Over the span of a week’s time, I managed to finish the main storyline of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I was also able to sprinkle in a little bit of exploration, as well as puzzles and side missions. Thanks to Xbox’s Game Pass system, I was able to play the game without spending a dime of my own money (aside from the pass). Now, I want to share my knowledge of the game and hope I can help gamers decide if it’s the right game for them, or they should save their money for the next big title in gaming. This is heavily inspired by the series “Before You Buy” by gameranx on YouTube.
In this series, I will be examining games by playing, researching, and getting thoughts from other gamers. My hope through this series is to help gamers buy games that fit their taste, saving money in the process. While I myself am not a serious gamer, I hope my knowledge will be able to persuade a few. The formatting for this series is still in the works, so bear with me as things may change in the future. For now, I plan on ranking the game through five categories with a cumulative score at the end. I will also give a hard pass or buy, based solely on my opinion, unrelated to the rankings. As always, I will do my best to avoid spoilers.
Game At A Glance
Indiana Jones has seen quite a long absence from gaming consoles until this year. In fact, it has been over fifteen years. The last game, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, was released in June of 2009. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle makes a grand return to new generation consoles, allowing players to travel to several different countries (or continents) to discover the secrets of the Great Circle. Indiana Jones meets Gina, a reporter searching for her sister, and together, work against the Nazis in achieving the greatest power known to man.
The plot follows the typical Indiana Jones storyline seen in other games and movies. Indiana travels around the globe, uncovering ancient relics in lost temples, to beat a great evil. As in most cases, this evil is the Nazi party. The game is set in 1937, throwing Indiana into the thick of Germany’s power.
Characters
The game has two main protagonists, one of which being Indiana Jones himself. The other is Gina Lombardi, a journalist dedicated to finding her lost sister (of who she suspects is entangled with the Nazis). Indiana Jones is a multi-layered protagonist, but his intentions are always for the good. However, for this reason specifically, he’s not an extremely engaging character. He is predictable, for the better, and because the player plays as him, he doesn’t have his own true voice. I would like to say, Troy Baker was a perfect fit for the voice of Indiana.
Gina has many more layers than Indiana. She begins adventuring with him as a way to find her sister, and after some time, joins Indiana for the thrill of the adventure. Locus, a giant, is also a reoccurring character that has great character development. The antagonist of the game, Emmerich Voss, is a decent villain, although he fails to really capture the villainy I expect in such a character.
If I had to say some positives, I would say the relationships and character development are strong. Some characters learn to work in cooperation despite their differences. On the flip side, I would argue that some relationships shouldn’t be. I will not disclose what relationships these are for the purpose of spoilers.
Overall, I give the character rating: 8/10. I felt myself attached to some of the characters and was frustrated when they didn’t undertake “specific” actions.
Story:
The script follows a very similar path to what is known in past games and movies regarding Indiana Jones. There isn’t an incredible amount to speak on about the game’s story. Indiana begins his journey at the college he teaches at, then jumps around searching for artifacts. All the while, he is competing to find these artifacts before Voss can capture them for the Nazis (and himself).
Because this section would be so short otherwise, I’ll add an additional part regarding the playtime. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The main story takes way too short of time to finish. Accounting for an hour of messing around in the world, and doing the occasional side mission, I finished the game within 17 hours. I believe the game is way too short, and another drawback is the plethora of cutscenes. In my opinion, it feels like 75% of the main/side story missions are cutscenes, with little gameplay. This hurts the experience I had, as it felt less of a game and more of a long movie.
Overall, I rate the story: 5.5/10. It could be a little longer with more energy focused on making the missions in which you play longer, rather than having so many cutscenes.
Setting:
The world through Indiana Jones is beautifully crafted with amazing visuals of temples, pyramids, and forgotten cities. There are seven main areas the player can explore throughout the world, all built to perfection. Side stories and collectibles are all sprinkled throughout not just for the achievement but in accordance to the area in which they reside. The aspect of taking photos in these areas draws inspiration to buy a vintage camera and explore myself.
My one gripe with the setting is more based off the graphics. Although Indiana Jones offers a 40gb update to the graphics, I hardly noticed any change with and without it. There were a few graphical bugs as well that never fully hindered my gaming experience, but definitely ticked a few notches.
Overall, the setting is: 8.5/10. The world looks great, and for the time period, feels immersive.
Side Missions:
When I began writing this review, I had done very few side quests. I was off of the high of completing the main story in great time. Now, I have had some time to reflect on some of the side quests in various locations. There’s a large diversity of side quests, spanning from short “mysteries” that take detective level investigation to ones that maybe require two minutes of your time. Discoveries were a fun challenge in reaching new locations with your whip. Field notes are used as another collectible task, but a very pain-staking one. It can be seen as a positive for some gamers that love to challenge themselves.
Field work tasks are additional side missions that add to the content of the main story as well as the world itself. Indiana gets to meet new people, assist with their tasks, and get rewarded. The side missions offer great rewards for the player if completed, through Adventure Points (the game’s idea of skill/training points), currency, training books, or field notes. In my opinion, while the main story seems relatively short, the side missions provide enough content to justify a little more of the game’s selling price.
Overall, the side missions I would give: 9/10. They help aid the main content while giving more determined gamers a challenge.
Gameplay
Buckle up, because this section will be a doozy. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle plays from a first person perspective, switching to third in cutscenes and climbing/swinging actions. The mechanics of exploration are as simple as it gets, although scales slightly in difficulty change. For the sake of this review, I played almost entirely (will be explained further) in Moderate difficulty.
The combat, as is with exploration, was extremely simple to learn. You can block, dodge, punch, and charge a punch. If you look around while in combat, more often than not, you’ll find an item that can be used as a weapon. This may be a glass bottle, broom, baton, or something else. There is the occasional “boss” fight, which pins you up against a competitor that requires more damage to be downed. While there was an occasional learning gap to be had, the boss fights never provided too much of a hassle.
The Nazis, who act as the antagonists in the story, are extremely daft and oblivious. The detection system in place for them to spot Indiana in restricted areas is slightly broken in Indy’s favor. However, there is one spot where this turns one hundred eighty degrees. The last area before the end of the main story, which I will not discuss at length, was extremely difficult. Changing difficulty to the easiest setting still required double digit attempts, trying to play secretive and running in guns blazing. It was about on the twelfth attempt I finally broke free and won.
Overall, I give the gameplay a 6/10. Nothing, aside from the ending, is overtly difficult, which may frustrate those searching for a challenge.
Worth the Purch?
Here’s where I’ll give you the full opinion on if it’s worth buying. The game’s release price, and at the time of this posting, is $69.99. I’ve given pretty high ratings to the majority of categories, especially the setting and side missions. However, for nearly $70, I do not think Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is worth the purchase. A couple of reasons factored into this decision.
The game itself is too short. To finish the main story in seventeen hours, and then to get a glimpse on how long 100%ing the game would take, is way too little time for a major game in 2024. After a certain point, the characters get old and there’s only so much you can do. Gameplay itself is too simplistic. It gets the job done, but at the end of the day, the controls feel more like an indie game’s controls.
If you’ve liked this review and would like to see more in the future, comment below what game I should try next.