Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review – A Globe-Trotting Thrill Ride

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person – with some third-person perspective – adventure game that pits you as the famed fedora-wearing archeologist Indiana Jones. Set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade films, the game takes Indie on a globe-trotting adventure to stop an ancient artifact from falling into the wrong hands. Though there’s a slip and scrape here and there, Indy still manages to get his treasure.

Developer & Publisher // MachineGames, Bethesda
Platforms // PC, PlayStation 5 (Spring 2025), Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass
MSRP & Release Dates // $69.99, December 9th, 2024 (Early Access Release on Dec. 6)
Reviewed On // Xbox Series X|S

A Compelling and Authentic Indiana Jones Story

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle pits players in the shoes of Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones in 1937. He embarks on a quest to uncover an ancient secret buried within the boundaries of the Great Circle -the largest possible circle that can be drawn on a sphere, or planet Earth in this case. However, Dr. Jones isn’t the only one seeking to uncover the secret ancient artifact, a shadowy organization is hellbent on using the Circle’s power for their evil purposes. Throughout Indy’s journey, he will unearth clues that lead him to ancient temples, hidden traps, and legendary artifacts that help unravel an ancient mystery with history-altering consequences.

No doubt, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle just oozes with authenticity. It doesn’t look out of place from previous Indiana Jones movies and video games and is consistent with the franchise’s tone and cinematography. The game encapsulates summer blockbuster vibes but within a game format. In fact, the game could be considered the long-lost Indiana Jones movie fans have been hankering for. Despite being a lengthy game, clocking in around 30 hours, the pacing was on point and felt similar to the pacing found in the movies.

A Solid Supporting Cast of Characters

Indy’s support cast and antagonists fit the bill nicely. In particular, antagonist Emmerich Voss is almost a one-for-one evil foil of Dr. Jones. He still has the same determination to uncover the secrets of the Great Circle as Indy does, but to dominate it to expand the Nazi empire. Without going into spoilers, some familiar characters do make an appearance in the game, which is some nice and appreciated fan service. The production quality is top-notch. Again, avoiding spoilers, when you find out what the mystery surrounding the Great Circle is, it will no doubt produce a resounding gasp of shock.

There’s tremendous respect for the source material and it shows in just about every facet. For example, when you’re in the Vatican, there’s a ton of exposition explaining the different Popes and Saints that are rooted in history. It’s a nice touch and expands on the lore the game is trying to convey.

Indy’s colleague Gina Lombardi is also quite a fleshed-out character. Both Dr. Jones and Gina support one another during their adventures and are looking for different things. Indy after just leaving a relationship with Marion Ravenwood, uses the search for the Great Circle to occupy himself, while Gina is searching for her sister, Dr. Laura Lombardi. The two have a lot of screen time together and generally have good chemistry with one another. As a gameplay-first kind of guy, I felt a lot of the pull came from the game’s story, but that doesn’t mean that gameplay played second fiddle.

Gameplay

Make no mistake, the exploration and puzzle features are the main pillars of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The game is all about solving mysteries at its core. MachineGames put in a lot of care and consideration towards the game’s mechanics and quest design and it shows. The side missions and puzzles are on par with the main story quests. For some puzzles, you will need to decipher hints to finally find the solution. One puzzle, in particular, had you figuring out cloud formations to get the solution for a puzzle, which felt extremely satisfying.

Side quests in particular have their unique cinematics and can be quite lengthy and worth doing. Specifically, field work side quests provide useful rewards for players such as adventure points to level up different skills found in books.

The sense of curiosity and mystery helped propel the side missions beautifully. For example, you could enter a room and see a painting upside down. Naturally, this spurs your curiosity and reveals there is more to the painting than meets the eye. Best of all there’s a lot to do in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with different activities such as fieldwork, secrets in tombs, collecting books for skill upgrades, and mysteries to solve. This made the entire experience so enjoyable.

Many observers will compare Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to the Tomb Raider or Uncharted series. However, they couldn’t be farther off the mark. A lot of Great Circle involves sleuthing, investigating, and being generally nosey.

Open Zones to Explore Every Nook and Cranny

Despite being a straightforward adventure, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle provide different progression paths for players to experiment with. Whether it’s through climbing or by solving intricate puzzles that open up secret routes, the game leaves a lot of agency in the players’ hands. Best of all there’s hardly any handholding and the game leaves it up to you to figure things out.

When players get to the Vatican area, it is quite sprawling and opens up immensely. The area acts as a sort of hub world for players to interact with. If you ever played the recent Wolfenstein titles, you’ll know what I’m talking about. You could even see influences from the Dishonored series during these sprawling areas like the Vatican.

Combat is All Over the Place

To my surprise, in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, stamina is everything. Do you want to pick up that body? Well, you’re going to huff and puff about it. The same is true when it comes to melee combat. Melee combat is all about flow and timing. The LB button parries attacks while the RB button throws right punches. However, if you successfully pull off a parry, you have to punch with the other hand to connect a counterattack, otherwise Indy will just shove the enemy. You can charge up punches as well to deal more damage.

The classic Indy whip was a joy to use. It was most useful for disarming and knocking out enemies and traversal segments of the games. However, it was the most fun to use when you targeting an enemy’s upper torso that would pull him over to you allowing you to quickly grab him. Yes, it’s exactly like it sounds, the infamous spear grab of Scorpion from Mortal Kombat.

Conversely some of the weapons, like the revolver -where you have to annoyingly pull down the hammer for every shot- felt uninspired. This is baffling coming from MachineGames’ storied experience in tight arcadey FPS games like the recent Wolfenstein titles.

