Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Features

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from developer MachineGames is a late entry on the 2024 video gaming calendar, yet one of the year's most interesting.

As a standalone these days, the Indiana Jones IP isn't exactly a juggernaut, at least not compared to the likes of Star Wars. In the video game space, Indy's blend of gameplay has been dominated by the likes of Nathan Drake and Lara Croft, among others.

Yet, done well, Indy would be a welcomed addition to the hierarchy of action-adventure games. The Great Circle strives to make it happen with some innovative twists, attention to detail and a focus on puzzle and stealth elements that attempt to capture the feel of really being Indy himself while also providing captivating gameplay.

The result? One can just hear Indy quipping a better late than never comment after finding some long-lost artifact.

Graphics and Gameplay

Great Circle might surprise some that this is a first-person game and not from the third person. But a few things go into that. For one, being in third person would likely draw far too many Uncharted comparisons. And two, the first-person perspective creates a bigger emphasis on the puzzles found throughout and helps to really get immersed in some amazing global environments.

Regardless of perspective, though, Great Circle looks fantastic in all the AAA ways players have come to expect. The lighting, shadows and effects found throughout add a layer of authenticity to each stop, be it city or tomb.

This globetrotting adventure takes Indy and players to locations such as Rome, Egypt, and the Himalayas, to name a few. Right upon launch, it's abundantly clear how much painstaking detail went into making sure each locale and the people within them feel accurate to the late 1930s setting.

Exploring that world is linear for story-based locales, but there are more expansive, exploration-minded spaces, too. Adding to the stunning immersion is the sound design, with Troy Baker obviously putting in a great performance as Indy himself. But it does the same things with sound design, too, such as the accuracy of different languages heard by different locals.

It all comes together alongside the gameplay to keep that immersion going.

True to the Hollywood screens, players can use Indy's whip in combat or as a means to get around environments. Exploring is fun, and Indy isn't meant to be as nimble as Kroft or Drake, so some of the clunkiness at times can almost add charm.

Combat certainly keeps the vibe from the movies too, with Indy able to brawl it out with his fists or pick up an improv weapon like a shovel and go to work. Refreshingly, something like the size of the enemy dictates how much damage they put out and how much they can take.

There are firearms, too, but it's a tricky escalation because ammo is scarce, and using them can alert an entire area and have them come crashing down on the player.

But combat can be avoided, too, via a rather surprisingly in-depth stealth mechanic that goes deeper than one would think. Players can don disguises, though certain enemy leader types can see through them. Players can do takedowns, cause distractions, and even hide bodies while being mindful of a light-shadow dynamic.

But now would be the time to mention the stamina system. Even hauling around a KO'd guard to hide the body from other enemies drains the stamina bar quickly, so there's a nice risk-reward to pretty much anything a player does.

Puzzles generally implement the specific location in interesting ways, and notably, the game does some creative things like letting Indy use his camera to help him find solutions.

Overall, cliche as it might sound, it really nails the feeling of being Indiana Jones out on an adventure. It's not perfectly smooth, but there's an underlying charm to the whole thing and it's hard not to appreciate the detail that went into making the experience authentic feeling.

Story and More

Great Circle takes place in 1937, and on the timeline, it sits sandwiched between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

This means it takes place before World War II, and the Axis powers are back as the baddies. The tale starts in the Vatican, where Indy discovers that certain sites around the globe form a perfectly aligned circle, which loops in supernatural powers that baddies want, of course.

So, an Indiana Jones tale through and through. But it's a fun one, and players might find themselves surprised at how much they like some of the side characters they encounter along the way.

In the game's bigger, main locales, players have the agency to tackle quests, vendors and other things as they like, which is a nice modern video game touch that happens to feel realistic. There is also some very good environmental storytelling via Mysteries to solve.

Progression is handled through skill trees within the journal's Adventure Books. Players will spend adventure points earned to buff areas like "brawling," aka melee combat.

These stretch beyond the basic things to fun video game stuff too, though. Lucky Hat is the best example—once Indy is downed, players have a chance to crawl to their hat some distance away for a revive.

Players can choose action or adventure difficulty settings and different tiers within those columns. Action dictates things like the damage enemies put out, while adventure deals with the level of guided exploration and difficulty of puzzles.

That's a good example of the depth of options found within the menus. As whole, Great Circle runs pretty well, too, capping off a solid all-around showing.

Conclusion

Great Circle is a surprise hit in the way it translates Indy's personality to the video game world and marries it well with charming exploration and combat. It is surprising in that the somewhat bold move to make it a first-person experience also happens to work so well with the puzzles and in-depth stealth mechanics.

For the older games in the crowd, a comparison to the overlooked hit The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay immediately comes to mind. The game is more about exploration and discovery than combat, but like Indy in a bar brawl, the combat can hold its own, too.

Overall, Great Circle nails the swashbuckling feel of an adventure game that puts puzzles and discovery first while avoiding the endless video-game killing that usually defines the medium.

In all these respects, Great Circle is a smash hit that is bold enough to take on the Indiana Jones IP and then follow its own vision, rather than conforming to the medium. Which, frankly, Indy himself would appreciate, too.