For all the critical acclaim it received upon its launch in 2024, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle still doesn't feel like it gets the attention that it deserves. Developer MachineGames and publisher Bethesda Softworks not only created the most immersive and entertaining Indiana Jones game ever, it breathed new life into the franchise in a way that Indy's most recent movies failed to live up to.
Simply put, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is not only a contender for one of the greatest Indiana Jones games ever made, but one of the best modern action-adventure titles in recent memory. It deserves more recognition for its place in the pantheon of great Xbox Series X|S games, and how it effectively captures the experience of being the world's greatest archaeologist like no game before it.
In the Shadow of Tomb Raider
Indiana Jones video games before The Great Circle were always hit-or-miss in terms of quality and recapturing the cinematic experience. For every beloved title like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis or Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures, there were absolute clunkers like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom or The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. This distinction is something that spread to the franchise's games as it made the leap to 3D platforming, starting with 1999's Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine.
Though entries like Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb certainly have their merits and fans, they always felt like they were lagging behind what other major treasure-hunting action franchises were doing at the time. Compared to Tomb Raider and, later, Uncharted, Indiana Jones just didn't capture the same level of excitement with his 3D games as he did on the big screen. This lackluster streak continued with 2009's Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, the last major non-LEGO game in the franchise.
Simply put, Indiana Jones felt as ancient as the treasure he was plundering. If the franchise was coming back to video games in a big way, it needed a full reinvention.
MachineGames gained widespread recognition for reviving Wolfenstein and it similarly reinvigorates Indy through The Great Circle, not with a full-on first-person shooter experience but with something wholly unique to their previous output and the venerable franchise. A fully first-person Indiana Jones game had never been done before and though the presumed change in gameplay raised eyebrows, who better than the studio that modernized another Nazi-busting video game hero?
To be sure, there are definitely FPS elements throughout The Great Circle, but the overall game doesn't really play out like a shooter-intensive experience from any perspective. Like in the movies, Indy is primarily a brawler, relying either on his bare fists or whatever impromptu melee weapons he can find. Recognizing those qualities, the game makes fisticuffs thoroughly satisfying, from giving each palpable hit sound effects straight from the movies to enemies immediately crumpling once they've been overpowered. This game isn't a FPS so much as a first-person beat 'em-up, in all the right ways.
In switching to a first-person perspective, MachineGames makes the Indiana Jones experience the most immersive it's ever been, but it doesn't stop its recreation just by putting players directly into Indy's shoes.
Becoming Indiana Jones
More than just differentiating itself from Tomb Raider and Uncharted by shifting to first-person, the change in perspective and gameplay in The Great Circle really makes players feel like they're Indiana Jones. A lot of this distinction comes from the atmosphere that the developers build around the experience, from familiar music cues and art design to Troy Baker's astonishingly good performance as Indy. Baker is already one of the most celebrated video game performers since, but the mannerisms and vocal ticks he takes in replicating Harrison Ford's iconic performance stands on another level.
This quality extends to the game's puzzle-solving, which was quietly a major recurring element in the movies and is masterfully handled here. Puzzles in the game aren't laughably simple, but they're also not as obtusely delivered as prior Indiana Jones games. As with 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, players rely on a journal to provide them with clues to proceed. This organically encourages and rewards players to explore more of the game to fill in Indy's journal, while the in-game hints surrounding these puzzles strike the delicate balance of being intuitive without spoon-feeding players the solutions.
Similarly, the environments throughout The Great Circle are well-rendered and designed, feeling like they could be settings from the movies themselves. Whether it's the secret tombs and labyrinths below a fascist-dominated Rome or a Nazi dig site in Egypt, every level feels like it could fit within the franchise's larger aesthetic. And if you didn't jump at the sight of snakes before The Great Circle, a certain portion of the game will certainly have you empathizing with Indy's greatest fear.
A Celebration of Indy
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle serves as an unabashed love letter to the wider Indiana Jones franchise. The entire prologue is a faithful recreation of the opening to Raiders of the Lost Ark, framed as Indy reliving the experience during a dream. The sequence later elaborates that The Great Circle takes place between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, shortly after the romantic rupture between Indy and his eventual wife Marion Ravenwood.
More specifically, The Great Circle celebrates the earliest period of Indiana Jones movies, really only drawing extensively from the mythology of the first movie given its placement in the timeline. There's a purity to that, while filling a period not really touched on before.
With its globe-trotting scope, engaging puzzles, and plenty of big action set pieces, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the best action-adventure games on the Xbox Series X|S, even appealing to those who might not be fans of the cinematic franchise. But for fans, this game is a must-play entry and one that hasn't felt this vital and organic to the franchise since, well, ever. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle satisfies longtime fans like myself in ways that the last two movies didn't – all while delivering the game we've been searching for all along.
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