I’ve made it pretty clear in previews and sneak peeks that the Indiana Jones franchise is incredibly important to me, and so, the stakes were high for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. There’s a longstanding connection here. A nostalgia that grips not just me, but my entire family – and as such, I had a full-body need for this game to be incredible.
Fortunately, not only did Indiana Jones and the Great Circle meet my lofty expectations, it surpassed them as easily as popping on an iconic hat – and I cannot express the depth of my relief.
The game follows soon after the events of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, with a moody Indiana back in the halls of Marshall College, seemingly recovering from a split with love interest, Marion Ravenwood. But when an unexpected (and extremely tall) visitor steals an artefact from the College’s collection, Indy is tasked not only with retrieving it, but with foiling a large-scale sinister plot that sees him traipsing through the Vatican, Egypt, Thailand and beyond.
Let’s be real: it’s not rocket science, and it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, as far as action-packed plots go. But with a host of returning faces, and new additions to the team, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle demonstrates that you can always bring something fresh and new to the table, even when the formula is familiar.
Holding true to the spirit of Indiana Jones
From the rambunctious, rollicking energy to wonderfully dry comedic timing and vivid, rich environments, Indiana Jones has always had a very specific feel. You know exactly what you’re getting yourself into when the first frames light up the screen, and it’s a testament to the franchise that this feeling of familiarity and nostalgia carries so much weight even now, decades on.
That does mean any new iteration in the canon has a steep climb to make, for it to feel authentic – and we’ve seen media fall short of it before. After all, there are legions of fans who would rather pretend the poorly received Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull simply doesn’t exist, for instance, rather than have negative sentiment sully their favourite series.
It’s fair to say Indiana Jones and the Great Circle faced an uphill battle. Not only is it playing in dangerously familiar territory, for a fandom that isn’t afraid to tell you exactly what it thinks, it deposits you directly in the shoes of their hero. Living up to that expectation is a challenge MachineGames clearly took extremely seriously.
In an early media preview, creative director Axel Torvenius said, “We have a great passion for the character, for the IP, for the original stories and movies. That’s what we want to catch, that’s what we want to portray … Obviously a huge help here, and a great resource for us, has been that we’ve been working together closely with Lucasfilm to make sure we are on track.”
For me, at least, the vibe and intention is spot on. The feel and energy of the game is the right balance of light and shade, impact and larrikinism, legacy and freshness. It’s not a word I’d normally use, but playing the game was a legitimately joyous experience for me.
Read: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle hands-on: I’m whipped
Fighting fit (for the most part)
In my preview for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I spoke at length about how tactile the game feels, in terms of environmental storytelling and combat – but it’s the latter that I want to dig deeper into, now that I’ve played much more of the game.
The biggest appeal for the combat in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the weight. I don’t necessarily mean this in the context of feeling weighty and impactful to the narrative (though at many junctures, it very much is), but more in the sense that each punch, whip crack, and hit feels like you’re really swinging with heft.
A big part of this comes down to the fact that MachineGames has made a point of balancing Indiana’s scrappier fighting style with a stamina system that creates a realistic impact – after all, this is a professor we’re playing, not a spandex-clad superhero with more pectorals than sense. And sure, while on occasion, this came across almost a little clunky, that added to the effect for me.
The whip work really does vibe with me the most, though. In my preview of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I had said, “Getting a rope-like object to move and dangle and swing in a natural way is tricky as it is, let alone when you need that object to crack firmly at Indiana’s enemies, snatching weapons away and yoinking them from the ankles.”
This still holds true, and while there are definitely moments where you feel a little like a floppy mannequin careening through the air, the actual act of whipping, as a pathing mechanism and as a combat option, feels really tight and well done. The whip is one of the major strengths of the game, alongside other clever elements, like the casting of Troy Baker.
I tip my battered-up fedora to Troy Baker
For a game that rides so much on making the audience believe that this is Indy, there sure was a lot riding on the performance of Troy Baker. I won’t pretend it wasn’t my biggest concern going into Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Nothing takes you out of immersion like a stray vowel sound that skews more toward impression than impressive.
But while there were certainly moments that did have a little more Troy in them than I’d expected, the performance on the whole is incredibly strong. The mannerisms, vocal tics and gruffness of Baker’s Indiana aligns well with the expectations set by Harrison Ford’s legacy, with some freshness imbued.
It goes a long, long way to really selling that this is an authentic Indiana Jones story. It would’ve been easy for the team to chuck all the iconic items and catchphrases into a blender and churn out a vaguely representative product at the end, where you could at least roughly make out the silhouette of the iconic character.
But I have to commend the team on how finely-tuned each decision seems to be for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, because every element has such intentionality behind it. Whether it’s Troy’s vocal strength, the organic feel of the game’s adventuring, or the exact word choices in the narrative, the level of care in making this game truly is clear.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: Verdict
When it came down to brass tacks, the only person whose opinion I wanted on this game was my dad – a retired ancient history teacher who’s had the Indiana Jones theme song as his blaringly loud ringtone for the past twenty years. It’s his take that is going to be the be all, end all for me.
Truthfully? I can’t wait to share this adventure. MachineGames has captured the essence of Indiana Jones in a genuinely enjoyable, rollicking ride, and it feels so satisfying to trudge through sand, jungle and rooftops in Indy’s well-worn shoes. Not only am I confident that Dad is going to be utterly obsessed with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I’m already bracing myself for him to quote it relentlessly.
Under a critical light, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle shines for me. It’s clear the MachineGames team has done its due diligence in making sure that no matter how stark a light you cast upon it, the excitement and nostalgic joy you get from playing the game speaks for itself.
Four-and-a-half stars: ★★★★½
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Platform(s): Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows. Coming to PlayStation 5 in Autumn 2025.
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: MachineGames
Release Date: 9 December 2024
A code for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews are rated on a ten-point scale.
