Indiana Jones and The Great Circle (PC) Review

I got this game through Game Pass for $1, and I finished it fast. I started in late December and rolled credits on Sunday, January 5, 2025, at 9:27 AM. Safe to say I got my dollar’s worth.

This is easily the best Indiana Jones game ever made for PC. I’m really happy it exists. The last one I tried was Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb back in the day. I really wanted to like it, but the controls were clunky and it just hasn’t aged well. After that, I pretty much gave up on the idea of a good Indy game. It took 22 years for another game to be made, and we have come a long way.

I’m glad MachineGames made this. I loved Wolfenstein: The New Order, so I knew they are capable of making a good video game. That said, you can kind of feel them playing it safe with the story and characters, like they were apologizing for their art. Might be why some choices feel like they are pushing corporate morality.

Over the years, somehow it got very difficult for me to follow video game stories, mostly because a lot of video game stories are bad and boring. The plot is about Nazis hunting for Noah’s Ark. That’s pretty much all I remember from memory. The story felt kind of convoluted and didn’t always make a ton of sense to me, but it does take Indy to some really cool places.

The opening is one of the best parts. They turned the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark into a playable level. I wish it was a bit longer, but it was awesome. The music is great too — it really captures the movie feel.

The visuals are fantastic. This is the id Tech engine (same as Doom) and it looks amazing in a lot of spots. The game sends Indy all over the world like the films. The game starts in Connecticut, and concludes in Ziggurat of Ur. The levels are really well made, especially the cliff level in Sukhothai and the short section in China are especially stunning. There are some underwater sections as well, and they are well made too.

Gameplay is solid but not top-tier for me. The weapon system feels weird and ammo is pretty scarce, so you end up doing a lot of hand-to-hand and melee fighting. That part can actually be fun. Having an AI sidekick during stealth gameplay is always risky, and this game doesn’t pull it off. The companion character really hurts the experience at times. She looks silly, and she completely breaks stealth. Enemies will shoot at her but she cannot be killed, or just ignore her as she is crouch walking right in front of them, which makes those parts feel goofy and poorly done. Not every game can pull off a sidekick like Alyx in Half-Life 2. The character herself is pretty boring, and a lot of the dialogue is heavy on exposition. You could completely remove her from the game and nothing of value would be lost.

There are also invisible walls, instant fail states, and boss fights that only work one specific way. No room for creativity. You do exactly what the developers want, or you fail. That holds the game back from being truly great.

There are side quests, puzzles, and collectibles, but I mostly ignored them. You can earn money to buy gear and stuff, but I only did the bare minimum (like buying the camera early on).

Voice acting can go from great to boring. There are two characters in the game that absolutely deliver: Indiana Jones and Emmerich Voss.

Troy Baker does an amazing job as Indy. At times he sounds so close to Harrison Ford that it’s kind of wild. Marios Gavrilis is also excellent as Voss. Whenever those two shared the screen, the game became entertaining. Those scenes felt like an actual Indiana Jones movie.

This is a solid action-adventure game that every Indiana Jones fan should play. At the full launch price of $70 or $100 for the premium edition (completely ridiculous), I wouldn’t recommend it — it doesn’t reach all-time great status. But at around $10? Totally worth it.

What I enjoyed most was the combat when the game didn’t get in its own way, the excellent levels, the Indy/Voss scenes, and the music.

I’m really glad this game got made. I hope they make a sequel that fixes the rough spots — especially the companion. They should make her look and sound better, and keep her out of the actual gameplay, maybe like Farah in Prince of Persia where she’s there but not constantly in your way, because it is not easy to create something in the same league as Half-Life 2, and if they can’t get it right, don’t even bother wasting time and resources.

Overall, fun Indy adventure that fans will enjoy, especially if you can get it cheap.

Verdict: Buy it one sale.