The Nazi-punching shenanigans of Indiana Jones have kept generations of moviegoers excited about his mix of academia and high adventure. And while multiple "Indy" games have made it to market, "Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" is the first one to match the movies in scale and production values.
With over 60 reviews counted at OpenCritic, this wild combination of stealth, puzzle solving and whip-cracking adventure has a "Mighty" score of 86/100 on average. While some game of the year lists are already being published, it's crystal clear that this late-comer is a real contender.
It's really like you're playing a great 'Indiana Jones' movie
For the most part, Troy Baker's Harrison Ford impersonation is close to spot-on, and Baker's otherwise distinct voice disappears in the role. Credit too must go to voice actor David Shaughnessy, whose unerring version of Denholm Elliot's Marcus Brody may go criminally unnoticed in Baker's shadow. This could have very much felt like a gimmick considering Elliot passed away back in 1992, but Brody's small role feels meaningful and respectful, and not like a stunt.
[IGN]
The finer points of the story are best discovered for yourself, but the important takeaway here is that MachineGames well and truly sticks the landing with this one, offering up a gripping and memorable global conspiracy plot that's buoyed by an excellent cast of supporting characters.
It goes well beyond a simple shooter
It's not quite what I expected from a studio known for its frenetic shooters, nor a game that's been described as a first-person action-adventure. For the most part, The Great Circle is a stealth game that resembles Dishonored more than any of MachineGames' previous output. Sure, you could skulk through the shadows in "Wolfenstein," plunging knives into Nazi spines, but it was a shooter first and foremost. "The Great Circle" has moments of action, but its violence is sudden and tends to end quickly, indicative of Indiana Jones as a character; it wouldn't make sense if he were running and gunning like BJ Blazkowicz. It's a refreshing change of pace for the studio, and it's a rip-roaring good time, even if the inexperience of creating this sort of game sometimes shows.
[GameSpot]
Speaking of stealth, there is a mix of traditional stealth gameplay of hiding behind things and monitoring vision meters above enemy heads, and "Hitman"-style dress-up where disguises give you access to off-limits areas. This all works well, but we'd have liked the disguise system to be somewhat less rigid.
[VGC]
It balances the movie inspiration well with being an actual video game
I'm as tired as anybody of the "movies becoming games becoming movies" ouroboros that has dominated the last two decades or more of game development, but "The Great Circle" pulls it off in a way that whip-cracks several of my buttons. Whatever cynicism or skepticism I brought into this one wilted somewhere early on, perhaps the first time Vatican librarian Enrico Colantoni cut a rug to the latest swing 78 fresh from New York. Part of what makes Indiana Jones special is how it makes old guys feel young and everybody else feel like old guys, at least for a couple of hours. "The Great Circle" doesn't always keep that up, but it does just enough to keep me entertained.
The internet reacts
[to the Indiana Jones theme]
Indiana
Fuckin Jones
Indianaaaaa
Mother fuckin Jones
— Kyle Gaddo (@kylegaddo.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 7:43 PM
"Nothing is quite so easy to manipulate as an insecure male" - a Nazi in Indiana Jones
Machine Games still has that JUICE
— Grubb (@grubb.wtf) December 5, 2024 at 7:10 PM
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I think Indiana Jones might be my game of the year.
It’s Hitman meets Dishonored and I am having an absolute blast. Kudos MachineGames, you’ve knocked it out of the park
— Lucy James (@lucyjames.games) December 5, 2024 at 7:04 PM
Indiana Jones and the Solution to Ludonarrative Dissonance
— Phil Salvador (@philsalv.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 7:31 PM
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— Josh Sawyer (@jesawyer.bsky.social) December 5, 2024 at 8:41 PM
"Indiana Jones and the Great Circle" launches on PC and Xbox Series X/S on December 9, 2024, but those willing to pay for the premium edition can start playing early. Those wanted to play on PS5 will have to wait for the first half of next year.
[Image: MachineGames]