Like other first-person perspective games, the Great Circle suffers from awkward fist-to-fist combat. The animations can be wonky and awkward. Melee combat is serviceable for the most part, but its shortcomings are highlighted due to the lack of shooting compared to previous MachineGames titles, which obviously hid some of these animation blemishes.

Stealth is a Big Part of the Game and a Big Issue at the Same Time

Since Indy’s adventure is often taken to dangerous areas, he will have to rely on stealth to progress. This involves hiding in the shadows, dodging patrols and dogs, and using disguises to access cornered-off areas.

Indiana can also pull off stealth kills with weapons (that do degrade over time) and hide bodies to stay incognito. However, a common issue I faced is that you can’t permanently hide bodies. There are no containers or lockers where you can stuff an enemy inside, you just have to hide it out of the AI’s patrol path. This felt like a missed opportunity, especially given the sheer amount of items around you at most times.

No doubt, nothing creates more fear and anxiety than when you see a captain strolling around. They will immediately be suspicious of the slightest thing. Captains are quite vigilant and will always look into anything that just seems out of place. In addition, Captains will see right through your disguises, so you will have to avoid them as best as possible. However, you will be surprised with what you can get away with.

The AI during stealth portions of the game can be quite laughable at times. For example, if you’re jumping around and acting in a way that you shouldn’t be enemies simply will brush off it as if nothing happened. These inconsistencies dampened the immersion the game is going for and the stealth is the game’s weakest link.

Phenomenal Graphics of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

MachineGames outdid themselves when it came to the Great Circle‘s graphics and art style. Going for a realistic art style, the game just looks like it was ripped straight out of the movies. Harrison Ford looks exactly like his younger self from the 1980s. Especially Indy’s chest hair is quite detailed. That same attention to detail is present throughout the other characters as well.

However, the delta between the main characters and the non-story-critical NPCs is vast, where the former gets a majority of the details. The NPC faces are repeated and the only thing distinguishing them are accessories like hats.

The eye-tracking between characters is brilliantly executed. Characters will look at each other and you when in first person directly in the eye. There is no awkward eye contact, it all looks so natural and well-portrayed.

The environments are quite detailed. The biome diversity fits is consistent with the source material and helps create a feeling of mystery and immersion that elevates the vibes the movies create. The Vatican area in particular looked just as sprawling as it does in real life. The dig sites of Gizeh along the pyramid are of course a sight to behold no doubt. While the dense forests of Sukhothai just beg to be explored as there’s always something new to explore and mysteries to unearth. However, don’t get too close as the foilage from up close doesn’t look tepid and flat.

First-Person Debate is Over

When Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was first unveiled, a lot of people were taken aback that the game was set primarily in the first-person perspective. People wanted to see the fedora and weathered leather jacket of the famous tomb diver and with good reason. However, the more I played the game, the more I realized that first-person perspective added a lot to the immersion and put me in the shoes of Indy.

Audio Design

The Great Circle does a fantastic job in the audio department. When punches are being thrown, you can feel that impact with those meaty sound cues. The whip has a distinctive crack to it that sounds quite smart-pun intended. While the soundtrack wouldn’t look out of place from any Indiana Jones film.

Top-Notch Voice Acting

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does a phenomenal job with its voice actors. The interactions between the characters are authentic and well-executed. The witty one-liners, overall script, and vocal work are fantastic. Troy Baker, in particular, eerily sounds like Harrison Ford to a tee. It’s a testament to his voice-acting caliber and shows why he appears in every other AAA game that comes to market. Had Indiana Jones and the Great Circle released before The Game Award’s strange cut-off date, Troy Baker would have easily been one of the leading contenders for the Best Performance category.

The dialogue between Jones and Voss was by far the most captivating performance. The demeanor between both characters and the way they bounce off one another utterly demanded your full attention. The accents too were well-realized as well. They did not sound corny as gamers can come to expect. Especially Voss’s thick German accent is spot-on and well-delivered.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Console Performance

Testing out the game on Xbox Series X, it was surprising that there was a lack of graphical options. No quality or performance modes or anything like that, you just get what you get. For the most part, the Great Circle ran well on console. It is targeting 60 FPS, and it maintains that target for the most part.

There are some inconsistencies when it comes to transitioning between cutscenes and gameplay. It was almost like a strange pause and shimmer would appear during these moments. And for a game with around 4 hours worth of cutscenes, it becomes quite noticeable.

Outstanding Accessibility Options

The Great Circle does a great job offering a wide variety of accessibility options. There are a ton of visual controls that can be adjusted. From outlines to color filters and dead zone adjustments. The game provides plenty of options for players to tweak their accessibility experience.

Final Thoughts on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

By far, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the most cinematic game ever released by MachineGames and Bethesda. The game goes beyond respecting the source material where it can comfortably stand shoulder to shoulder with any other property within the franchise. Though there are some minor hiccups in the stealth and combat sections, make no mistake, the Great Circle is the ultimate Indiana Jones simulator.

Note – The publisher provided multiple Xbox Series X|S keys for the purpose of this review.

Final Score: 8.2 / 10

Pros

• Authentic Indiana Jones Presentation
• Well Written Story and Characters
• Phenomenal Graphics
• Multiple Progression Paths
• Solid Puzzles
• Great Side Quests
• Outstanding Accessibility Options

Cons

• Inconsistent AI during Stealth Segments Breaks Immersion
• Some NPCs Look Quite Bland
• Wonky Melee Combat
• Strange Transitions Between Cutscenes and Gameplay