Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an action-adventure game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is set between the events of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).
The story of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle follows archaeologist Indiana Jones in October of 1937 as he attempts to thwart various groups seeking to harness a power connected to the titular Great Circle, which refers to mysterious sites around the world that form a perfect circle when connected together on a map (like a globe).
This review will break down the story and gameplay in separate sections for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Story
Recently separated from Marion Ravenwood, Indiana Jones is awoken at his desk in Marshall College when an imposing individual breaks into the university one night to steal what is considered an historically insignificant relic. The archaeologist sets off around the globe to unravel the mystery, and his journey takes him to locations such as the Vatican, the forgotten temples of Sukhothai, the pyramids of Egypt, and even through the hostile snow-peaked Himalayas.
Somewhere along the way, he pairs up with Gina Lombardi, an investigative reporter whose interest in the mystery is a lot more personal, and they find themselves up against Emmerich Voss, an intensely psychological and highly intelligent man who is obsessed over the human mind and its manipulation. In addition, the Axis Powers from World War II are major antagonist forces in the game. Same goes for the Blackshirts (from Italy’s National Fascist Party).
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set to receive a story expansion titled “The Order of Giants” following the game’s launch. The expansion will be instantly available from release for owners of the game’s Premium and Collector’s Edition on Xbox and PC.
Gameplay
Gameplay in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is primarily in the first-person perspective, with a shift to third-person perspective for some cutscenes and sequences. There are a few valid criticisms, such as that it does at points take away from the gameplay. A case of this is the recreated iconic opening from the Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark film. That didn’t necessarily need to be in first-person. As a recreated homage to the film in playable form, however, it works very well as both that and as an in-game tutorial.
That said, I do acknowledge there are valid concerns with this approach. If you grew up with the film first and then experienced this, you might feel that the game has “took the soul away”, as Andre put it. That simply isn’t the case once you actually get past this prologue tutorial bit. In addition, some of the folks at MachineGames are the same ones who worked on The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It, therefore, was not much of a surprise that they’d go for this approach with regards to Indiana Jones.
The game itself, on Steam at least, requires 120GB of storage. On Xbox Series X, it’s 131GB. That is a heavy-sized game. On the gameplay front, you’re gonna’ do a LOT of adventuring, puzzle-solving, and – optionally – collecting Relics (50 of them, to be precise).
Side-questing takes the form of Fieldworks in this game. One particular side-quest/Fieldwork involves taking a picture of 4 inscriptions around the Vatican, for example. Similarly to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, while some side-quests are found by talking to specific NPCs, in this case, a man named Antonio in the Vatican, others are found in a somewhat obtuse manner, like finding a seemingly random note about a child locked up for stealing artifacts. The Fieldwork will be updated only after reading such a random note. It does get frustrating if going for 100% completion.
Leveling up also works way differently than in most other adventure games. One example in this game is getting upgrades to, say, hit harder with your fists, which is convoluted as heck. For one, you need to find the corresponding Adventure Book. Second, you need to explore and loot a fair amount of stuff throughout the world. This leads to step 3 in the process: adventure points, money, or medicine bottles. All of these are earned by exploring every nook and cranny in the world to then use towards those Adventure Books. Stamina is typically restored by eating fruit (always eat those fruits and veggies, folks!).
When exploring the Vatican or other parts of the world, you’ll encounter enemies, such as Nazis, for example. Fighting isn’t exactly ideal or recommended. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle uses stealth as much as it uses exploration. Some sections may require you to sneak past guards using specific strategies or even KO them by getting yourself detected and then whipping them or using a (breakable) weapon, like a hammer. Most weapons that are breakable can be repaired with repair kits, but they are few and far between. Use them and the weapons sparingly and try to apply that stealth gameplay from Metal Gear Solid.
That being said, if the whip, fists, and breakable weapons are insufficient, you can use Indiana Jones’ famous revolver. It’s deadly, yes, but not only is ammo extremely rare and scarce (more so than the repair kits), but merely shooting it ONCE, whether if it misses or hits an enemy, alerts everyone else in the vicinity. For those reasons, it should be used as a last resort.
Speaking of enemies, the worst enemy I dealt with in this game, or really any adventure game for that matter, are the Healers. They’re big, they hit as hard as a Heavy enemy, and carry green crosses, and will resurrect other fallen enemies back into battle if left alone for too long. Going back to weapons for a minute, the game doesn’t outright say, to my slight disappointment, that some weapons are more durable than you might expect in combat or that beating unaware foes will break weapons with less than 4 dots of durability.
Repair kits have a con of their own, that being they’re mainly useful on “disguise weapons”, namely weapons that come with specific outfits. Unlike most other weapons, your disguise weapons remain in the inventory after being broken, so the repair kits work better on them than on some random breakable weapons, like fly swatters or pots.
One last tip/critique: Another reason why stealth is the only viable way to play this game is because defeating enemies through direct combat provides no XP points. They don’t even drop useable weapons! Not a fan of Metal Gear-esque stealth? Don’t worry, there’s one thing you can do prior to combat if fighting a fascist is unavoidable. You can put on Indiana Jones’ iconic outfit, and once combat is entered, you’ll gain “fortitude”, which allows Indiana Jones to take more hits in battle, as indicated by a gold bar above his health. That gold bar of fortitude is also what governs your ability to use Indy’s “Lucky Hat Skill”, which gives you a second wind if you ever get knocked out by grabbing it off the ground. Just…don’t get too reckless and think you can use it as a crutch to cheese combat. Just don’t.
To touch on the different platforming options when navigating the environments, Indiana Jones can shimmy, whip-swing, and swim (take careful not of how long you’re able to hold your breath).
The graphics and soundtrack are wonderful to look at and listen to, even on my laptop with minimum settings. During cutscenes, the FPS rate is a smooth 60-120 FPS, but during some gameplay sequences, such as the recreation of the Raiders of the Lost Ark opening, it dips to a LOW 15-25 FPS.
Conclusion
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle lives up to the word “Great” in its name. There are some issues, such as a HUGE emphasis on stealth, and combat feels almost meaningless outside of some mandatory boss fights. That said, if you can master the stealth mechanics quickly and strategize at your pace in the beautiful semi-open worlds, you’re in for the best Indiana Jones adventure as of yet. That’s no exaggeration.
Developer: MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platforms: Xbox Series X/S, PC, PS5 (coming 2025)
Release Date: 9th December 2024
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was provided by the publisher.
