Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: An In-Depth Review
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks, has been one of the most anticipated titles in recent years. Combining classic Indiana Jones storytelling with immersive first-person gameplay, this action-adventure game delivers a cinematic experience worthy of the legendary archaeologist. Released in December 2024 for Windows and Xbox Series X/S, with a PlayStation 5 version expected in Spring 2025, The Great Circle is an homage to fans of the franchise and action-adventure enthusiasts alike.
In this article, we explore every facet of the game—from its engaging narrative and stunning visuals to gameplay mechanics, environments, and overall experience. Let’s uncover whether Indiana Jones and the Great Circle succeeds in capturing the magic of Indy.
1. Story and Setting
A Classic Indy Adventure. Set in 1937, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle takes place between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. The developers have created an original story that aligns perfectly with the tone and style of the films, offering an epic, globe-trotting adventure. Players take on the role of Indiana Jones as he investigates ancient sites that form a mysterious geometric pattern, the “Great Circle,” spanning the globe.
The narrative wastes no time in introducing the stakes. A shadowy faction, led by the Nazis, seeks to unlock the secrets of the Great Circle, believing it holds untold power. Indy’s goal is clear—to uncover the truth behind these ancient sites while ensuring their secrets don’t fall into the wrong hands.
The Mystery of the Great Circle
The Great Circle is a fascinating and mysterious concept. It ties together multiple ancient sites—each based on real-world archaeological locations—that form a perfect circle when mapped. This intriguing premise adds a sense of wonder and urgency to the plot as players piece together clues to reveal the secrets of the circle.
Key Locations in the Game
The game is truly global, taking players to diverse and beautifully rendered environments:
The Vatican – Players explore underground catacombs, crypts, and hidden chambers within one of the most iconic locations in history. Rich with detail and atmosphere, this section blends exploration with religious and historical lore.
Thailand – Dense jungles and ancient temples set the stage for deadly traps and intricate puzzles. The overgrown ruins feel alive, with dynamic wildlife and treacherous pathways.
Egypt – Indy ventures into long-forgotten tombs beneath the sand. These segments feature labyrinthine corridors, hieroglyph puzzles, and traps reminiscent of classic Indiana Jones films.
Shanghai – A stark contrast to the ancient sites, Shanghai is fast-paced and vibrant. Here, players experience thrilling chase sequences through the crowded urban environment, blending stealth and action.
The combination of real-world inspiration and fictional embellishments creates a sense of authenticity while keeping the mystery fresh and engaging.
2. Gameplay Mechanics
Exploration: The Joy of Discovery
Exploration is the heart of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The game rewards players for their curiosity, encouraging them to interact with the environment and uncover hidden secrets. Whether you’re using Indy’s whip to swing across ravines or carefully prying open ancient chests, every corner feels ripe for discovery.
The whip is one of the standout mechanics. It serves multiple functions:
Traversal: Swing over gaps, pull down obstacles, and access hard-to-reach areas.
Combat: Disarm enemies, stun foes, or trip them up during fights.
Puzzle Solving: Activate levers or retrieve distant objects.
The whip’s versatility ensures it remains an integral part of gameplay, not just a gimmick.
Puzzles and Traps: Engaging Challenges
MachineGames has done an excellent job designing puzzles that challenge players without being overly frustrating. Players must observe their surroundings, manipulate ancient mechanisms, and solve riddles to progress. Traps are equally well-implemented, keeping players on their toes with rolling boulders, spike pits, and pressure-sensitive platforms.
Examples of puzzles include:
Hieroglyph Matching: Decipher ancient scripts to unlock doors.
Light and Shadow: Use mirrors or torches to direct light onto specific symbols.
Environmental Manipulation: Rearrange objects in the environment to create pathways or open hidden chambers.
The combination of puzzles and traps delivers an experience that feels quintessentially Indiana Jones.
Combat System: Balance Between Action and Stealth
While exploration and puzzles take center stage, combat provides a welcome layer of excitement. The game employs a mix of first-person shooting and melee combat:
Revolver and Tools: Indy’s revolver is reliable for quick, precise shots. Players can also use improvised tools, like torches or debris, during combat.
Whip Tactics: Disarm enemies, pull them closer, or trip them up to gain the upper hand.
Stealth: Players can opt for a quieter approach, sneaking behind enemies for takedowns or avoiding encounters altogether.
The combat may not be as deep as some dedicated shooters, but it fits well within the game’s overall design philosophy.
3. Graphics and Visuals
The visuals in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are nothing short of breathtaking. MachineGames uses a modified id Tech engine to deliver environments and character models that are both realistic and highly detailed.
Environmental Design
Each location feels alive, thanks to meticulous attention to detail. Whether it’s the flickering torchlight in the Vatican’s catacombs or the lush greenery of Thailand’s jungles, the environments are immersive and atmospheric.
Dynamic Weather and Lighting: Changing weather conditions and time-of-day effects add to the realism. Sunlight pierces through temple cracks, while torchlight creates dynamic shadows.
Interactive Environments: Players can interact with destructible objects, levers, and gears, making exploration feel rewarding.
