Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review

There’s a high chance that if you were born in the Eighties, you will have watched one of the original three Indiana Jones movies far sooner than you should have. For many, the finale of Raiders of the Lost Ark is seared into one’s memories, and whilst it’s a little hokey now, boy did it leave a first impression. Frustratingly, though, the more recent Indiana Jones movies have failed to capture the magic of the first three. The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was just overly silly and, in my opinion at least, seemed to rely too much on making fun of how old Harrison Ford was — and let’s not talk about the ending either. Recently, in preparation for this review, I’ve now watched The Dial of Destiny and whilst it was better than The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it still seemed to hook itself on Jones lucking himself through every situation. I appreciate that aspect has always been a part of Indiana’s charm, it was just a little much.

So when I started playing The Great Circle I was pleasantly surprised at how well Machine Games were nailing the feel. It felt more like an Indy movie than any of the recent movies did though to be fair, that bar was pretty low. Set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade (chronologically speaking anyway) our adventure starts with a cold open, just like the movies did and, if you’re like me, you’ll suddenly realise that what’s going on is oddly familiar. I daren’t spoil it, however, I loved the fact that it was used as a training level but that, at the same time as learning the controls, it really helps you feel like you’re Indiana Jones and that is a lesson on how to use your license well. 

Our adventure, however, really starts at Marshall College where Jones teaches when he’s not flying around the world chasing fortune and glory. However, we barely get a chance to find our feet before a nighttime altercation with a mysterious figure sets us on our adventure which sees our hero jump on the next plane to Italy and the Vatican City. Our longtime friend Marcus Brody, played by the fabulous Denholm Elliott in the movies, will do his best to cover for us but I think we all know the college board isn't going to be best pleased. As we uncover each new layer to the story laid out before us, the more it hooks you. The more it hooks you, the more you want to play, and before you know it, it’s late, you’ve got work in the morning and all you can think about is how, exactly, you’re going to solve the next puzzle.

On the default settings, the puzzles themselves aren’t, in my opinion at least, overly difficult. There were a couple that took a little time to figure out but none that made me so frustrated as to walk away and come back. There’s also more than one way to get to places and with a good bit of planning and stealth, you can get through most of the game without firing your gun. Your whip, on the other hand, is much more useful as it’ll be called upon to swing between things, break things and can, in a pinch, be used to great effect against enemies. Aside from some instances where weapon use was enforced, I probably used the pistol a handful of times, though not against anyone armed with a comically large sword which is a shame.

One of the trickiest obstacles in terms of having an authentic Indiana Jones adventure was the voice of Jones himself. Harrison Ford’s tone and all around manner is synonymous with Jones, it’s one of those roles that is hard to picture anyone else pulling it off. So hats off to the voice acting royalty that is Troy Baker since, unless you knew it wasn’t Ford, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. I wondered how it was, originally, that they managed to convince Harrison Ford to reprise his role. Then again, voice acting in an Indiana Jones game is likely far more straightforward than acting in a live action one so perhaps it wasn’t as big of a stretch as I thought. Then, after a few instances here and there I suspected it perhaps wasn’t, but it wasn’t until I looked it up that I knew definitively someone else was voicing Jones. That’s how good of a job Troy Baker has done here. Impersonating someone is one thing, but nailing it to the point of almost being unable to tell the difference is another entirely.

Other roles are also superbly acted and a special mention here must go to Tony Todd who unfortunately passed away in November 2024. He leant his likeness to his character as well as his voice and, perhaps, it’s fitting that one of his last roles should be in one of the best games this year and, without doubt, the best Indiana Jones story this century. I also loved Marios Gavrilis’ turn as Emmerich Voss, our villain. He reminded me a lot of Ronald Lacey’s turn as Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the sort of person who believes they are superior to everyone else and not just because they’re a Nazi. His eventual ending seems fitting and whilst not as iconic as Toht’s, it was equally as satisfying.

It’s saying something, I think, that the best incarnation this side of the millennium of Indiana Jones is a video game. I think it says a lot about the medium as a whole and how far it’s come as a way of telling a fantastic story and allowing us as the players to experience what it might be like to be such an iconic character of the silver screen. It seems we may have finally turned a corner in terms of translating movie characters to games, and games to film and TV (though perhaps we shouldn’t talk about Borderlands). I really do hope that games become the refuge of characters and franchises that are no longer desirable in Hollywood in this superhero fuelled era that we are in. Not that I mind those movies, however, it seems that unless there’s a superhero involved, most of the big studios don’t seem to be interested.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just a great adaptation of a familiar franchise, it is one of the best adventure games I’ve played in a long while. I love how it stays faithful to the source and that real history plays a huge part in the storytelling and worldbuilding. It rewards exploration and those who want to wander its wonderfully realised locations. I didn’t once lament having to do a few side-quests — or field work as it’s known — as I got to see more of Indy’s world and, as a fan, that was just fine by me. MachineGames have shown they are more than just Wolfenstein and I hope that the success of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will allow them to give Indy the home, and the adventures, that he deserves.