Deep within the Vatican's secret tombs, I’m confronted with a mural of Jesus Christ. Embedded along each of his limbs and torso are levers sticking out with four Roman numerals below them. The only way forward is to figure out the placement of each lever. I tip my hat and get to work exploring a space likely not seen by mortal eyes in centuries.
I squeeze between a nearby opening, finding a brief message scrawled on the wall about the hands of Jesus. After reading through the text and performing a short mental exercise, I have the lever positions for the mural’s hands. I find another opening in the tomb’s main hub and find a marble statue of what appears to be a Roman soldier holding a spear. My real-world knowledge of Bible scriptures comes in clutch; the correct positioning for the lever sticking out of Jesus’s side must be here. I won’t give away the solution here, but my inkling proves true. I find the message hidden cleverly in the ancient room and take it back to the mural.
It’s moments like these, when Indiana Jones and The Great Circle nudges the player to embody its titular character’s wit and grit, that the game is at its absolute best. It balances slower moments that prod the brain with cinematic spectacle and overtly video game-y design. It’s a masterful juggling act that mirrors the film franchise’s ability to be both intelligent and enjoyably schlocky. Most importantly, there’s clear love and care for the 40-year-old source material tying these entertaining parts all together.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is tremendous. It is a worthy new chapter in the chronicles of film’s greatest archeologist and one of the year’s best video games.
The narrative beating heart
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle and the character’s first video game since 2009’s Staff of Kings.
The Great Circle begins at Marshall College, where Jones teaches archeology. Late one night, a mysterious man nearly double Indy’s size (played by the late great Tony Todd) breaks in and steals a valuable artifact from the school’s gallery. In hopes of tracking down the missing artifact, Indy gleefully sets off on another adventure to figure out the significance of the relic and why it was stolen.
The game takes place in 1937, a year after Raiders of the Lost Ark. Its place in the timeline actually plays a big role, as Indy’s recent split with Marion Ravenwood is a major reason why he’s so desperate to hit the road. It’s a neat wrinkle that gives Indy more character depth on this particular adventure than expected.
While the game doesn’t bog down its main plot with references to the films, fans of the series will appreciate how well it fits into the broader fiction. Passing mentions of characters like Belloch and Henry Jones Sr. help The Great Circle feel like a long-lost chapter in Indy’s well-documented exploits.
The cast of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is charming and memorable.
References like these wouldn’t mean much if developer Machine Games didn’t nail the look and feel of the classic films. And thankfully, it does so with flying colors. The game’s cinematography perfectly captures the epic feel of the first three films. The game’s writing and humor are spot on. The game's pacing and even the escalating beats of its action set pieces feel like storyboards cut from the movies. Machine Games clearly understands the cinematic language Steven Spielberg and George Lucas pioneered (and borrowed) to make Indiana Jones a household name.
The re-creation of the early days is only helped by its cast. Troy Baker does as good a job as one can at echoing Harrison Ford. But standouts are the rest of the cast. The game’s primary villain Emmerich Voss, played by Marios Gavrilis, gives a memorable performance. And Indy’s chemistry with his companion Gina Lombardi, played by Alessandra Mastronardi, is a joy to watch developer. I don’t think I’ll be alone in stating Gina is my new video game crush.
The game makes a hell of an impression throughout its meaty runtime and sticks the landing without being derivative of what came before it. For fans of the series, The Great Circle is required playing.
Good old-fashioned fisticuffs
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle has a mix of combat, stealth, and exploration, as well as a deep focus on puzzle solving.
Machine Games’ decision to make The Great Circle a first-person adventure game seemed particularly strange when first revealed earlier this year. But the developer’s comfort with the genre shines. The Great Circle is split into two halves: open-ended levels that make up a majority of the game’s runtime, and more linear guided sections focused on delivering more cinematic action.
The more linear parts of the game are ripped straight out of Machine Game’s recent Wolfenstein games. They’re bombastic set pieces that offer a nice break from the rest of the game’s more thoughtful, slower pace.
The open-ended stages, on the other hand, set the player loose in gorgeous, massive environments. There are enemy camps to infiltrate, secrets and relics to discover, side quests to complete for locals in need, and major and minor story missions to progress the main plot. There’s a ton to do in these sprawling levels and a fair amount of freedom in how the player can tackle them. Indy uses a combination of traditional stealth, disguises that let him walk freely among fascists, and good old-fashioned fisticuffs when his cover is blown. Sneaking around is straightforward and fun, even if the AI can be a little stupid at times. Fisticuffs, on the other hand, feel snappy and satisfying.
