Developer: MachineGames
My relationship with the Indiana Jones franchise is similar to my feelings about the Star Wars films; I only enjoy the older source material. I believe that bigger corporations often over-saturate beloved IPs, tarnishing what made them special in the first place. Over the years, I’ve played only a few Indiana Jones video games. The movie tie-in, the Crystal Skull game on Wii (which was broken), and the Lego game bundled with my Xbox 360 did not impress me.
I was aware that there had been an actual great Indiana Jones game before, The Emperor's Tomb. Growing up, my stepdad loved playing this game and would swear by it, saying it was as good as the films and a faithful addition to the overarching story of Indiana Jones.
Throughout the last console generation, I loved everything MachineGames released. Although I was familiar with the Wolfenstein series before they took over, it never clicked for me; it felt like every other mid-2000s FPS. However, I heard good things about their first Wolfenstein game, New Order. I tried it and enjoyed its dark, intense story. The sequel, The New Colossus, built on the first game with even more violence and wild tribulations, which was a little too much for some players at the time. but I've always been one for stories that push limits and make you think about them long after beating. it became one of my favourite games of last generation.
This cemented my interest in any game Machinegames put their name behind. So, when Microsoft got them on board for a new Indiana Jones game, even with the announcement being just a title card, I was really excited about what they could conjure up.
My trust in Machinegames wasn’t all for nothing. They took fantastic care with the source material and added their own feel with what they did all last generation, making great action games. Matched with a gripping narrative, it made a lapsed fan of the franchise like myself, care again. It’s a shame that something hasn’t changed in all their games, the combat is the biggest fault here.
From the outset, the likeness to George Lucas’s material is uncanny. The game opens with a very familiar treasure escapade, all of it is frame for frame like ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’. Even including the iconic hat grab under the sliding door, there is plenty of fan service here. It feels nostalgic and thrilling to someone who grew up on the original trilogy.
The same blueprint that MachineGames has been using for the past generations follows here, with quite a few tweaks and improvements. One of the biggest improvements is the attention to detail and care they put into the level design. In part, they must have ensured this was a big focus here, as the reliance on stealth in The Great Circle was much greater than the run-and-gun nature of Wolfenstein.
After playing the first hour or so, I expected the focus on the story and the linear game design to continue until the credits. However, after the game gave me full control of Indy in the city of the Vatican, I realized I was wrong. The game progression isn’t level-based as I initially thought but is instead open-area, more akin to the Dishonored series, which also heavily relies on stealth.
There are a total of three lovingly handcrafted biomes, each a major location in Indy’s globe-trotting adventure. As I’ve mentioned, MachineGames has significantly stepped up the detail in the environments. You can tell they had a lot of passion for filling the locations with trinkets and the like. Exploring every nook and cranny with a fine-tooth comb is rewarded with countless interesting documents to read and, being a stealth-oriented game, lots of loot!
Like in Wolfenstein, books are the key to Indiana upgrading his arsenal. Machinegames doesn’t stick to the normal trope of a ‘skill tree’ but it works in much the same way. These books are hidden in crevices and are often just left on tables. While finding the books doesn’t directly lead to improvements in health or stamina, coming across all the notes and newspaper cuttings gives you points that go towards the upgrades. This is a good way of encouraging you to scour every area of note or even anywhere in general.
Other than Indy’s trusted whip, you gain another item that, in my opinion, is more useful: the camera. You get it early in the adventure, and it becomes a major tool. Of course, it takes pictures, but more importantly, it is vital for helping with puzzles. Using it gives hints on how to tackle them. Even if I saw the solution quickly, I’d take a few snaps to see what hints they were giving.
Stealth is a big part of how they want you to play this game, but there are a few things that hold it back. First is the lack of silent takedowns. Well, late in the game, you do come across a book that gives you the ability to perform silent takedowns, but by that point, you’ve already worked around the issue. Holding melee weapons can knock out enemies from behind but break on one use, which defeats any motive to use them, as if you straight-up swung at them from the front, it wouldn’t break upon a single strike. A simple quality-of-life feature that’s in nearly all modern games nowadays, especially if they’re from the stealth genre.
Having fist fights with the Nazis will become very boring and monotonous as the combat never evolves from the bare-bones methodical system in the 16-hour journey. It soon tested my patience in many crowded encounters.
The story told here will be the main motive for most people reaching the end. It stands side by side with anything done before, hitting the same beats as the films but, being a video game, it has other ways of being immersive. Hearing Indy talk out his inner monologues and mutter past adventures to himself adds depth. Machinegames, like other action games of this generation and the last, include bombastic set pieces that, unlike films, you are in total control of. I forgot to mention that the whole game, bar a couple of moments, is in first person. This is another way of building immersion with the player. There was a lot of discourse before about whether it was the right look for The Great Circle, and personally, I feel it was a good design choice.
Indiana Jones has had his fair share of villains; they never seem to live longer than a single film. So, of course, the Great Circle has a new one.
Voss, an imperial German Nazi, is unlikable before he’s even spoken a word. His timidness and cowardice make his character unpredictable and really unsettling. There's just an unease about Voss whenever he’s onscreen that makes him arguably the best one the series has ever seen.
Everyone knows that Troy Baker is a talented voice actor. One part of his talent that goes partially overlooked is his ability to imitate well-established characters. Troy did so as the Joker in 2013’s ‘Batman Origins’, sounding identical to Mark Hamill. The same is true here with Troy’s likeness to Harrison Ford. In my opinion, it must be hard to tackle a well-established fictional character. There is so much weight and so many expectations attached to that role, having to win over older fans with your likeness and interpretation. Being a fan myself, I believe Troy did a more than commendable job here.
With the game’s structure being open-zone, it includes a few optional tasks for you to do, such as finding medicine bottles that can be exchanged for more upgrade books and lost scrolls hidden about. These are inclusions I seem to expect in any game nowadays.
Side missions in The Great Circle are called Fieldworks, and each hub has a few to do. Each of them is so well integrated into the game that they feel as if they’re interwoven into the main story thread. Hidden temples and even side characters can be entirely missed if you stick to B-lining the main quest.
One example is a side mission where a villager wants you to find a missing person. You venture to the last known location, a treehouse. This then leads you far to the other side of the map, to an undiscovered temple filled with puzzles to locate the person. All of this feels so interconnected that, in motion, it feels like part of the main quest line, but it can be missed altogether. There's another side mission later on that features the ever-changing corridor design of the cult classic playable teaser PT, just without the scares.
Due to the lack of set pieces keeping the story going at breakneck speed, it starts with, the middle part dragging. Not to say it’s bad whatsoever, just very noticeable, making me yearn for the next bombastic set-piece to happen. Hopefully, more developers will follow suit with narrative-driven single-player licensed games, as there should be more of them (besides Marvel). It's an easy win with gamers and established fans if the right love and care are given to the IP.
VERDICT
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an exciting new adventure that fits in with the best of the films. It features a familiar globe-trotting journey, with Troy Baker stealing the show as Indy. MachineGames has made a faithful adaptation of one of film's darling franchises. It's a near-flawless romp with a gripping story and clever puzzles, let down by the bare-bones combat and a dragging middle section.
Played on: Xbox Series S
Hours to beat: 16
Pros:
Classic Indiana Jones feel
Boatloads of Charm
Open zone areas
Cons:
Clunky combat
Drags in parts
Rating: 8/10
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