INDIANA JONES AND THE GREAT CIRCLE

For most of us over thirty, Indiana Jones is one of the most beloved heroes of our childhood. The original trilogy of films was (and is) considered one of the most entertaining adventures of all time, with the eponymous hero, played so successfully by Harrison Ford, becoming a landmark for the genre and one of the main reasons we became interested in learning more about ancient civilisations and their history.

On a gaming level, Indiana Jones gave us perhaps the best adventure we've ever played (1992's Fate of Atlantis), but since then, the progress was not as expected. You see, times have changed. Audience interest turned to new and more "fancy" heroes, of a more intense temperament, but obviously influenced by the Indy persona, on a number of levels. We are of course talking about Lara Croft and Tomb Raider and, later, Nathan Drake and Uncharted. In the meantime, however, they released several action-oriented games bearing his signature (such as Infernal Machine and Emperor's Tomb), but they attempted to take a share of the pie from their... "heirs" instead of presenting something of their own, and consequently failed. Combined with the lack of any notable new film (until 2008's uninspired for many, Kingdom of Crystal Skull, and 2023's much better Dial of Destiny), Indiana Jones didn't have the same impact on the new generation and was reduced to a "relic" of the past, where its place is in the museum (pun intended).

The announcement that Microsoft is making a new Indiana Jones game was, well, unexpected. Especially when the project was taken on by Bethesda, with Todd Howard (of Fallout 3 and beyond) as executive producer, and the Swedish development team MachineGames, specialised in FPS and responsible for the amazing Wolfenstein reboot. For those who have tried games from that team, this news could only be taken as positive. And indeed, the Swedes don't let us down this time either, as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the best game with the famous archaeologist hero since (you guessed it)... 1992.

Certainly, we cannot make direct comparisons, as we are not talking about the same kind of game. Fate of Atlantis was point 'n' click adventure, The Great Circle is action/adventure, first person perspective. However, the incredible folks at MachineGames have managed to do something very important: capture the spirit of the hero and traditional action movies to the fullest, delivering a product that comfortably stands as both a game of merit and a movie. Something that has only happened a handful of times in all of gaming history. Let's take things from the beginning though.

The Great Circle takes place in 1937, between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Indy has returned to Marshall College, trying to live a "normal" life after his separation from Marion Ravenwood. However, nothing can go smoothly for long in Dr. Jones' life, as one rainy night, a huge guy breaks into the college and steals an artifact in the form of a cat, ignoring finds of greater financial and archaeological value. The encounter between the two didn't go particularly well for Indy, however the trail the giant left behind leads to the fact that he is a Vatican agent, which raises many questions. Why would the Vatican send an agent to the other side of the world to steal an item of modest value?

Consequently, Indy begins the long journey to Europe to investigate the case. But a Europe that is reeling from the rise of fascism, with Mussolini's Blackshirts having penetrated deep into the Vatican's bosom, and of course it won't be long before the ultimate culprits for all this emerge, who are none other than the Nazis. So the plot twist begins to unravel, with ancient and dangerous artifacts becoming involved in a conspiracy that, if successful, will have dire consequences for the planet. Without going into any more spoilers, it's worth mentioning that this is a classic Indiana Jones story, inspired in many ways by the original trilogy of films, both with the presence of the Nazis and the supernatural element, and it's probably needless to add that we'll travel to several other parts of the world in a frantic struggle against time and ultimate evil. Of course, there's a corresponding romance interest, with reporter Gina Lombardi following him almost every step of the way, which will get him into trouble several times, but will save him from certain death at other times.

The story of the game is one of the strongest elements of the game. Without being surprising in its originality, it is well written, with twists and turns and interesting characters, with the plot culminating perfectly, as it would in a good movie. However, it is far from being dryly classified as a "gaming movie", as The Great Circle has just as much "meaty" gaming elements.

First of all, the game is primarily stealth-based, first-person perspective, as we've already mentioned. We might liken it to Arkane Studios' Dishonored (owned by Bethesda), but such a comparison might prove too risky to misunderstand the game for something it isn't: namely hardcore stealth. On the contrary, The Great Circle has a much lighter approach to its design, on the one hand with the AI being quite "stupid", both in terms of perception and reactions, and on the other hand with the very convenient placement of the guards (turned backs, sleeping guards, etc.) in order to make it not particularly difficult for the player to move on.

However, the weak AI is an issue that many gamers are likely to be concerned about, as it is a fact that it destroys any believability of what is happening. We would venture to say that the stealth element is taken almost exactly from Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, a game released seven years ago, with very few improvements. As well as the logic where enemy officers are able to perceive us, even when wearing a disguise, it gives off a few Wolfenstein vibes.

