“all that “hype” was just fabricated noise from the console warrior crowd"
HOW I PLAYED: I played Indiana Jones And The Great Circle via Xbox GamePass PC on my R7 7800X3D, RTX 3080 Gaming PC. I played at 1440p ultra settings with DLSS set to balanced and was hitting 80fps and above.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle looks absolutely stunning… its visual fidelity is on a whole new level. As someone who grew up with the films, I was stoked to dive into another Indiana Jones adventure. Troy Baker’s performance as Indy (voicing Harrison Ford’s iconic character) is spot-on, and he absolutely nails the role.
The game’s intro is a near shot-for-shot recreation of the first movie’s opening, and playing through it in a modern game setting was a blast. But then something started to feel… off. It was the first-person perspective.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t an FPS, so why the first-person view? My guess is that MachineGames, the developers behind the title, stuck with what they know… their previous games are all first-person shooters. Maybe they wanted to avoid comparisons to Uncharted, which, let’s be honest, feels like an unlicensed Indiana Jones game anyway. But here’s the thing: while the visuals are jaw-dropping at first, the gameplay didn’t hold my attention for long.
Exploring new locations was exciting initially, but that excitement faded fast. The game forces you to do a lot of busywork in the same areas, running back and forth past the same environments. After a while, even the stunning visuals couldn’t save the monotony.
The movies were never about excessive violence, and this game stays true to that. Don’t expect to go guns-blazing here. However, the enemy encounters felt like a chore. The hand-to-hand combat, while featuring the signature punch sound effects from the films, just wasn’t enjoyable. Stealth is clearly the preferred approach, and while it’s not my favorite playstyle, I found myself relying on it to avoid the clunky melee combat.
One of the early missions involves buying a camera to solve puzzles. Of course, you don’t have enough money, so you’re forced to run around completing basic side tasks to afford it. This kind of padding is one of my biggest pet peeves in games (right up there with being forced to chop down my dead wife’s favorite tree in another game’s opening hour 👀). It’s a blatant attempt to stretch out playtime and squeeze every last drop of “value” out of each area.
Side content should be optional… that’s why it’s called side content, not main story content.
WHAT WORKED
Visuals and Movie Spirit: The game’s visuals are stunning, and the cutscenes perfectly capture the spirit of the first three Indiana Jones movies. This was a definite high point for me.
Performance: I was really impressed with how well the game ran. On max settings (without path tracing, since I don’t have a 40-series GPU), I consistently hit 80-100 fps with no issues.
Atmosphere and Aesthetic: The game absolutely nails the atmosphere and aesthetic of the Indiana Jones franchise. It feels like stepping into the movies, and that’s a huge win.
WHAT DIDN’T WORK
The Core Gameplay Loop: The gameplay follows a very basic structure: do a task, hit a bottleneck, overcome the bottleneck, and complete the task. In some games, this loop works if the tasks are engaging or fun. But when the task is something as mundane as buying a camera—and you’re forced to run around doing odd jobs to afford it—it’s hard to stay invested.
The Combat: I wasn’t expecting to go full Rambo with a rocket launcher, mowing down Nazis (or “Fascists,” as the game calls them). But I was hoping the combat would at least be somewhat enjoyable. Instead, it feels so underwhelming that it actively discourages you from engaging with it. I get that they want to stay true to Indiana Jones’ character, but making the combat this tedious was a misstep, in my opinion.
The Obvious Padding: If the game only has 6-9 hours of solid content, I’d much prefer that over 15 hours of padded filler. Indiana Jones should feel like the movies, a thrilling ride from one high-stakes moment to the next, with brief breaks for story-driven cutscenes. Instead, the pacing drags, and somehow, they managed to make Indiana Jones… boring.
WORTH CONTINUING?
No… unless you’re the type of gamer who loves stealthing around, avoiding conflict, and just wants pretty “hallways” to walk down. If that’s your thing, then this game is 100% for you!
But if you’re
looking for engaging gameplay, fun action moments, and great
storytelling, this game will likely leave you feeling unsatisfied.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Daaang, MachineGames… how do you mess up Indiana Jones? Based on the internet hype, I thought this was going to be the next Game of the Year contender...a must-play masterpiece. Instead, my suspicions were confirmed: all that “hype” was just fabricated noise from the console warrior crowd trying to make PlayStation gamers jealous.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is about as creative as its title… all show and no play. It’s further proof that Bethesda and co. have “lost the sauce” and wouldn’t recognize a great game if it hit them over the head with a Moonlight Greatsword. 😉
My expectations were already low, and somehow, this game still managed to fall short. Now, it sits unfinished in my Xbox PC app, and I doubt I’ll ever touch it again.
CHECK OUT OUR VIDEO REVIEW HERE
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