“Bombastic set pieces that offer a nice break from the rest of the game’s more thoughtful, slower pace.”
For those familiar with retro video games, The Great Circle is very much a spiritual successor to 2007’s The Darkness and 2004’s Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, two games developed by Starbreeze Studios, where some Machine Games co-founders previously worked. It’s a snug and unabashedly video game-y fit for Indiana Jones, as the hub world structure lets the adventure feel grand without being overwhelming.
Classic puzzles
Puzzles are the focus in Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.
Exploring these hubs is how players stumble upon the best part of The Great Circle. Most of the game’s main and side missions require the player to solve puzzles of varying sizes. One might require a close reading of a note left behind by an enemy to unlock a safe with a valuable upgrade or cash to spend. Another will ask players to solve an elaborate puzzle chamber while avoiding deadly traps and narrowly escaping certain peril.
The Great Circle’s puzzles aren’t exceedingly difficult or groundbreaking and inventive. I didn’t use a single hint to solve any of them across the game’s 20-hour runtime. But it doesn’t mean that they won’t make you stop and think here and there. While this isn’t quite Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, I did have to take a note or two to solve the occasional one-off puzzle, a welcome bit of friction for a triple-A game.
Machine Games struck a fantastic balance between fun and challenge. I anticipate the focus on puzzle-solving will disappoint players looking for more action. But The Great Circle is proudly an adventure game first, one that does a damn good job of making you feel like the world’s greatest archeologist. For those who love exploration-based puzzle solving from the classic point-and-click adventures like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis or even classic Tomb Raider, The Great Circle will feel like home.
Short Round
While platforming is perfectly serviceable, it can be hilariously slow to get around.
The game’s excellent puzzle sections do accentuate one of the game’s few weaknesses. While platforming is perfectly serviceable, it is slow. Indy is hilariously sure-footed, taking plodding steps when scaling walls and shimmying across ledges. It’s as if this is Dial of Destiny-era Indy and not the spry and athletic professor of the original trilogy. Backtracking while searching for hidden items or after missing a jump can be a little annoying when it means watching Indy slowly and awkwardly make his way to the other side of a chasm.
Speaking of awkwardness, the game’s gunplay leaves a lot to be desired. Firing a weapon never feels as good as other games. While The Great Circle is the furthest thing from a first-person shooter, its lackluster combat is surprising considering how lauded both Wolfenstein: The New Order and its 2017 sequel are as action-packed shooters.
“Indy is hilariously sure-footed, taking plodding steps when scaling walls and shimmying across ledges.”
Save for a few times when going loud was the better option, I used rifles and pistols as effective melee weapons way more than actual guns. Thankfully, the game rarely requires players to shoot their way out of sticky situations.
Lastly, the game’s open-world structure does drag towards the end, especially for completionists on their first playthrough. Certain mission types repeat and tracking down collectibles can be tedious even with fast travel unlocked. I would have preferred these sections to have a shorter runtime in exchange for getting one or two more levels with more tombs to explore. While the number of levels here feels intentional as it more accurately captures the brisk pacing of the film, some side levels that have zero to do with the main story would have been a nice bonus for those in love with The Great Circle’s brand of adventuring.
Full Circle
After decades of inspiring countless video game characters across generations, it’s great to see Indiana Jones make such a triumphant return to the medium. Machine Games thankfully avoided modernizing the character with Uncharted-inspired action scenes, opting instead to create the ultimate Indiana Jones simulator. And by staying doggedly true to the hallowed source material, The Great Circle creates something wholly unique in today’s AAA gaming landscape. Paired with its impeccable direction and presentation, The Great Circle is every bit an authentic entry in the legendary character’s greater mythos.
The Great Circle is a near-perfect adaptation, one that I hope we see more of sooner rather than later. At a time when the fate of the Indiana Jones film franchise seems more nebulous than ever, Machine Games proves it’s a safe pair of hands for the future of cinema’s most enduring adventurer.
9/10
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be released on Xbox Series X|S and PC on December 9 and on PS5 in spring of 2025. Inverse was provided with an Xbox Series X copy for this review.
INVERSE VIDEO GAME REVIEW ETHOS: Every Inverse video game review answers two questions: Is this game worth your time? Are you getting what you pay for? We have no tolerance for endless fetch quests, clunky mechanics, or bugs that dilute the experience. We care deeply about a game’s design, world-building, character arcs, and storytelling come together. Inverse will never punch down, but we aren’t afraid to punch up. We love magic and science-fiction in equal measure, and as much as we love experiencing rich stories and worlds through games, we won’t ignore the real-world context in which those games are made.
