Indiana Jones and the Great Circle perfectly captures the classic movies, offering massive set pieces and a global adventure and smaller moments of exploring ancient tombs and discovering historical mysteries. The stealth and melee combat capture the slapstick nature of the movies, while still feeling responsive and deep, even if shooting is somewhat shallow. The story and performances, especially of Indiana Jones, feel right at home with the films, far exceeding the mark of “good for a video game.”
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Developer: MachineGames
Price: $70
Platforms: Xbox Series X|S (reviewed) and PC
An Xbox Series X|S code was provided by the publisher for review
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a triumph, as both a video game and a legacy sequel to the original Indiana Jones movies all these years later. Not only does it sidestep the heavy action and constant shootouts of other treasure hunting games for meaningful stealth and exploration, but it also delivers an original story that fits into the Indiana Jones series. This globe-trotting adventure nails the feel of Indiana Jones not just as an action hero but as a scholar and archeologist.
The story kicks off with a mysterious figure breaking into Indy’s school to steal a cat mummy, which leads Indy to chase after to the Vatican and more. The mystery presented develops beautifully, slowly offering more information and reveals, presenting interesting answers and more questions all the way to the conclusion. This is propelled by great characters, like the self-absorbed and self-important Voss, the Nazi archeologist who doesn’t respect cultures the way Indy does, and Gina, the reporter searching for her missing sister.
All of that is witnessed through the eyes of Indiana Jones, who manages to not only not hit uncanny valley despite how detailed and impressive the character model is but is also captured perfectly by Troy Baker’s performance. Outside of their occasional line, Baker disappears into the role, nailing the tone and delivery of Indy’s quips, yelps, and detailed historical analysis. Considering Harrison Ford doesn’t even sound like this version of Indiana Jones anymore, Baker’s performance is impressive in both the quality and the resemblance.
As for the game itself, it’s split into a few different locations. Some, like the opening at Marshall College, are short, linear levels focused on specific story beats. Others are like the Vatican, which is a large, open-world map, filled with various side quests like mysteries and discoveries. Some of these simply require you to hunt around for secrets hidden around these massive levels, while others tell short stories and take you to special areas you couldn’t access otherwise.
These massive levels are where the gameplay comes into focus. You have to stealth around, avoiding detection or quickly taking out enemies before they can alert others. All while gathering notes and taking photos. These documents you collect, which there are hundreds of throughout the game, provide extra details about the history and mystery you are dealing with. Sometimes the documents are tied to side quests, but other times collecting them just prompts Indy to provide a little context.
As you explore these open levels, especially while tackling the main objective, you are often led into more linear and focused areas. These areas feature in-depth puzzles, most of which sit at a nice happy medium between being solvable but not simple. For main objective puzzles, there is an excellent hint system that slowly reveals more information before outright giving you the answer. These hints aren’t provided for side puzzles, but using documents and ciphers to crack the code on a Fascist’s safe was satisfying every time I did it.
Combat is perhaps the weakest element here, but its particular style does capture the feeling of the movies. Stealth is relatively simple, but using bottles and other throwables to sneak past guards still feels responsive. The enemies aren’t particularly smart, but that seems intentional to match the movie goon feeling. When you get spotted and it turns into a brawl, that movie goon vibe really shines. The enemies are dysfunctional and uncoordinated, rushing you all at once, falling quickly as you beat them down with your fists, or almost any object you can get your hands on. They fall in cartoonish ways and Indy usually has a bad one liner ready to go once the fight is finished. The shooting feels serviceable at best, but considering that you aren’t required to do it outside of a sequence or two, it isn’t too big of an issue.
Platforming works surprisingly well despite switching between first and third person frequently. The camera movement can be a little jarring the first time that perspective switches, but you get used to it quickly. What this perspective switch allows is for stealth and combat to be displayed in first person, while platforming, which feels better in third person, to thrive. Swinging with the whip feels great and finding the way forward in various ancient ruins is engaging the majority of the time. Occasionally I misjudged a jump, which never felt great, but the consequences were fairly light.
Cutscenes play out in third-person too and even short moments switch to a more cinematic look. The shot composition, dialogue, and action beats all feel right at home with the original Indiana Jones movies, while never falling into the trap some legacy sequels do of focusing more on callbacks and references. This Indiana Jones doesn’t feel like he’s returning after a couple of decades, but instead like he was here the whole time.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle offers deep stealth and massive open areas to explore, with secrets, documents, and photo opportunities at every turn. Not only does it feel like a grand historical adventure, but you get to capture that journey in your notes the way a real archaeologist would. It still has plenty of big action set pieces to enjoy, but much of the joy found here is the quieter moments exploring a catacomb or solving an ancient puzzle. If you have any affinity for stealth, puzzles, or Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle delivers on those fronts in full.
The Final Word
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a massive and immersive adventure. From exploring the Vatican in full to ancient tombs, every sequence feels right at home with the films and is a blast to play. The large action set pieces are fun, but the quiet exploration and puzzle solving is special, allowing you to feel like an archaeologist making a big discovery. Pair that with delightfully cartoonish villains and a massive historical mystery, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle delivers in full.
MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
