My whip cracks through the air and hits a Nazi guard on the hand, forcing him to drop his rifle. One hard punch sees him topple off the side of a cliff. Picking up his gun, there are two bullets left, which allow me to dispose of another guard, but three more are on the way. With another crack of my whip, I grab onto a nearby grapple point and swing across the cliff, dodging gunfire and making my escape into the sands of Egypt.
That’s one more daring escapade down in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a new adventure telling a story of globetrotting antics, puzzle-solving, and punching out Nazis. It’s a major leap for developer MachineGames, and while there are certainly some consistent elements carried over from the team’s past Wolfenstein titles, this title shows the confidence of a studio clearly capable of branching out into new territory.
The action feels beat-for-beat with the best of what the original films have to offer, but Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t afraid to slow down and let the player breathe for a bit through puzzles and exploration that feel suited to a world of ancient mystery and conspiracy. A few bugs aside, this is an adventure worth taking that respects its source material but still leaves room for plenty of surprises along the way.
What is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle?
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a (mostly) first-person adventure game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks.
Price: $70 MSRP on Xbox and PC
Developer: MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Genre: First-person shooter, action-adventure
Install size: 131.7GB (can uninstall high-res texture pack to reduce file size)
Playtime: ~25 hours
Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, coming to PlayStation 5 later
Reviewed on: Xbox Series X
Release date: Dec. 9, 2024 (early access for Premium Edition on December 6)
Xbox Game Pass: Yes
Players step into the shoes of the famous archeologist himself in 1937 — the game is set a few months before the events of The Last Crusade — as he’s drawn into a conspiracy that spans the entire world. To solve the mystery of the Great Circle, players need to pursue a number of objectives in places like the Vatican, Egypt, the Himalayas, and more.
There’s a variety of ways to accomplish these goals depending on if you prefer stealth or want to go in guns-blazing, but no matter the approach you take, you’ll have to solve strange puzzles and knock out more than your fair share of Nazis. Sometimes, it's easier to put on a disguise and avoid a dozen guards, but sometimes, you'll have to crack the whip and get to work.
A few areas allow you to go off the beaten path, undertaking side quests. These smaller adventures come in all shapes and sizes, with most of them providing rewards that make it easier to unlock new skills. These skills can add up quickly, bestowing benefits such as allowing you to reload your gun faster or making it harder for you to run out of stamina.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review — Story and characters
While there’s a full cast of characters in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the leading man himself obviously carries the show. Performed with fantastic flair by industry veteran Troy Baker, this version of Indiana Jones looks and sounds right, with the camera capturing all his small quirks and the ever-so-slightly awkward moments that make the adventurer so fun to watch.
Jones is also accompanied by Gina Lombardi (Alessandra Mastronardi), an Italian journalist who has her own reasons for getting involved. Gina and Indy initially team in classic “Frustrated Indy must put up with female companion” fashion, but Gina pulls her weight, and the game’s direction here fortunately slides away from some of the franchise’s tropes.
Every hero needs a villain, and that’s where Emmerich Voss comes in. Marios Gavrilis lends this Nazi researcher a sneering, ostensibly astute presentation and superiority complex befitting a servant of the Third Reich. Obsessed with psychological reductions, Voss’ interactions with his befuddled soldiers and Indy alike are always entertaining to watch unfold.
Rounding out the cast is Locus, a mysterious figure who kickstarts the plot by breaking into Marshall College and stealing a strange figurine. Locus is performed by the late Tony Todd, who passed away on November 6, with this game marking a posthumous release for the beloved horror icon. Locus is an imposing figure, but there’s more to him than just being a secondary antagonist for Indy.
The story unfolds at a fairly reliable pace, which naturally varies depending on whether you choose to explore and wander more or stick to the main path. All in all, it feels in touch with the movies from which it draws inspiration.
Every time I started to get a bit worried that things were going to drag on, the adventure took a sharp turn, and the scenery changed. With hours of cutscenes woven in, playing through the Great Circle felt at times like I was watching an Indiana Jones film, but the controller is never taken away for too long.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review — Gameplay and features
While Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game, much like MachineGames' Wolfenstein games, there are a fair few differences when stepping out of B.J. Blazkowicz's shoes and into Indiana's. The intrepid archeologist can throw a mean punch and is handy with his whip and revolver, but he's not a one-man army.
It's usually better to stealth your way through a crowded enemy camp, and with careful exploration, you can find enemy disguises that make this process much smoother, though elite enemy commanders will still sniff you if you get too close.
Practically everything can be used as an impromptu weapon, and I found myself pulverizing fascists with shovels, clubs, sledgehammers, and loaves of bread.
If combat does break out, then there's a serviceable melee system, allowing you to dodge and trade jabs to knock your foes out, while the ever-trusty whip can be used to pull opponents toward you and off of ledges. You're at a disadvantage if your enemies have ranged weapons though, so it's important to scour the environment for anything useful.
Practically everything can be used as an impromptu weapon, and I found myself pulverizing fascists with shovels, clubs, sledgehammers, and loaves of bread. You've also got your revolver, which can be used to decisively end any one-on-one fight, but the noise can draw in other nearby enemies if you aren't careful. You can also pick up weapons like rifles and shotguns, but you'll have to discard them when you run out of ammo.
