After I finished Baldur’s Gate 3 and played a bit of Stalker 2, I was all in on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. My wife wanted us to take some time off of work on a Friday and a Monday. Well to my surprise, it happened to coincide with the early release period for Indy.
I didn’t hesitate to buy the premium upgrade via Game Pass to get early access. It’s no big deal to me to pay the $35 since it’s not just early access, but also access to the Order of the Giants DLC (future). The stars aligned with my perfectly placed time off and the fact that this Indiana Jones game is actually really good.
Great from the Start
After the obligatory settings confirmations, I was happy to finally jump in. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle even starts with a great menu. It has the beginning scene in the background and almost instantly loads right into that scene. After progressing in the game, it updates the menu to show the last scene where I left off.
The start in the jungles seemed so familiar. It reminded me of the movies, but it wasn’t until later I was reminded it’s from Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark. They recreated the look and feel of those scenes and the cutscenes are shot for shot. It served as a great tutorial with a nice side of nostalgia. Spielberg would be proud.
The classic Indy audio and the way it shifted to Dr. Jones sleeping at his college were great. That’s when the real adventure began.
Graphics in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
What was also obvious from the start is how good the game looks. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the first game I can remember that requires ray tracing hardware. Having owned RTX cards since the 2080 released, I was glad to see it as a requirement now.
Having lighting, reflections and shadows accurately represented based on light sources is amazing. The early access period did not include the full ray tracing option, so I did notice issues with shadow popup at first. Once I enabled full tracing on release day though, it looked so good.
The global illumination in this game with the ray tracing features are the perfect duo. With all the crypts and torch lit pathways, it really adds to the mood of the game. Igniting a torch practically paints color on the surrounding areas.
With all that in HDR combined with my Alienware OLED and it’s one of the best looking games I’ve played. I’ve only seen the jungle in the tutorial, Marshall College, Vatican City and Giza, but it’s all so impressive. I look forward to the other locations later on in the game.
Indiana Jones Gameplay
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is such a good looking game, but it’s the gameplay that I love. Machine Games nailed the exploration and the slapstick action from Indy films.
The Whip
Indy’s whip is definitely one of the stars of the show. I’ve used it to swing across gaps, climb up, climb down, as expected, but there’s so much more. During fights I could use the whip to disarm enemies and even use it it to pull them towards me. I later upgraded it to be able to knock out unaware enemies.
The whip is so versatile that it’s even used to solve various puzzles. I’m interested to see what other uses the game might throw at me later.
The Journal
In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the journal is the biggest tool for the adventure. It houses the map, notes, books, photos and objectives. As I uncovered pieces of the various mysteries I discovered, those bits were stored in the journal like a scrap book. I could pull them in front of me while still seeing the game behind it.
I thoroughly enjoyed using it to research clues. There are various guides available for purchase in game to highlight the various collectibles and photo ops. It was nice to be able to get a bit of direction to where everything is. My map would then help me with the general area of where those things could be found.
The journal also included a collection of books that unlocked various upgrades to my abilities. As I completed objectives in the game or gather collectibles, I earned Adventure Points to spend on those upgrades.
The must have one is where if Indiana is knocked down to no health, I could crawl to his hat for another chance before having to reload a checkpoint.
Camera
I ended up using the camera more than the pistol and probably as much as the whip. There are various photo ops on each map that netted me Adventure Points and a bit of Indy dialog pertaining to the subject of the photo. It’s a great touch that made me feel a bit like I was Indiana Jones researching sites.
Photos of important locations are stored in the journal for future reference, but the camera also serves as a puzzle hint system. If I were stuck on one of the main puzzles, I could snap another photo of the puzzle start point to get a hint about what to do next.
In real life, I’m not a fan of taking photos. I’ve probably taken more pictures in this game than a years worth in real life. It’s definitely impressive this game entices me to use the camera so well.
Melee
Indiana carries his pistol and there are other guns later on, but the Great Circle treats these as a last resort. I can pretty much shoot the bad guys as long as I have bullets, but I often regretted it. The gunshot sends all the fascists running my way.
Ammo is very limited, so in some areas it’s basically guaranteed death. This game definitely emphasizes a mix of stealth and melee over gunplay. I could punch with either arm, push, charge a punch, block and dodge. The classic sound effects worked so well with the punches I’d throw. It feels good so far.
The real fun is in the dozens of weird objects to use as melee weapons. There’s brutal stuff like sledgehammers, pick axes, statues, brooms and more. My favorite though, is the funny stuff like spatulas, frying pans, brushes and there was even a flyswatter.
Each of these weapons has a limited number of uses, so the game encourage playing around with all those toys. It’s great stress relief to push Nazis off ledges or beat them to death with the flyswatter.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Exploration
Any true Indiana Game almost requires great exploration. People love the movies for the action and comedy, but Dr. Jones is an archaeologist first and foremost. Thankfully, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle nails exploration.
I spent countless hours with the Journal and Camera in Vatican City trying to uncover all its secrets. My games backlog is so long that I typically avoid 100% completion runs, but with this game, I might make an exception. A lot of the optional content enhances the story and often include cutscenes.
There’s also disguises I found through main missions that helped ease some issues with exploration. At the Vatican, it helped to pose as a priest and later it was useful to wear the Nazi uniform to infiltrate their camp. Higher rank enemies can slowly see through the disguise, so it becomes a nice cat and mouse game.
With the great exploration mechanics and great ray tracing implementation, exploration is beautiful and hits the mark for the sense of discovery. I made it to Giza and I’m looking forward to scouring all there is to find like I did with the Vatican.
Story of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Graphics are great and the gameplay is fun, but the story surprised me by how good it also is. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does a better job capturing the soul of the franchise like the original trilogy did than either of the recent movies tried to.
The fact that the tutorial was a flashback of Raiders of the Lost Ark was probably the best clue on what type of adventure I was in for. Troy Baker’s voice work is great as Indy. It is all the more impressive with even Todd Howard tired of the guy’s work previous to this role. I enjoyed the spot on banter as the story progressed.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle starts with the theft of cat mummy from Marshall college. That thief was played by the late, great Tony Todd. It’s a bit weird seeing him voiced and modeled in the game when he died just this year.
From that bittersweet scene at the college it turns into a globe trotting adventure. The Great Circle is related to important archaeological sites around the world almost in a direct line with each other (at least by 1930s standards).
Vatican City
I loved that the first stop on my journey around the world was Vatican City. I’m so curious the types of secrets it holds in real life, so for now I’ll settle for the game’s mysteries. It was a bit trippy to see the city partially blocked off by Mussolini’s black shirts. It’s there I’d meet Indy’s companion for the game, Gina.
Having Gina around to help unlock doors and discover the various mysteries was a welcome addition. The real star of the costars was the games true villain, Voss. Emmerich Voss is a top tier Indiana Jones villain. The voice work is great and his character model is menacing without being a big guy.
Giza and Beyond
After all my Vatican exploration and catching a ride on a Zeppelin, I finally travelled to Giza. The pyramids are the height of archaeology, so I knew this was likely to be as rich in content as the Vatican was. Effects of the sand and fetching Indy’s iconic Egyptian worker disguise was a great moment.
I’ve only scratched the surface of what the game has to offer and I cannot wait to explore so much more. Get Indiana Jones and the Great Circle or play it now on Game Pass, you won’t regret it.