Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: the movie and the Germans

Although the Indiana Jones franchise is almost the same age as another famous franchise by George Lucas, whose name includes the words “star” and “war”, there are several orders of magnitude fewer games about the irrepressible archaeologist with a whip than Star Wars games, and the really good ones can be counted on one hand. So we were waiting for the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with interest, the only thing that was a bit upsetting was that the game was developed by a studio that has been releasing exclusively shooters for 15 years. The fears were in vain, it seems that MachineGames did everything right, because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is not only the best Indiana Jones game, but one of the best games about adventurous archaeologists, and the competition in this small niche is really tough. But first things first.

Just like in the movies

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle begins with a scene in South America that repeats the canonical opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) frame by frame. The developers from MachineGames tell us in no uncertain terms what kind of game they have been developing over the past three years and what awaits players ahead.

Yes, MachineGames was inspired by the classic films, and in fact, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle could replace Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which is slightly different from the other two films in the trilogy. Raiders of the Lost Ark – The Great Circle – The Last Crusade is the correct trilogy, especially since Temple of Doom is a prequel and The Great Circle takes place in 1937, between the first and third films.

That is why Indy remembers his trip to South America, why he is still going through his breakup with Marion, and why he will face the Nazis again. Or rather, first with the fascists, and then with the Nazis, and then, as is the custom of the famous archaeologist with the whip, with forces whose nature we are unable to comprehend.

The Great Circle

It all starts at Marshall College in Connecticut, where Dr. Jones teaches history and archeology and tries to avoid the attention of his female students. Someone breaks into the college’s museum in the middle of the night and steals a strange artifact – an Egyptian cat mummy. Of course, Indiana Jones can’t stand aside, it’s not even the artifact itself that’s important to him, he wants to understand why the intruders are interested in this thing. So Indy goes to the Vatican, which is pointed out by one of the items lost by the attackers.

There are eight locations in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, most of which are essentially linear and contain only story content, but the Vatican, Giza in Egypt, and Sukhothai in Thailand are large open locations where, in addition to Adventures (the story part), you will find Field Research (side quests), Discoveries (search for collectibles), and Puzzles (small additional puzzles). You can go through them in any order, but keep in mind that the game also has elements of metroidvania, so some paths still need to be found, some doors need to be opened, etc.

All of the large locations impress with incredible authentic architecture, a bunch of hidden temples, riddles, and trinkets. You can really hang out here for a long time and even come back after completing the story (11-13 hours, if you ignore the sidequests) to explore them more closely (keep in mind that all enemies will come to life/revive). But this – collect 10 bottles of medicine, find 10 artifacts, take 10 photos in a game that already has enough interesting activities – seems a bit excessive. Yes, it’s interesting to look for caches, but spending dozens of hours on it… we’re not sure.

Stealth puzzles

You shouldn’t compare Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to Uncharted or Tomb Raider, they are completely different games. There is very little acrobatics in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, except in some story temples, and unlike Uncharted or Tomb Raider, you shouldn’t grab for weapons. The Great Circle is primarily about solving puzzles and stealth, no matter how strange it may sound for a game from MachineGames, which made its name on shooters.

No, you can pull out your revolver or grab a rifle or even an assault rifle from the enemy if you want, but most likely it will end in a reload. Indy doesn’t have a lot of ammo, he uses it up quickly, reloading regular weapons is VERY slow, and picked up weapons can’t be reloaded at all. And of course, the sound of gunfire attracts guards from all over the level, and they shoot painfully, especially the elite German commandos in Sukhothai. So if you intercept a weapon, it’s wise to use it as a club to knock out enemies with a blow from behind.

No, of course, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, like any stealth game, can be hacked. For example, by triggering an alarm to hide around the corner in a narrow passage and knock out the Nazis one by one, but it’s not interesting, a bit pointless, and doesn’t always work. So stealth, stealth, and more stealth. And the timely use of improvised objects and a whip. And yes, the authors borrowed this ability to use everything from shovels and sledgehammers to brushes, guitars, and dirty frying pans as weapons from Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb (2003).

The second main activity in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is solving puzzles, and there are a lot of them, especially in the open levels. In Adventures and Field Studies, you’ll find puzzles with lights, ciphers, gears, board games, icons, fire, and so on. All of them are not too difficult, but not too easy either, a kind of golden mean to feel the joy of solving, but not to get stuck on each problem for a long time. Although I must admit that once I did have to turn to the Internet for help. As for the riddles, they are very small puzzles, the clues or objects to solve which are located within the same room.