When you're not fighting, you're exploring, and it's here that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle truly shines. The open-world segments are genuinely fun to traverse, and oftentimes, figuring out how to get from one place to another can be a puzzle by itself. It's super-satisfying to go exploring — realizing there's a way to climb up into a building with your whip and then unlock the front door for future usage — all in a way that brings immersive sims like Dishonored to mind.
At one point, I overheard a couple of nuns mention that they wished they had a picture of someone, and I realized I could just hand them the photo I'd taken earlier.
Simply put, there is an enormous amount of puzzles (both directly in your way and off the beaten path), requiring clever usage of pipes, solving ciphers, and paying attention to discarded documents. You're aided in your exploration and puzzle-solving by your camera, which gives you numerous opportunities to take pictures in exchange for "Adventure Points." These points can be used to unlock new skills from any books you've found, so it's important to embrace your inner shutterbug.
Those pictures aren't just for points, though, and you can see the photos you've taken stored away in your journal as you progress through the game, making it something of a living document that lends itself to some cool moments. At one point, I overheard a couple of nuns mention that they wished they had a picture of someone, and I realized I could just hand them the photo I'd taken earlier.
I did run into a couple of bugs during my time with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Most were fairly minor, like examining an object and the camera zooming in far too close, something that was easily corrected by simply putting it down and picking it up again.
The checkpoint system caused a more irritating issue. While the game autosaves at regular intervals (usually without issue), I got stuck at one point, with the game reloading me outside of where I was supposed to be and making it impossible for me to escape before getting noticed by Nazi guards. I was able to use the save rollback feature to get to a checkpoint about 20 minutes prior, but I can see this issue causing problems for others if it isn't patched.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review — Visuals and audio
MachineGames is a longtime collaborator on id Tech with its sister studio id Software, and that technological prowess is put to good work here. I played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on an Xbox Series X, and it looks great. Lush and frigid environs alike are rendered in sharp detail, from the jungles of Sukhothai to the darkest tunnels under the Vatican.
I did notice a bit of foliage pop in in one particularly large area, but that blip aside, it's a consistently impressive presentation. Indiana Jones is a series that's all about exploration, and it's fitting that there's a wide variety of locations to explore in equal detail. The in-game lighting is especially impressive, with beautiful rays that practically sizzle with the heat of Egypt's sandscapes. The game plays out at a consistent 60 FPS, and I only noticed one brief drop when I accidentally set off an exploding trap at point-blank range.
All of this is made more impressive thanks to the camera framing, which is practically shot like one of the films, right down to the timing of physical comedy and the way a shot will linger as it becomes clear Indy is making a mental connection regarding some hidden clue.
MachineGames has also done a great job on the game's audio design, and I highly recommend playing with one of the best headsets in order to appreciate the different noises of materials and effects across the world. During one particularly-tense infiltration mission, I could tell where every enemy commander was in the building simply by listening to the difference in footsteps as they walked across wooden or stone floors. This allowed me to swipe some Nazi gold relatively easily.
The soundtrack, composed by Gordy Haab, is a solid effort that clearly draws inspiration from the main themes of John Williams' iconic scores. It's a good soundtrack that delivers exactly what you expect, kicking and getting you in the mood for exploring ancient ruins and fistfights where needed.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review — Accessibility and approachability
Like many other modern games, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features a suite of accessibility options designed to tackle a range of needs, including colorblindness or motion blur sensitivity. In addition to the difficulty settings, which make the combat sections more or less difficult, players can also separately set the puzzle difficulty, making many of the puzzles simpler if they just want to focus on the story.
There's also an additional hint system accessed through the aforementioned camera. This system (which applies to required puzzles, not optional side quests) allows you to receive increasingly detailed hints upon request. It's a good middle-ground point, and I appreciated not having a companion yell the answer to a problem because I was taking more than 30 seconds to think about it.
As for the game's general approachability, the standalone nature of the story (much like any of the films) means that you don't really need to be familiar with Indiana Jones in order to have fun. You'll certainly get more out of this from being a longtime fan, and there are a couple of story beats that lightly touch on some constant threads throughout the series, but newcomers should feel welcome overall.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review — Final Thoughts
I've spent 25 hours exploring the world in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and I've thoroughly enjoyed myself throughout this adventure. I was expecting to have fun, but I certainly wasn't expecting this game to cleverly blend immersive sim elements with actual cinematic storytelling, and it's been a fantastic experience.
From the manner in which every line is delivered and scene is shot to the smirk on Indy's face when solving a puzzle, it's clear that everyone at MachineGames just gets what makes Indiana Jones so special. This is a game that can sit next to the original trilogy with pride.
Aside from a small handful of bugs and checkpoint issues, I hope the developers can patch them soon; Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an absolute blast worthy of the iconic adventurer's name. I'm looking forward to replaying this game in the future (and checking out the promised DLC) as much as I rewatch Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate/PC Game Pass on Dec. 9, 2024. Premium Edition owners get early access starting on December 6. A PlayStation 5 version is currently slated to arrive at some point in Spring 2025.
Indiana Jones faces down maniacal Nazis and ancient puzzles alike in the hunt for the Great Circle, the latest game from Wolfenstein developer Machinegames. With fun gameplay and a focus on filmic authenticity, Indy's adventure is a globetrotting epic worth of sitting alongside of the original trilogy of beloved films.
