Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review (XSX)

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Value

Summary: A timely reminder of how fun it is to knock out Nazis with heavy objects.

4.5

Bash the fash

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just one of the year’s best games. It’s one of the best adventures Dr. Henry Jones has been on in decades.

The wonderful wizards at MachineGames responsible for the modern Wolfenstein trilogy were the perfect pick for the project considering they’ve spent the past decade making games about bashing fascists. If there’s one thing Dr. Jones hates (or anyone who isn’t a wrong’un for that matter), it’s Nazis.

In this latest globe-trotting adventure, set a year after the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jones wakes in the middle of the night to find a giant monk in the university museum eyeing up the Egyptology section. After a scuffle that ends with Jones being knocked on his arse by the imposing thief, he wakes in the morning to find that a rare mummified cat has been stolen, and after a little investigating it revealed that the assailant was a member of the Vatican’s secret service.

Hot on his heels Jones quickly packs the essentials: his whip, revolver, and lucky hat, and sets off to the Vatican to find out what the Catholic church wants with his prized kitty.

Jones arrives at a turbulent time for the Holy See as the Pope is on his deathbed, the head priest has let Mussolini’s black shirts invade the holy city, and a sinister Nazi archaeologist has designs on the treasure trove of esoteric artifacts kept underneath the cobbles of the Catholic stronghold.

Soon Jones teams up with an Italian Journalist named Gina who is searching for her missing sister, a famous linguist who had stumbled upon the kind of secret that would be very inconvenient for the church should it get out.

From the off, The Great Circle feels like an extension of the original trilogy. It even starts as every Indy film, game… thing, should. (You know what I’m talking about). I don’t want to spoil the opening because it’s superb, but it is probably the best tutorial section I have played in a game in years. It’s Megaman X, Super Mario Bros, levels of learning by play and honestly, if you are interested in game making it’s a level that deserves study.

The presentation is also absolutely mind-blowing. Character models occasionally cross the uncanny valley, and I’m still unsure if that’s a bad thing. Indy looks like Harrison Ford in his Prime, down to his minor inflections and mannerisms. Like I said, it’s uncanny.

Troy Baker has done an incredible job of inhabiting the character, and there were times when I forgot it wasn’t a 40-year-old Ford providing the voicework and mocap.

The wider cast is also brilliant. Gina is the perfect plucky companion for this wild adventure. While rival archeologist Emmerich Voss is as petty as he is terrifying, seemingly always one step ahead and intimidating both physically and intellectually, which is just what you want from an Indy villain.

However, it’s the little touches that bring it all together. From the fonts matching the movies in all the captions and option menus, using the same musical stings when Indy is spotted by a curious guard, to the obligatory Wilhelm scream, the look, feel and tone of the game is spot on.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t heap praise onto the soundtrack too, which combines classic John Williams stings and cues, with brand-new arrangements that work perfectly.

Once you’re loosed in Vatican City, and later Gizeh, then Sukhothai the game opens up into a semi-open world where you’re free to approach every mission you pick up and just soak in the vibrant world Machine Games has created hunting for hidden artifacts, helping restock the local pharmacy, or ticking another book off your reading list.

This extends to the gameplay as your every action is designed to make you feel like you are the world’s greatest archaeologist.

You’ll photograph dig sites, disarm traps, solve some seriously satisfying brain teasers, and plumb the depths of lost tombs and hidden catacombs.

You’ll also beat the snot out of a lot of fascists with whatever comes to hand, and there are a plethora of ways to dispatch the despicable ne’er-do-well aside from your trusty whip, revolver, or a swift right hook.

Almost anything you can pick up can be used as a weapon to bash the fash, from household objects like wooden spoons and carpet beaters to sledgehammers and rifle buts.

Sneaking up on a guard and hitting them with the heaviest object you can find is always satisfying and whacking a black shirt or nazi in the nuts with a guitar and then obliterating it over their stupid fascist head never feels old.

You can also pull out your trusty revolver and shoot them. However, I wouldn’t recommend it. At its core, The Great Circle is a stealth game, and guns are loud. Ear ringingly loud. So loud that every last guard in a two-mile radius will stop mooching around and come running with a big wooden club and an overwhelming desire to shove it somewhere unmentionable and break it in half.

You’re much better off forcing a guard to engage in a bout of fisty cuffs by stealing their weapon with a clever crack of your whip. Brawling takes a little getting used to and timing your blocks, parries, and remembering to dodge is key if you don’t want to be knocked on your arse.

It seems, the key to being a successful archaeologist, in the Great Circle, just like in real life, is to be a studious reader. Throughout the environment, there are numerous books you can collect or buy that’ll teach Indy all kinds of useful survival and combat skills improving his chances of getting out of a scrap alive.

Unlocking the knowledge contained in each tome is done using adventure points earned by photographing relics, solving puzzles, and generally being the best archaeologist you can be.

The best part though is how curiosity and exploration are rewarded. Each area is littered with little eureka moments. Each level is littered with sidequests, collectibles, and hidden areas. Every last one of them feels like it’s interconnected in some way. Whether that’s to help unlock more abilities, unravel more of the game’s greater mysteries, or simply help to open up the map further. It’s all brilliant stuff.

Exploration may be rewarding but your means of traversing the more precarious parts of the environment isn’t quite as impressive. The camera pulls to third person to reveal Indy dangling from ledges and using his whip to swing across spike pits and scale buildings. It’s not terrible, but the Uncharted-style platforming pulls you away from the action and feels slower and more cumbersome compared to the ducking and dashing you can do in first person.

The only other complaint I have is about Jones’ baffling diet in the Great Circle. He subsists entirely on citrus fruit (with the skins on) that boosts his stamina, and half a ton of biscotti, doughnuts, and any other delicious baked goods he can pilfer to boost his health. I keep thinking about Indy, stony-faced, weirding out a Nazi by locking eyes with them as he slowly eats a lemon like it’s a Granny Smith while trying not to gurn to death.

Final Thoughts

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the best videogame adaptation of the storied film series ever committed to console (and PC). I never thought anything would top The Fate of Atlantis but here we are.

Not only does it nail the look, feel, and tone of the movies, but it lets players inhabit the character of Indiana Jones in an almost palatable way. This would be for naught though if it wasn’t backed up by a fantastic, engaging narrative and top-tier stealth action gameplay that is as tense as it is thrilling.

Along with the Arkham games, in my opinion, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle are destined to be feverishly pointed at for decades as an example of how to do video game adaptations right.

About the Author

Gareth Newnham

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review (XSX)