The last 3D Indiana Jones game that wasn’t a mobile or LEGO one was Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb back in 2003. It’s been a long time since then, and MachineGames has made Indiana Jones and the Great Circle more than worth the wait. Now, this is not Uncharted or even Tomb Raider; this is Indiana Jones, the genuine article and inspiration for so many games to be in a class all its own. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an absolute treasure, and it belongs in a museum (after you’ve played it, of course).
Set between the events of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle surfaces the complicated personal life of Indiana Jones, where love is found and love is lost, and is constantly torn between teaching and adventures that lead to unearthing mysteries. The chain of events that bring the conflict home for Indy introduces a new threat that forces him to take action and scour the globe for answers and uncovering more than he bargained for. And of course it involves the Nazis, and Machine Games knows a thing or two about making games about this. For no other reason than to finally make this opening memorable and interactive for the first time, we revisit the opening of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” to be chased by the infamous boulder while smartly being introduced to the game’s mechanics, world, and impressive visuals. It also puts us squarely in the first-person perspective where the game will be played for the next dozen or so hours.
As you traverse the starting location of Marshall College, you get introduced to new items and systems. Once you reach the Vatican, it feels like an extended tutorial as it layers new things on you. Once you’ve landed in Egypt, and then dash to the jungles of Sukhothai, you’ll see that the game moves at a pace that you dictate. There’s no disconnect between the story and gameplay where the story’s urgency doesn’t match you dilly-dallying. This is a game that lets you relish in the adventure, exploring every nook and cranny of these locales as you see fit, spending several hours in a given place for some quality time well spent. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does offer fast travel using sign posts to places you’ve already been, removing the hassle of re-engaging enemies you’ve defeated or long treks to complete an activity.
This is a game where the majority of what you’re doing is exploration and puzzles, with the rest comprising of stealth and combat. While the latter may feel more prevalent, it doesn’t happen as often as you think. The exploration of the game is fantastic, you feel like a tourist and an archaeologist. From finding collectibles to discovering mysteries to solve puzzles to find lost treasure, there’s so many side activities to take part in. Only a few of the puzzles can be brute forced, with the majority of them needing to referencing notes and deducing a solution. To aid you in this, you’ll have a physical map that Indy has to pull out and reference. In a compliment to the time, and not to be anachronistic, the physical map points you to your next objective, along with an indicator on-screen. You can tell MachineGames tried to be as minimalistic as possible, by ensuring this maintains maximum immersion at all times.
When it came to combat, I found it to be a bit samey, but always exciting. The opening salvo of any fight I started was: throw any item at the enemy’s head, then sprint towards them to come in close for a beat down of attacks they couldn’t defend against. On the default difficulty, Indy is very capable and I was able to take out three guards and a shoo away a dog with only minor cuts and bruises. Indy can dodge and block, giving depth to the combat that you wouldn’t expect it to have. While fisticuffs is often the primary way to engage in combat, there’s plenty of other tools at your disposal. You’ll have Indy’s famous bullwhip which can be used to stun enemies, or pull them towards you to knock them off-balance. You do have a six-shooter that can be used, but it’s very loud and very limited as ammo is scarce. Weapons are everywhere: hammers, crutches, night sticks, bottles, whatever you can grab can be a melee weapon, but they each have varying durability and will be used until it breaks.
Indy’s primary resources are health and stamina, both need to be managed with bandages and food. While bandages will purely heal, consuming savory foods like bread and sweet foods like oranges will provide buffs to health and stamina, respectively. Stamina plays a larger role in this game, as it gets used when simply climbing, or carrying bodies to a less conspicuous location. Once it depletes, Indy will have labored breathing and move slower but you’ll still be able to get them to where you need them to go. While carrying a body or hanging from a ledge, you’ll only exert stamina while walking or moving, as carrying them or holding position without movement does not impact you negatively.
The way you physically interact with objects to open them and search is fun. For instance, you can pull the string on a lamp to turn it on or off, pull the handle on a drawer to open it, or insert a key to unlock the door and turn its handle. There’s a tactile and analog feel to playing this that’s unmatched. Levels also offer multiple pathways to areas that are hard to access, and in a lot of ways feels very Dishonored when you’re playing them. Indiana Jones’ satchel is what you’ll use to manage your inventory, to decide what disguise to equip, how many healing items are left, and go through all of your notes, journal entries, and view the map. After several hours, I still found this to be a clumsy interface, especially when near an object that I could pick-up, the game would prioritize that instead of the same key press meaning to change tabs. It’s a minor quibble, but annoying all the same.
Thankfully in this game, breaking stealth is fine, unlike other games where it feels like you have to reload your last save or checkpoint. That’s not the case here, you just roll with the punches, figuratively and literally, just like Indy would in the movies. It’s still prudent to hide bodies, as patrolling enemies or dogs could discover them and bring more to the party than you intended to invite. Later missions of the game heavily rely on disguises, as guard captains can see through disguises, so you’ll have to be distant from them to avoid detection. You’re free to equip and unequip these at-will, making it easy for you to swap between them freely when going into restricted places as Indy so that you maintain your cover for less scrutinized places.
MachineGames found a clever way to introduce progression in the game. Indiana Jones is very skilled, smart, and talented all on his own. But Indy can find adventure books that accrued adventure points can be spent on. There are five categories: Survival, Fitness, Brawling, Combat, and Packing that can level him up with new skills that enhance his already strong core set of abilities. It’s a great system that compliments the need to explore as doing so will net you more points to ultimately make things easier and more engaging as you work through the game. Money earned through completing missions, stealing, or finding caches throughout the game will allow Indy to purchase things from vendors, such as adventure books, maps to adventure books, or maps to find all of the mysteries (side missions) on a given level.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle runs on id Tech 7, the same engine that powers DOOM Eternal. It’s simply gorgeous, and really enhances the visuals. In my time with the game, I didn’t experience any bugs and it’s incredibly performant. With DLSS disabled and every setting set to ‘Ultra’ or ‘Supreme’, I was achieving nearly my monitor’s refresh rate, averaging 160fps at all times on the latest NVIDIA Game Ready drivers. The system requirements are rather steep, but this is a gorgeous game worth of cranking up every option you can.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is pure greatness and there’s no shortage of Nazi-punching excitement to be had, because “Nazis…I hate these guys.” MachineGames was able to capture everything about “Indiana Jones” so well, and Troy Baker is a great Indy/Harrison Ford-alike. The locales, combat, stealth, and exploration are just superb, and I loved every minute of it. I think a lot of what works here is relying on your enjoyment of the franchise, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a grand adventure that looks and feels like a lost entry from the movies. The first-person perspective is sublime, because I’m not playing as Indiana Jones, I am Indiana Jones.
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