Whether this bothers you or not is entirely up to you. For our part, we feel that this option greatly helps the game to remain entertaining and draws the player's attention to the rest of the content, which is very rich. Admittedly, The Great Circle is a fairly large game, which benefits greatly from the semi-open-world structure of its missions. Specifically, there are three major areas to explore (and some smaller ones in between, but which are more linear and cinematic in nature), all of which are filled with secrets and side activities.

What's remarkable is that the game actually rewards the player for completing the optional missions in a variety of ways. Either this is called collecting adventure points and medicines, which can be used to enrich/upgrade Indy's abilities, or by participating in puzzle-based challenges, which in turn give a different tone to the game's storyline and fill in any plot holes we may have had up to that point. And most of the optional missions (fieldwork as they're called) are well crafted and uniquely designed. That is, they are not limited to the typical fetching quests, they often have puzzles (environmental, primarily) and platform challenges that can keep us busy for a long time until we find the solution and are generally worth dealing with, even if you feel that it is not necessary to collect more adventure points.

After all, the whole adventure points thing is directly intertwined with finding adventure books (to "read" an adventure book and gain the skill it offers, you have to dedicate a number of adventure points), which are the ones that essentially upgrade Indy and, with a few exceptions, are not offered to us generously, but we will have to search for them. Consequently, if we want to discover everything the game has to offer, it will take over 30 hours of engagement, with the main story taking around 12 to 14 hours. Besides, it's to our advantage to take care of Indy's empowerment, as more than a few times we'll engage in melee battles, so spending time exploring the world is something we highly recommend.

So in the event that the stealth approach fails or is dictated by the scenario, we will need to use our fists to survive. The implementation of melee combat is excellent, including various kinds of punches, dodge, parries and blocks, but especially when we are faced with one, or at most two, enemies. From there, things get decidedly more difficult and it may be better to run away rather than try to beat everyone up, especially if you're playing at a level higher than easy. After all, Indy is relatively fragile, meaning 4-5 well-weighted punches will send him crashing to the ground, which as mentioned above we can limit somewhat by acquiring medicines that we cash in on adventure books to boost health and stamina bar. Yes, you read that right, a stamina bar exists, whose purpose is to prevent the indiscriminate use of dodge and defense, so we should think twice before rushing into battle. And if we have a heavy object in our hands (crowbars, sledgehammers, guitars (!), hammers, you name it), even better for us - just remember that said objects break after two or three hits at most.

Of course, there are equally thoughtful shooting mechanics, after all Indy always carries a revolver with him, in addition to his beloved whip, they just aren't appropriate as a first choice, except in very few cases (usually predetermined by the game). The irritating accuracy of enemies when firing and the noise the guns make create more problems than solutions.

From there on, the game would be said to "shine". The atmosphere is top-notch, the platform pieces are exciting, even if the first-person camera isn't ideal for this kind of challenges, the puzzles are sometimes very clever and fully placed in the spirit of the series, and even the few boss-fights have a "wild" beauty. It's clear that the folks at MachineGames knew exactly what they were doing and delivered it in a way that is rare in the modern, "by the numbers", era. That is, with a lot of love for their "child", passion and a sense of old Hollywood filmmaking, like the ones that don't come out anymore.

In particular, if you're an Indiana Jones fan, we reckon it's hard not to identify with The Great Circle. You might be deterred by the fact that it requires a raytracing graphics card and, in general, the game's increased hardware requirements somewhat limit the target group of the new adventure of the beloved archaeologist. However, the Id-Tech Engine once again proves just how optimized an engine it is, as the game's performance is much better than we imagined, aside from some performance hits the heroic 3060 Ti took in some crowded areas. Nothing that can't be fixed through the dozens of settings we can tweak to bring the game up to our PC's standards, though.

Besides, the game in general is quite beautiful and often impressive, with the main complaint being that there are often some "stiff" animations, which don't convince that they were made by a human. On the other hand, Troy Baker as Indiana Jones proves to be amazing, sounding almost identical to Harrison Ford, without the rest of the cast lagging behind, even making sure that the authentic language of each character is respected (the Nazis speak German when not addressing Indy, the Italians speak Italian, and so on). The soundtrack is not signed by John Williams, aside from the main theme of course, but Gorby Haab's work has caught the pulse of the leading composer and stands up decently.

To sum up, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the biggest surprises of the year in the last stretch of 2024. It's a very entertaining single-player experience, perhaps the best we've experienced this year (competes with Banishers), and its old-fashioned style and the reappearance of the dynamic archaeologist on our screens rolls a tear of emotion down the spine of those who grew up with the old movies. The icing on the cake is that The Great Circle not only appeals to nostalgics of the past, but also to those who have little connection to the Indy universe. That's because, regardless of the name it carries, this is a truly quality game that stands on its own two feet and is capable of delivering many powerful thrills. Till the next time, Dr. Jones...

We would like to thank AVE Group for providing the review code.

Go to discussion...