Character Design
Indiana Jones is rendered with exceptional detail. His iconic outfit—fedora, leather jacket, and whip—is instantly recognizable, while facial expressions bring Indy’s character to life. Supporting characters, including villains and allies, are equally well-designed.
4. Sound Design and Voice Acting
Sound plays a significant role in immersing players in Indy’s world.
Music: John Williams’ classic Indiana Jones theme makes a triumphant return, accompanied by original orchestral tracks that elevate the game’s emotional highs and tense moments.
Voice Acting: Troy Baker’s performance as Indiana Jones is pitch-perfect. He balances humor, wit, and grit, capturing the essence of the beloved character. Supporting characters, including villains, are voiced with equal care.
Sound Effects: Environmental sounds—like creaking wood, distant whispers, and the crack of Indy’s whip—add to the tension and atmosphere.
5. Immersive Environments
The environments are more than just backdrops—they are integral to the gameplay and narrative. Each location is filled with rich visual storytelling:
Vatican: Crypts and catacombs reveal long-forgotten secrets hidden beneath centuries of history.
Thailand: Overgrown temples teem with wildlife, deadly traps, and mystical carvings.
Egypt: Labyrinthine tombs test players’ skills with traps and environmental puzzles.
Shanghai: The city’s narrow alleys and rooftops offer thrilling chases and stealth opportunities.
6. Replayability and Collectibles
Replayability is one of the game’s strongest aspects.
Collectibles: Hidden artifacts, journals, and relics encourage players to explore every nook and cranny.
Alternative Routes: Levels offer multiple paths, allowing players to approach challenges in different ways.
Difficulty Options: Higher difficulties add new challenges, including tougher enemies and more complex puzzles.
7. Performance and Technical Aspects
The game runs smoothly across all platforms, with excellent optimization for modern hardware. Highlights include:
4K and Ray Tracing: High-resolution visuals with realistic lighting effects.
Immersive and engaging narrative that captures the spirit of Indiana Jones.
Stunning visuals and meticulously designed environments.
Challenging and satisfying puzzles with clever traps.
High replayability with collectibles and alternative routes.
Excellent sound design and voice acting, led by Troy Baker.
Cons:
Combat mechanics, while functional, lack depth compared to other action games.
Occasional pacing issues in longer exploration sections.
Limited variety of enemy types, leading to some repetitive encounters.
8. Final Verdict
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle successfully captures the essence of the Indiana Jones franchise. Its combination of exploration, puzzles, and narrative-driven gameplay makes it a standout title in the action-adventure genre.
Customer reviews for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
[h1]The Indiana Jones Game We Have All Been Waiting For[/h1]Since my childhood I have been a longtime afficionado of the 1980's Indiana Jones trilogy, so this review maybe is a little biased.This game just breaths Indiana Jones: the exact same font of the letters of the locations, the punch sounds, the revolver shot sounds, the map travelling are all just like in the first three 1980 movies. It also contains multiple references to the Indiana Jones world, like this dialogue quote of the main villan Voss:[i]"Oh, you were afraid of becoming your father."[/i][h3]Pro[/h3]+ The opening scene [spoiler](the idol temple of Raiders of the Lost Ark)[/spoiler].
+ The graphics are wonderful with RTX en Path Tracing on Ultra and the cutscenes feel like a real Indiana Jones movie.
+ Troy Baker nailed Indy’s voice perfectly.
+ Emmerich Voss is a great villain ([i]Remember: Emmerich Voss - with two M's and two S's. Like SS[/i]).
+ The story with the necessary humour and references to Indy's world.
+ Dream locations for archaeology [spoiler](especially Gizeh, Vatican city and also Marshall college with Indy's classroom and Marcus Brody)[/spoiler].
+ Although it is short, the DLC The Order of Giants provides puzzles that are more challenging than those in the base game.[h3]Contra[/h3]- The AI of the enemy is worthless, even on Hard difficulty: it is poor at noticing Indy and while fighting I knocked out a whole platoon while several soldiers were attacking me at the same time.
- Some bugs: At a certain point Gina didn't follow and I couldn't continue the story. I had to roll back to an earlier saved game. But since update 5 this issue has been solved by the developer MachineGames.
- Due to the puzzle solving it lacks the fast Steven Spielberg drive and vibe.Thank you MachineGames for this great Indiana Jones adventure! You could clearly see it was made by fans of the movies!
This game is not as good as people say. Crashes to much way to much VRAM needed, not really much to do but walking around and giving people the "Golden eye" slap, very unsatisfying game.Oh and by the way do not buy any game again from this studio because.
"I do not care about these Bethesda fascist that much"
You don't much care about your customers, do you?
Some dunce at Bethesda thought it would be really clever to -- of all the possible scenes to post from the DLC -- promote Great Circle with a clip of Indiana Jones petting a cat and asking "you don't much care about these fascists do you?" days after the high-profile assassination of conservative Charlie Kirk with 'anti-fascist' messages scribed on the bullet casings. Bethesda's cutesy commie took it down, but thank God the internet is forever. Until there are firings and a public apology, I will never buy a Bethesda game again and nobody else should either. Oh. And just because you moonbats at Bethesda talk to your cats about fascism, it doesn't mean Indy does. Try making a game where he acts like Indiana Jones. Ok if you excuse me, have to get back to "press A to simulate gameplay."
