FRANCHISE-SAVING FUN
Licensed games don’t suck anymore. When I was a kid, they were bottom-of-the-barrel trash—rushed out to cash in on a movie premiere, with little care or creativity. Developers usually shoved the license into a generic platformer or beat ’em up, regardless of whether that genre suited the character at all. Thankfully, today’s games have more room to breathe—and more genres to choose from.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle respects Indy. Developed by MachineGames, a studio that clearly understands what makes the character tick, it takes the form of an immersive sim—bending the genre just enough to suit Indiana Jones’ particular brand of adventuring. You control the archaeologist from a first-person perspective as he explores historical sites, smacks Nazis over the head, and parkours with all the grace of an ox. If I had to sum it up: it’s Dishonored with a bullwhip and a fedora.
Voiced by the chameleonic Troy Baker—whose method acting appears to have gone so far that he surgically reconfigured his vocal cords to match Harrison Ford’s—Indy embarks on his best adventure since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Baker absolutely nails Ford’s gruff charm, delivering a bravura performance that feels uncannily authentic.
Set in 1937—one year after Raiders of the Lost Ark—the plot is gloriously ridiculous, played entirely straight. In other words, it’s classic Indy. A terrifying giant of a man breaks into Barnett College, where Indy teaches, and steals a small cat mummy statue. Indy sets off on a globe-trotting quest to retrieve it and uncover its secret, which turns out to involve a weapon of frightening power. Naturally, the Nazis and fascists—led by the unhinged Emmerich Voss—are after it too.
Along the way, I constantly found myself sidetracked by side expeditions that rival the main quest in complexity and care. I went to great lengths to complete them all. Whether rescuing kidnapped amateur archaeologists or helping young damsels spelunk through jungle temples, every detour felt lavishly crafted, almost wastefully so.
Above all, the story serves as fertile ground for excellent action set pieces and delightfully strange archaeological puzzles. It’s no surprise that MachineGames pull this off so well. Their Wolfenstein reboot was both deeply respectful and playfully irreverent, and The Great Circle builds on that legacy. It doesn’t just recreate Indy’s adventures—it explores what happens between the iconic movie scenes.
The cinematic staples are all here: globetrotting, elaborate set pieces, and plenty of banter between Indy and his companion, journalist Gina Lombardi. She’s more Marion than Willie—confident, capable, occasionally irritating. She’s fine, but I never quite felt the romantic spark necessary to elevate her into a truly great Indy companion.
One minor sin borders on sacrilege: the iconic John Williams main theme doesn’t appear until the end credits. Sacrilegious! The score otherwise captures the right matinee spirit, using a similar orchestral palette and even borrowing the occasional Williams flourish—but it lacks memorability. Looking back, I can’t recall a single original tune.
Between the linear cinematic moments, the game unfolds as a slow burn. The maps are surprisingly large, encouraging stealth and disguise as you sneak past prying Nazi eyes through offices, tents, and excavation sites. Clues guide you into ancient temples and crypts across locations like the Vatican, Egypt, and Siam (modern-day Thailand). Resources—bandages, ammo, food—are important enough that you need to stay vigilant.
Exploration is elevated by stunningly detailed environments. Every location feels handcrafted; no room is reused, no space feels generic. Civilized areas are rich in unique layouts and decoration, while Egyptian tombs brim with history and secrets. The sound design is excellent—and often quiet. While hiding behind crates or rubble, you might overhear fascists complaining about orders or accidentally revealing a hostage’s location. It’s deeply immersive. Had I played this as a kid, back when Indiana Jones was my favorite hero, this would’ve been my favorite game of all time.
Almost everything you do—reading magazines, discovering relics, solving puzzles—earns adventure points, which can be spent on upgrades. You get a camera in the Vatican, and photographing interesting sights rewards even more points. Skills are unlocked via books you must first find, improving combat, stealth, or exploration. Progression based on curiosity rather than killing is a perfect fit for Indy.
The puzzles are excellent, often forcing me to think hard. When I got stuck, it was usually because I’d overlooked a key detail—a whip-reachable lever, or a crucial clue in my notes. Some puzzles revolve around fundamentals like light and water flow, while cracking safe combinations in Nazi camps provides tense but satisfying distractions.
Despite their beauty, some areas are frustrating to navigate. The Vatican, the first open hub, feels oddly gated. The map is of limited help—you might be ten meters from your objective but need to take a lengthy detour across scaffolding, rooftops, and windows to reach it. Shortcuts help later, but the layout remains confusing.
Siam is even more troublesome. It’s monsoon season, so travel happens by boat through a maze of rivers and islands. Constant embarking, disembarking, and map-checking quickly becomes tedious. Enemies are everywhere, forcing cautious play that further slows the pace.
Many players will likely criticize the enemy AI. Detection is inconsistent: an enemy might spot you sneaking with a baseball bat in broad daylight, but the moment you break line of sight, they shrug and mutter, “Probably just an animal.” The alert meter vanishes and patrols resume. Personally, I don’t mind—this forgiving stealth keeps the game moving. And it needs to: the game is long. With side content, it took me 29 hours to finish.
For a game that encourages caution, melee combat is delightfully chaotic. You can grab almost any object as an improvised weapon—frying pans, broomsticks, fly swatters—and clobber enemies senseless. Enemies can do the same. I laughed out loud when I woke a sleeping Nazi and he charged me wielding a plunger. All that’s missing is a cuckoo sound when they get knocked out.
Indy has all the expected moves—punches, dodges, blocks, combos—and the bullwhip can stun enemies. Each improvised weapon has unique takedowns that add slapstick flair to the violence, and watching Nazis ragdoll across the floor is endlessly amusing. Ranged combat, however, is weak. Aiming feels clumsy, reloading is slow, and firing a gun alerts the entire compound—prompting overwhelming retaliation.
It’s a shame the plot falters toward the end. I was close to giving the game a full four stars, but a series of disappointments—the Siam section, the Himalayas, the plane sequence, and the final encounter—drag it down. The final boss lacks the operatic grandeur of the original trilogy’s climaxes. Melting Nazis, “Kali Ma,” the Holy Grail—those moments defined Indy. This ending (no spoilers) is the game’s low point.
Still, nothing can erase what led me there. To feel disappointed, I first had to be impressed. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a matinee adventure for the small screen, packed with memorable locations, banter, and set pieces. Mouse and keyboard controls feel like extensions of my body, delivering the immediacy needed when outrunning rolling boulders or whipping a gun from a Nazi’s hand mid-trigger pull.
After watching—and hating—Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I was convinced my childhood hero had no future. MachineGames have proven otherwise. Indy’s future doesn’t lie in movies—it lies in video games. Announce a sequel already. Any studio looking to revive a franchise would be foolish not to call MachineGames.
Fun fact: the Swedish game director and co-writer is named Jerk Gustafsson—which officially makes him the Great Circle Jerk.
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