When Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was first announced I was super excited to get a modern version of the beloved sarcastic, witty, but flawed professor/archeologist. Images of a more pulled back version of Tomb Raider and Uncharted initially flooded my brain since those two games were inspired by Indiana Jones. But Indiana never was a super athletic, quick climbing, mass murderer like those other two protagonists have become. Sure, he has done some killing, but never on the scale of these 3rd person shooters. Yes, he has done death defying things, but it was always off the cuff and he always seemed surprised he was still alive at the end of it. It’s kind of why he was a more relatable action hero than most.

I was initially shocked to see that Bethesda was putting MachineGames as the developer for the title, but the more I thought about it, the more excited I got. They could have easily just made this a 3rd person action/adventure game in the same vein as the two games I mentioned above. Hell, what I think majority of people were expecting considering a part of Indy’s identity is his iconic look. But when you really look back at the movies, Indiana is at a much more slower pace. His hand-to-hand combat is very old school classic fisticuffs/boxing or using items to knock Nazis out. Very rarely did he every need to use a gun. This makes the direction of the game much more understandable. Plus, MachineGames just knows how to kick Nazi ass.

Watch me.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade when Indiana is still in his prime. This is a completely new adventure that only references some things in Raiders, but offers an all new cast of characters. New love interests, new villains, and new friends that help Indy on his adventure. I will say that this is the best follow up to Raiders we could have asked for. It’s the perfect balance of Raiders and Crusade in the terms of characters, action, and storytelling. For the better, it seems MachineGames is skipping out on the damsel in distress type female character and the dark tones that came with Temple of Doom.

See, it’s a Great Circle.

I’m so impressed by the performances given in this game. Considering we are getting the visual model of young Harrison Ford, but getting him to voice it would have been bad now. Luckily, Troy Baker absolutely nails a young Harrison Ford to the point where its hardly noticeable it’s someone else. In fact, all of the voice performances across the board are amazing. The new friends, companions, and shout out to Marios Gavrilis as the new Nazi bad guy, Emmerich Voss. He is a fantastic new villain who has a perfect balance of historical knowledge and toughness, which makes him a perfect counter to our hero.

Indeed, Voss, Indeed.

What is so great about having such a well done Indiana Jones game is that we are essentially getting the likes of two or three full movies worth of adventures to play through. Exploring the world and uncovering the secrets of the pyramids in Gizeh, the underbelly of the Vatican, the mysteries of the Himalayas, get in the middle of a Japanese invasion in China. There is so much to uncover and all of it well done, with a great balance of action and exploration. They absolutely nailed Indiana’s love and wonderment of exploration and uncovering ancient artifacts. While still providing his off the cuff action side when things eventually go belly up.

MachineGames pushes and deepens the connection with Indy’s wonderment and love of exploration, by giving us a camera to take pictures of all sorts of things. Every time you take a picture of something important, not only do you get Adventurer Points, but you also get a dialogue line from Indy talking about what it is and his excitement or awe of what it is. I felt this was a brilliant mechanic to really set in that exploration feel, and even better, its not only for the Adventurer Points. They even use this as the hint mechanic for puzzles.

If you’re stuck, pull out your camera and your journal for clues and hints.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does a great job with majority of its puzzles letting you do the work. Unlike most adventure games with puzzles we don’t have the character instantly telling us solutions when we walk in the room. If you’re stumped, take out your camera and retake some pictures for Indy to give an audible clue. I never felt like the puzzles were too tough or convoluted where it got frustrating. They do require you using your brain and observing environmental clues, or needing some sort of object that may be hidden, but nothing that was ever too hard.

When he isn’t in the middle of ancient caves uncovering lost languages and civilizations, Indiana has to deal with the damned Nazis. For the most part this is done by sneaking around and knocking patrols out. Remember, Indiana Jones isn’t this super hero action guy, he still gets his ass beat up. Your first course of action is sneaking around, picking out random objects around to stealth bash a Nazi. Hide the body around the corner and rinse and repeat. Now, for the most part if you get caught you can beat up two Nazis pretty easily, if you have a good plan you can go for more, but its easy to get overwhelmed and you will go down. Luckily, the level designs are well done offering plenty of options to take down your enemies.

With its semi open design there are plenty of options to infiltrate bases and current dig sites.

There are options for guns, but from my experience they haven’t really been needed. There is also the fact that if you pull out a gun, or pick up an enemies gun, the other enemies will equip a gun as well. For the most part it seems if you stick to fisticuffs, most enemies will keep their guns holstered unless you pull yours out. Once guns are drawn, it’s only two to three shots and you’re dead, so use the guns at the right time.

While you can be in gunfights, ammo is limited and it only takes a couple shots to kill you.

Getting back to the Adventurer Points, Indiana will find or purchase various training books that are used to upgrade your health, combat, and exploration. While you may start of feelings fairly weak, low health, and pretty slow to climb, later on in the game things do become better. Soon you’ll be increasing your health bar, stamina bar, your combat effectiveness with boxing and weapons, and even being able climb your rope faster. Again, Indiana isn’t a spider monkey at climbing like other action games make their heroes. He is a professor that moonlights as an archeologist/adventurer, and his often visual and audible shock that he pulls things off reminds you of that.

Books of skills and knowledge!

The gameplay certainly isn’t going to resonate for most people who were hoping for more of that bombastic Uncharted like gameplay. This is certainly more in the lines of Dishonored stealth/level designs and even some Hitman thrown in there as well. Unfortunately, I did find that the AI is a bit dumb. The detection levels are very slow and you can almost walk right in front of someone a few feat away, but as long as you quickly back up or run out of their cone of sight, they will unalert. Clearly this isn’t intended to be a hardcore stealth title, but it is silly that the enemies are that unaware.

There is also a mechanic oversite that I’m not sure how it got through testing with the option to peak around corners. While you’re holding a weapon, you can hold the left trigger which initiates the option to either throw the weapon with right trigger or click the L3 or R3 buttons to lean. This is fine, however, if you do not have a weapon holding the left trigger winds up your left hand attack which means you can’t lean corners with an object in your hand. You also can’t seem to do stealth takedowns bare handed either. Just a couple of things that made me scratch my head.

Things are warming up.

Visually, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a looker and that goes from the fantastic models with the facial motion capture to the varied and detailed locations we visit. Young Harrison Ford is perfectly detailed and looks exactly like him, despite not being able to use a current model scan of him. The locations are semi open world and all littered with things to explore. Not only is it fantastic to see these wonders of the world and getting to deep dive into them, but it was even great to be able to explore Marshal College and Indiana’s classroom and offices. While the open areas are generally still very good looking it does suffer from some LoD pop-ins with textures and shadows.

I’ve already talked about the fantastic vocal performances from the entire cast, but the overall sound design and soundtrack is phenomenal as well. There is of course the classic Indiana Jones themes, but its all the other aspects of the sound design that MachineGames really nails as well. The whimsical tunes when Indy finds himself face to face with a snake or when he narrowly makes a jump even he is shocked he made. The loud cracks from the iconic whip is bold and in your face as well as the heavy punching sound effects from the combat. There isn’t a single flaw in the sound design, it is perfect.

There are some really great locations and beautiful vistas.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an absolute Indy classic that perfectly sits itself between Raiders and Crusade for the best Indy adventures. MachineGames stays 100% faithful to Indiana Jones and for some that may be good or bad. For me, this is exactly what I wanted in an Indiana Jones adventure, and while I would like maybe a bit more fleshed out combat, and some smarter AI, I couldn’t ask for a better world trotting adventure.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is available now on Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Reviewed on Xbox Series X.