Indiana Jones And The Great Circle was finally released on December 6th, It has been developed by MachineGames, the creators behind the brilliant Wolfenstein: Young Blood and Wolfenstein: The New Colossus games. Although it has been published by Bethesda and Xbox games it is also scheduled to be released on the playstation 5.
A Familiar Yet Fresh Adventure
Since this game has been fully given the green light by Lucas Films, this game’s story takes place between Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade in the year 1937. This time the adventure sets off when the bad guy played by last great Tony Todd steals an artifact from the college Jones is a professor at.
The adventure, just like in the movies, takes us around the world such as in the Vatican City, Egypt and other iconic cities or areas. We also get to see Indiana converse with other colorful and varied characters of which some we know and some we don’t.
What is a superb display is the fact that in each segment of the game where Indy has a companion or buddy that comes along, their portrayal always feels natural and distinct, it doesn’t feel half baked, which in itself is a testament to the movies and just brilliant character presentation.
In all of his interactions with other intellectual characters, the dialogue and the feeling of hearing Indiana is done so well that it can be considered almost flawless, Indiana is voiced by Troy Baker, who also voices Joel from The Last Of Us and Nathan Drake from the Uncharted franchise.
The Gameplay Side Of Things
From the gameplay side of things they have also made it extremely fun to interact with objects when Indy starts to investigate and analyze clues or when we have to solve some intricate puzzles but the most fun of all comes from fighting enemies either through the open or through stealth.
While the mechanics may be simple it is incredibly fun and MachineGames have certainly perfected the mixture of video game mechanics and realism. Hand to hand combat feels like it’s been given the full attention, it really feels like Harrison Ford himself is punching the bad guys with the classic punching sound.
The classic music that is iconic to the franchise is ever present in the background and changes according to what we as the player are doing, it changes to a more rising sound as we get out of stealth or drums start to play if we get spotted by enemies.
A Surprisingly Big Game
It feels like the game has been undersold by Bethesda and Xbox, after the prologue is done we are dropped in to visit and explore 5 different zones which are essentially mini hubs filled with puzzles, side quests and lots of stuff hidden throughout them.
The side quests themselves are so well written that they can easily blur the line between themselves and the main quests. The characters we interact with are very well written and never overstay their time in the spotlight.
Now doing these side quests and mini puzzles reward Indy with points that we can spend to basically increase our chances of survival for example, we can upgrade how much food we can carry or carry more ammo for our revolver, these upgrades feel crucial due to how squishy Indy is when fighting against multiple enemies.
A Beautiful And Worthwhile Adventure
MachineGames have shown their mastery in creating satisfying experiences, they have done it twice with the Wolfenstein games and they have done it here with Indiana Jones. The game plays like a game when it needs to but seamlessly feels like an Indiana Jones movie it needs to and this transition never fails to amaze throughout the game’s runtime.
Overall, this a game that feels like a proper triple A title during this hectic climate in the industry, while it is not without its issues with some stuttering and flickering here and there but those aren’t really problems anymore as they can be fixed with one or two patches. Here’s to hoping that MachineGames creates another good, solid and worthwhile adventure for us to experience.
