourages the stealthy approach. 

Crouching and sneaking is the way to do it, but if enemies spot you all is not lost. A small alertness wheel will appear which when partially filled, will prompt them to come and investigate further. Or, if it fills completely, this means you’re discovered and puts them in a state of alert as shown with a red exclamation mark.

It would be remiss of me not to say that it’s here where that immersive feel which is so impressive in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is often shattered. You can walk past enemies at certain points at a very close proximity, and they won’t spot you. Whereas hundreds of metres away, from a watch tower, the yellow circle will kick in as you are tracked. However, the best example of this issue is when Gina is with you. She is essentially invisible, and won’t be seen by guards; they will only respond to your presence. So she can sneak right in front of them on her knees and they won’t react. It’s only when you’ve been discovered that they will spot Gina, and pursue you both.

Despite this issue, I still think the stealth approach is the right choice for Indy. He’s not a soldier, or a trained assassin, but instead an academic who happens to be handy in a brawl. There are melee items scattered around that can be used to instantly take down enemies, if you get close enough. Or, you can swap firearms into melee weapons to the same effect, which is a neat feature. It’s important to hide any guards you knock out cold afterwards to avoid detection.

If you fail to get the drop on your mark, then you’ll need to engage in a fist fight to knock them out before they can alert the others. The triggers are used to throw punches, whilst you can block, parry, dodge and shove them back too. Your stamina will deplete, so picking the right time to take a breather can be key.

I must admit, I’m not a massive fan of the hand-to-hand combat and there are certain situations where you have no choice but to engage in it. It’s fine, but I never felt I quite mastered it to the point where I was confident enough to choose this method of dispatching enemies. A word of advice here too, stay away from the big fellas. 

A guaranteed way of being discovered in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is to start firing bullets, which will alert all nearby enemies to your location. Surviving a gunfight is possible, but one well placed bullet will kill you, which in all fairness is pretty realistic. Reloading is also slow and cumbersome, so if you’re found it’s often best to leg it and wait for the heat to die down.

Your odds of success can be increased by finding books scattered across the environments, which are used to upgrade all sorts of stats from health and stamina, as well as unlock new abilities. Adventure points are needed to complete the upgrade once they have been unlocked, and if you’re completing fieldwork there are plenty to go around. An example of one of Indy’s abilities is “Lucky Hat”, which gives him a second chance if he’s killed in combat. This means you have another opportunity to take out your enemies, or escape if your survival chances are looking slim.

As well as combat and exploration, puzzles are also another critical element of any Indiana Jones adventure. There are plenty here, usually standing in the way of you and the entrance to a tomb, or rare artefact. The difficulty of these can be amended from the very start, however hints are still available and Gina will rather impatiently offer her advice and opinions on the situation.

Each location sees the gameplay develop with the introduction of key items. For example, you’ll acquire the camera early on which is not only used for questing and puzzle solving, but is also a handy way of bagging extra adventure points too. All in all, the puzzles aren’t too taxing but are still satisfying to solve, and at the very least offer some wonderful ancient architecture animations for you to enjoy.

Right, I’ve avoided possibly the most divisive element of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for as long as I can. Yes, it’s the first person perspective. I’m actually going to defend the decision, because it’s clear the aim here is how best to immerse the player in the world. As you play through Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the first person perspective fits perfectly as you experience various high octane set pieces. When traversing the camera zooms out to third person, and this coupled with the generous amount of cutscenes means you’ll see plenty of Indy during your Great Circle adventure.

Admittedly, there is a rough transition (or rather a lack of) from third to first person sometimes, but it’s nothing major that can’t be tweaked. What’s cool is the fact that the pause screen will remember your last location in the game as Indy patiently waits for you to resume your adventure.

There are numerous accessibility options in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle too, however I have a couple of favourites. The first is the option to change the aspect ratio to widescreen, complete with borders to give that cinematic feel to the action. The other allows you to keep subtitles just for the foreign language dialogue, rather than having them on for all the speech.

I absolutely adore Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, but there are a few minor downsides that it wouldn’t be right to totally gloss over. However, on balance these do little if nothing to detract from the utter joy I had playing through this game. I’m actually quite surprised (and delighted) to say, this is one of the best games I’ve played all year.  And whilst it may sound daft, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from MachineGames took me back to my teenage years, when gaming was all about escaping into an epic, narrative driven solo experience. That’s right, single player is back baby.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an utterly faithful, masterfully immersive adventure which impresses in so many ways. It captures everything special about the films but stands tall as an outstanding achievement in its own right.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: A Cinematic Adventure Unfolds on Xbox, Game Pass and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-a-cinematic-adventure-unfolds-on-xbox-and-pc/

Buy Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-standard-edition/9NFB39X2Q8M4/0017

Want a Collector’s Edition? – https://amzn.to/3Bw6Adg