If you're a fan of Indiana Jones movies you definitely should play this game! This game has been so much fun! I don't regret paying full price for it at all.
Publisher openly supports real life political violence, murder and assassination. Game is good but I can no longer support this company by any means - this goes beyond anything appropriate.
Developers celebrating death, ignorant to the fact their own language passively grants permission for them to become targets themselves. Disgusting behavior.
As someone who genuinely liked this game and was going to get the DLC, I am completely disapointed in how Bethesda has handled not only their lunatic employees views but also their own as a company.They support political violence and would cheer for my death. Don't support them. Don't enable them. These are 40+ year old mentally ill people that have PhD's and can't take 10 seconds to Google what the definition of 'fascism' is. I'm a "Nazi" to them because I don't share the same viewpoints as the Looney Tune Brigade. If I could go back and refund every purchase from this company, I would.Fuck Bethesda.
Bethesda celebrated the political assassination of Charlie Kirk in a now-deleted tweet. Besides that, I bought the game on release, and I felt it wasn't worth the $70, so I refunded it then, and now I'm saying don't ever bother with this crap.
Perfect game for any Indiana Jones fan. Tomb Raiders on Steroids with TOP NOTCH voice acting. The voice really captured Indiana Jones almost too well at times!
THE GAME MAY BE BUGGED. IN THE THIRD CHAPTER THE CHARASCTER WAS STUCK IN THIRD PERSON (FROM FIRST) AND THE GAME BECAME UNPLAYABLE. THE GOOD THING IS THAT THE SUPPORT PEOPLE FROM BETHESDA RESPONDED WITHIN 2 HOURS OF MY REQUEST! THE SOLUTION THEY PROPOSED WORKED AND I CONTINUED NORMALY WITH THE GAME (YOU JUST LOAD A LEGEND SAVE TO A PREVIOUS NON BUGGED POINT).
OTHER THAN THAT THE GAME HAS DECEND GRAPHICS, THERE ARE SOME CLEVER AND DIFFICULT TO SOLVE PUZZLES AND THE STORY IS FUN ALAS TRIVIAL. THE FIGHTS ARE DULL (MAINLY FIST FIGHTS), THE CHARACTERS ARE A BIT UNREALISTIC AND THE DIALOGUES REPETITIVE.
9/10 Game.The story is great. It looks good. It feels very much like playing through an Indiana Jones movie. The missions are engaging with several interesting locations. The voice acting is good. There's lots of interesting weapons and strategies you can use. The puzzles are good. Very few bugs or issues.The main game is 100% worth the cost. Took me about 60 hours to 100%.Order of the Giants DLC was a bit lacking. The story is still good but I was expecting a lot more for $19.99. There's 1 new location and one story. I was hoping for a story of similar size in all 3 main game locations for that price. I'd wait until the DLC is on sale for $7.99 to get it.
It's almost as "Indiana Jones" as Tomb Raider or Uncharted. The first person perspective is a bit jarring for climbing (where it keeps wanting to not be first person) and combat, but great for puzzles and environmental atmosphere. I did not enjoy the combat, but it didn't mar the experience for me
As a kid who grew up playing Lego Indiana Jones, this was a big hit for me. They nailed a young Indy and the story was just as you'd expect it to be for a Indiana Jones game. 100/10
Better than the recent movies.Goes a little too heavy on the "We have to defeat fascism" mantra, but then again, we all saw the representative that announced this would be made for a "modern audience"... gotta protect yourself I think. I guess beating up Nazi's and going on adventures is still fun in 2025, but we really needed Indy to say that he hates fascism a couple dozen times before we believe his actions. I guess the "modern audience" is still a little suspicious of a 1930's white male even though IRL that generation defeated actual nazis.All the eye roll political dialogue aside, its probably one of the truest to form examples Ive seen of an adaption and goes down as the best Indy game there is in my opinion. It captures the feel and soul of the Indiana Jones films and puts you on the reigns with a grand adventure in front of you. When you acknowledge the political and censorship climate this was made in, its quite an achievement that they managed to appease the activists and the fans without sacrificing the core identity. Other IPs have not been so lucky and Im glad this is one that survived the thought police. If you're not part of the revolution, you're the enemy, comrade.
If you have the hardware, this game looks amazing and smooth. Been playing Indiana Jones games since Last Crusade and this one is just as good as the scumm games regarding story and gameplay.
Indiana Jones is a classic action-adventure hero, and he deserves to be treated to the best action-adventure game possible. Machine Games did a great job of bringing Indy back to life in a way that stays true to the character and feel of the movie series. The Great Circle showcases Harrison Ford at his prime, even if not voiced by him personally (Troy Baker did a GREAT job here). This globe trotting adventure is its own classic in the making, right up there with Fate of Atlantis. Highly recommended for any fan of Indiana Jones and adventure games.