That’s right, we have a new Indiana Jones game! I was provided this key from Bethesda for this review for the PlayStation 5 version that was recently released.
We’re all friends here, right? We know most everyone here loves Uncharted and Retro Replay, including the men in front of the camera, that is Nolan North and Troy Baker. When we had a teaser of this game that featured both of them, it was exciting and nostalgic. Nolan mentioned to Troy that he is just beginning the adventures of being a successful voice actor (lol), but the trailer was also introducing the newest action-adventure campaign: Indiana Jones! We know Nathan Drake himself was at the very least influenced by Indiana Jones, so being able to review this game has been an honor and privilege. So let’s get to it.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game features an original storyline set in 1937, positioned between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade.
Players follow Indiana Jones as he investigates a mysterious phenomenon known as the Great Circle—an alignment of ancient sites around the world that form a perfect circle when mapped. The narrative unfolds across several real-world locations, including Vatican City, Thailand, Egypt, and China, as Indy works to prevent rival groups from uncovering the power behind the circle.
I’ll try to remain as spoiler-free as possible. I’m excited to break down the good, the bad, and the meh.
The soundtrack and the visuals. Point blank. This game is stunning on PS5. It’s beautiful in every way. The cutscenes are amazing, the graphics are great, and the immersion this provides is almost better than Uncharted 4. The music is a ton of fun. It’s very John Williams-esque with wonderful swells of excitement and wisps of Indiana Jones in every note.
And the puzzles! These were awesome. There was a lot of research and brain power needed for them. The use of a lighter when exploring caves and caverns, looking for clues, was a fun touch. The game also provided hints only if you wanted them by utilizing a camera during your travels, and the game prompts you to take a picture when it’s something of importance, both with provided hints through a picture or just as you’re exploring. It was fun.
Another nice touch are the Easter Eggs referencing the movie Indy we all know and love. He isn’t all about killing in the movies, and he doesn’t handle a weapon well in this. The game plays off the tropes we know and love Indy for, including his paralyzing fear of snakes.
I know, that seems like a small amount of good. That’s because to me, it’s a lot of meh. I took a lot of notes while I was playing, and it eventually started to feel tedious. I couldn’t look forward to sitting down in the evening to play. Instead, it was a “le sigh, I have to get this game done!” Which is unfortunate.
When the visuals look so great during a cut scene, it sometimes gets us lost in the story. We get distracted by the beautiful statue or the beam of light hitting exactly as it would in real life (thanks, ray tracing!), so the dialogue gets lost because it’s less interesting. The transition from a cutscene to gameplay is a little jarring when we are immersed in the cutscene, and it jerks us back to first-person.
That brings me to my biggest sticking point. When we think about action-adventure games or treasure-hunting tropes, we think of Uncharted and Lara Croft, respectively. Those games are played from a third-person perspective. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is first-person… mostly. It’s odd. When I yank the whip to climb a wall, it moves to third-person. When you’re at the top of the ledge or crawling up, it shoots you back to first-person. It’s a distracting whiplash that doesn’t need to be there.
Speaking of the Whip, while you can whip things like tree branches and metal bars, I had a hard time suspending my belief when Indy climbs up the whip like a sturdy rope that it is not. So, if we have a game that looks so impressive and visually realistic, we need to be able to match that with game fundamentals and player actions. For example, if we want realism, you can’t climb a whip. But it’s a video game, so maybe I’m being picky and it won’t bother you as much as it did me.
Combat was something to get used to, as it was mostly fist fighting with the occasional whip to the face for good measure. You do get a gun, but we’re in 1930’s Germany fighting Nazi’s, so it was a revolver which means it wasn’t accurate, and it didn’t feel natural to Indy. At the beginning of the game, when we first hear Dr. Jones talk, it sounds a lot like Harrison Ford, and I was very impressed with Troy’s version of Indy. He was excellent in most parts. However, the excitement started to wear off as the game went on, and it was obvious it wasn’t Harrison Ford after a while. His intonation, pace, and volume were all excellent. You just had the face of Harrison Ford with the voice of a growling Troy Baker.
The bad for me revolves around the open-worldness. I know, this is a gamer preference, but let me explain. The world is large, and you traverse it mostly on foot, which is fun and fine. However, we have been trained for decades to look in every nook and cranny of games for treasures, and while this game lets you do that, it doesn’t give the reward. There’s no payday. I felt like I was searching everywhere to no avail. Don’t let me go to every outside corner of every ledge, looking longingly at platforms I could climb if I were Nathan Drake, if there isn’t going to be an Ancient Relic or treasure, at least sometimes.
There are too many choices and doors to explore in a lot of the floor plans of the game, and I forgot where I was supposed to be going quite a few times. That could be intentional; however, I found it distracting. I am the type of gamer who prefers linear, story-based campaigns. This one is that, but it also tries to be open-world without being open-world? It has a bit of an identity problem.
Now for the boss fights: there were two main boss fights, one mid and one final, and holy aggravating–They were both far more tedious than they needed to be. It felt like it should have been a “duck here, punch there” souls-like memorization of the enemy movements…but there were no variations. The karate chops, kicks, or punches landed when I was physically too far away to actually be hit, which really cut into my health when I thought I was running away to a safe distance.
The dialogue doesn’t change or show you that you are progressing through the fight, there’s no health bar or indication of progress at all, the boss randomly just hits his knees and the game expected me to know that I needed to run away for one fight, or keep punching on the second fight where I kept missing the mid-point trigger.
While the dialogue and casting were excellent, I found myself not very interested in the characters of the story. Was it in the writing? The scripting? Unsure. The villain was a ton of fun, until the final boss fight. It seems as if they spent too much time and money on the cut scenes, which are fantastic to watch, but left me wanting to feel like I can move that nimbly while I’m playing, instead it’s clunky.
Even though it does sound like I’m just shitting on it, it was an enjoyable game. The puzzles were my favorite part, as they did actually require some brain power. The visuals were lovely, and overall, I had a good time. If they made a sequel, I’m not sure I would play it. It would feel more as an obligation because I played the first one. If I find myself needing to be a sarcastic yet handsome and free wheeling adventurer, I already have a game with better mechanics that will suit my needs.I finished the main campaign, but there are a lot more adventures and side quests to find that I might try to do. Maybe. After I work my way through the alluring puzzle game Blue Prince, another great suggestion, thanks to Iain. (Gosh, he’s everywhere, isn’t he? Even in my Indy articles. Sigh).
