Review: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

I’ve always had a soft spot for Indiana Jones. The Indiana Jones franchise is (along with Star Wars) one I’ve been introduced to by my parents. They named me after Luke Skywalker and named our second dog Indy. Just goes to show how much of a fan we all are. After first hearing about the Indy game a while back, I was sceptical. After all, I hadn’t forgotten the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull fiasco just yet…

Somewhat atypically, I avoid trailers. I prefer going into a game or a movie completely blind. Having every experience fresh. I do check opencritic or rottentomatoes if a game or movie is generally worth my time. Either one of those sources, or a friend recommendation is enough to get my attention. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle had both. Opencritic gives it a Mighty rating (which means the average of top critics is above 90%) ánd friends recommended it to me. Roy Tang also played the game recently and wrote his review about it.

The intro sequence is amazing. If you don’t know already, hurray! Go play it, and find out why it’s so amazing. If you know the intro sequence, how awesome was that, right?! Read on, if you can live with spoilers.

I recognized the intro to Raiders of the Lost Ark immediately, even though it was more than 10 years since I last saw the movie. I initially had the plan to rewatch the Indy movies (sans the movie that shall no longer be named), but I couldn’t persuade my girlfriend to watch them with me. Eventually we’ve gotten around watching Raiders, and she wasn’t a fan. I kind of see why though. If you haven’t seen the movie when it was released during the zeitgeist of that time, some things might irk you (for one Marion initially being portrayed as a woman that can stand her own, only to scream for Indy’s help a couple of scenes later).

Anyway, the intro choice was fantastic, not only does a serve as a great tutorial, it also succeeds in immediately putting you in the shoes of Indy. You immediately get a feel of the character he is and what he stand for. After that, the story really kicks in. Indy gets wrapped in an archaeological search for The Great Circle. During this search Indy meets Gina. An Italian reporter that is trying to find her sister. Indy, being the charmer he is, takes it upon himself to help Gina (even though she kind of imposes herself at times). They visit multiple locations around the world, fighting Nazi’s along the way.

What I really liked about the game is that you get encouraged to explore and look around. I used to be a completionist by nature. But as I grew older more and more I ask myself if this game is worth my time going through all the collectibles. And The Great Circle ticks all of those boxes for me. I haven’t yet gotten all collectibles, I did finish the main story but still have to go back here and there to collect a few things. The game really gives you the feeling of finding an exceptionally rare item. Even though it’s made pretty easy, just by buying maps in-game all locations of the collectibles are marked on the map, there are still plenty of collectibles hidden behind puzzles for you to find. And I love puzzles.

This is what makes it so enticing for me. I don’t mind having a map guiding me to where I have to go (hell, if it didn’t I would have definitely been switched off). It takes away the tedious part of finding stuff and gives you the satisfaction of earning the collectible by locking it behind a puzzle. Sometimes these puzzles are easy, you get some notes lying around and one of them just gives the code. Other times, you have to visit other locations to find the solution. And other times there’s subtle environmental stuff happening (flicking a light off to reveal a code, genius).

Speaking of, instead of going head on with enemies, Indy can cleverly disguise himself to blend in and avoid fisticuffs. Although in the later part of the game, I found myself jumping into fights more quickly. It’s easier to look around in a Nazi camp if everyone is knocked out, instead of stealthing your way through and avoiding those pesky higher-uppers who see through you disguise.

The game has a lot going for it. If you like Indy, or you like exploring in games, this has a ton of value for you.