Indy and his friends

But the real main course of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is Indiana Jones himself. He is ironic, dreamy, enthusiastic, able to smile with one eye and try to be witty even in the most difficult situation. The developers from MachineGames have created a digital copy of Harrison Ford that “plays” as well as the actor himself in his best roles. It’s really Indy from the classic movies, not the elderly, albeit very charming and cute retired Indy from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) (although, in my opinion, this movie is not as bad as people say).

Ironically, Indiana Jones is played and voiced by… the same Troy Baker, the actor who gave his voice to Samuel Drake in Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.

The authors, like the filmmakers in their time, deliberately emphasize some of Indy’s traits. His fear of snakes is mentioned five times during the game, and in completely different situations. His attachment to his own hat is in every scene. His irony and desire to talk to the enemy is constant. What’s more, the game even allows us to repeat the classic sword vs. gun scene, so don’t miss this moment in Shanghai.

Of course, there is a woman with Indy, because there should always be a woman with Indy. Although hats off to the developers here, they introduced a new girl to the series, but didn’t ruin Marion’s forehead and line, our respect. Gina Lombardi is a journalist and is looking for her archaeologist sister. The Italian actress Alessandra Mastronardi gave the character’s appearance and voice. The character of Gina is closer to Marion than to Willie from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Indy’s main enemy, the exalted and self-confident Nazi archaeologist Emmerich Voss, was played and voiced by German actor Marios Gavrilis, who had to be slightly aged for this role.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle also features Indy’s colleague and friend Marcus Brody, who appeared in three films, the head of the Vatican library and Indy’s friend Father Antonio, Egyptian archaeologist Dame Nawal Shafik-Barclay, and the mysterious Locus, who protects artifacts related to the Great Circle. Plus, instead of the Fuhrer, this part of the movie-game features a cameo by the Duce.

All the characters turned out to be very colorful, interesting and really alive. Just like in a movie.

Something in addition and something extra

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has a rudimentary role-playing system. Indy can improve his skills by finding the right books and spending adventure points, which he earns by solving puzzles, progressing through the story, and taking pictures of sights. But judging by the fact that at the end of the story campaign I had more than 5000 extra adventure points, the game can be completed without pumping.

We also think Indiana Jones and the Great Circle could have done without some action episodes. The biplane flight with the shooting of half of the Imperial Navy’s planes and boat races look a bit out of place here. On the other hand, in the movies we had races on trolleys and tanks, and so on.

And instead of a heart, it has a Motor

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle uses the Motor engine, which is a modified version of id Tech 7, the same one you could see in Doom Eternal. The task of showing real jungles and ruins, in my opinion, is a bit more difficult than showing Hell and its surroundings, but Motor coped with it.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle pleases with realistic buildings and cyclopean structures (we say hello to the buildings of the First Civilization from the Assassin’s Creed series), almost real jungle, good facial animation, and light staging. The game is also capable of real ray tracing, but we do not recommend touching this option if you do not have the most powerful gaming system.

On my Intel Core i5-13600KF 3.5GHz and ASUS DUAL-RTX4070-O12G, the game ran quite well on maximum settings with DLSS with quality priority. The only thing is that several times after launching the game began to slow down incredibly, the fps dropped to 2-3 frames per second. With the next launch, this problem disappeared. I did not understand what this was about and how to get rid of it. In addition, during the 16 hours of play, the game crashed once and I saw strange flashing in cutscenes. Both have already been fixed with a patch.

Indy, Drake or Lara?

As I’ve already mentioned, it’s pointless to compare Indiana Jones and the Great Circle with Uncharted or Tomb Raider games. These are completely different games with different emphases. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an action/adventure game with an emphasis on adventure, while its competitors are action/adventure games with an emphasis on action. Uncharted and Tomb Raider, on the other hand, have always been positioned as the Indiana Jones of video games. Well, this is not the case. Indiana Jones from video games is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. And we hope to see the continuation of this series.

P.S. Special thanks to MachineGames for the level in the Himalayas. This is an almost complete repetition of the mood and environment of the Ukrainian game “Anabiosis: Sleep of Reason” / Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason by Action Forms, which we are unlikely to see a sequel to.