I wouldn’t call myself a fan of Indiana Jones. I mean sure, I’ve seen a few of the movies and they’re fine but that’s about as far as my interaction with the IP has gone. So colour me shocked when people start posting about the latest Indiana Jones game saying it’s actually…good? Not that IP tie-in games can’t be good, we’ve long since broken that mold, but the track record for such things is still so mixed that you won’t be blamed for casting a skeptical eye past them. But hey, I figured I’ve got one more game left in me for the 2024 year so why not give it a go. Whilst I don’t share the glowing praise that many are heaping on it I still found much to appreciate in the The Great Circle, much to my surprise.
It’s 1937 and Indiana Jones has returned back to Marshall College to take up his professorship duties after a devastating breakup with his fiance. Although like most things in his life it doesn’t stay quiet for long and soon after he returns an unknown giant of a man speaking an ancient dialect of Latin breaks into the college, chokes Indy out and makes off with a single item: a mummified cat statue from one of his previous digs. The giant leaves behind an amulet bearing the seal of the Vatican Secret Archives which is a riddle that Indy just can’t pass up. So after barely getting his feet back under the desk he’s back off trotting around the globe, chasing one of the most ancient mysteries he’s ever worked on.
The Great Circle is one of only two games that can claim to be powered by the id Tech 7, the other being 2020’s Doom Eternal. Whilst I’m not sure about the reasons behind such an engine choice (given its limited use in the market) suffice to say it’s up to the task of realising the impressive amount of detail that has been crammed into all corners of the game. Whilst most of the game’s main campaign story will have you spelunking in cramped caves and tombs you’ll then be dumped right back into a moderately sized open world which is just stuffed to the gills with details. Even some of the set pieces which aren’t on screen for more than a handful of minutes get this treatment too. Given that this is a game that you can potentially spend upwards 30 hours in I’m sure this was done with the intent that the environments wouldn’t grow quickly stale as you traipsed around them.
You wouldn’t pick The Great Circle as an open world game initially as it doesn’t go out of its way to put itself forward as such. Where a Ubisoft game would show you a giant map littered with dots to track down The Great Circle instead keeps the map, and the levels, small but packed with things to do. The usual open world tropes are there though with various collectibles, items and secrets to uncover all of which will have some form of meaningful impact on your progression. But if you’re like me and completely ignore most of that stuff to instead focus on the campaign you won’t feel like you’re behind at all. There’s combat although I’d say that’s probably the game’s weakest aspect, something that has to be done when you’re stealth approach fails because you got a bit too brazen. It’s an interesting design, simply for the fact that it doesn’t push what it is on you, instead you’re left to discover it yourself.
Combat is equal parts fun and awkward, as any first person melee combat game tends to be. Initially you’ll just be fist fighting people that you’re either forced to or have triggered by not being stealthy enough. You’ve got the usual block/dodge/parry mechanics alongside your whip which will allow you to take weapons off foes, pull them closer and do a little bit of ranged damage on the side. The hitbox recognition is really wonky with your punches often hitting air for no discernable reason at all whilst enemies can seemingly hit you from several meters back. I’m sure there’s some nuance I was missing here but I never really felt like I got the hang of it. None of the upgrades I picked up to improve melee combat seemed to help much either, especially as the enemies became more armored with even more health.
There are guns, too, although their implementation feels just as cumbersome as the melee combat does. You’ve always got your revolver on you which has 6 shots, but even a direct headshot won’t take out an enemy and it will helpfully draw everyone else in earshot to your location. Later stages will see enemies with more powerful weapons littered around the place and whilst you can acquire those guns you’ll only ever have 1 clip, you’ll drop them when platforming and they feel about as useful as the revolver does. I’m sure there’s some enterprising speedrunners out there who can make The Great Circle into a great looking corridor shooter but I’m definitely not one of them.
But those two points are kind of moot since the game’s main focus is around stealth and it has a good set of mechanics to get you through it. You’ve got the usual alertness gauge that all enemies have which can in essence be turned off for the majority of them if you have access to the right disguise. Captains can always see through them though and they can also call in reinforcements if they detect you. There’s a number of items strewn around the place which can be used to take out any enemy in one shot if you can get to them undetected. Some will also last through multiple takedowns although they will all inevitably break. So for the most part you’ll be sneaking around, taking out enemies where you can and hopefully only engaging in small skirmishes.
Puzzles are pretty straightforward most of the time, following pretty well worn tropes that are easy enough to decipher. There are some optional puzzles which are a bit more challenging but given they’re all self-contained it’s usually just a bit of lateral thinking before you’ll figure out how everything works. Failing that you can just stumble blindly through them for a bit before it starts to become clear what you need to do, something I did a couple of times when I just wasn’t seeing a particular trigger or interaction point which helped get me moving in the right direction. Indy and the crew will also point you in the right direction should you really start to struggle, often commenting on “that won’t work” when you do something particularly boneheaded.
The story follows the Indiana Jones trope pretty closely: establish some kind of mystery, have Indy go globetrotting around the world using his vast archaeological knowledge to piece things together before finally unveiling some mystical power towards the end (all the while fighting nazis and other fascists). The back catalogue of Indiana Jones movies does a bit of heavy lifting here with enough hints dropped about other adventures to make any Indy fan quite happy. But even as a not-really-a-fan the story did an amicable job of pushing things forward, keeping it intriguing and giving the new characters enough time to grow to become worthy of their story beats. Would it have been better as a movie? Probably, although I think even a thoroughly de-aged Harrison Ford wouldn’t probably be up to the task here. Credit where it’s due too, Troy Baker did an amazing job with the voice acting.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a good, but not great, open world game. The attention to detail for the levels is second to none, the id Tech 7 engine being stretched to its absolute limits with the sheer volume of assets that it has to render on screen. As an open world game it’s refreshing, its reserved nature meaning that you won’t feel compelled to do dozens of mindless chores just so you can play the actual game. The combat mechanics could be better though, feeling awkward and clumsy which is in stark contrast to the stealth which is done well. Putting this all together you have a game which feels a lot better than it has any right to be. Maybe one day IP tie-in games won’t have the stigma that they always have.
Rating: 8.5/10
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is available on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S right now for $119.95. Game was played on the PC with a total of 14.2 hours playtime and 44% of the achievements unlocked. Game is also available on Xbox Gamepass.
