Indiana Jones is off on another adventure, but this time it’s on the PlayStation 5. Delivering a PS5 edition of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle can only stand to benefit Bethesda, Xbox, and MachineGames. Never let an opportunity to make more money be blocked by a ‘console war’. The industry needs a boost to stay healthy, as does the Xbox brand, and releasing this game on multiple platforms is the way to get it going. The ‘exclusive’ blueprint that was wonderful in the 90s needs to die and die hard.
Anyhoo, soapbox speech aside, our last review of this game was December 6th, 2024, and my opinion hasn’t changed one bit. The PS5 version brings the same great gameplay, and wonderful story that could be an actual Indiana Jones adventure, and it also brings some PS5 Pro enhancements that will make Pro owners happy. This game is still mostly stealth with a side of exploration and puzzles driving it.
So, sit back, enjoy taking down Nazis, and let’s get cracking on this review.
Story
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and deals with Nazis on the hunt for powerful ancient objects that they’re hoping will turn the tides of war in their favor. Along the way, Jones encounters supernatural beings, plenty of puzzles, and the need to save the world before it’s too late. A typical hero adventure.
As per the last review, I’m not giving much away here. I think there are a lot of twists and turns in the story that deserve discovery, so I won’t be partaking in revealing them. Now, that said, I do think this story has different gears it kicks into along the way. The first couple of hours will leave you wondering where the hell everything is going. The narrative starts slow but then gradually begins to piece things together, introducing the main players in the story, and eventually kicks into fifth gear when plot points are revealed.
It feels like West World with its speed and reveal, where all the pieces are laid out in front of you and as you get more and more, everything begins to make sense. If you have never seen WW, then just know that the ending truly brings everything together, and the slow journey to get there was worth the price of admission.
I know that doesn’t tell you much, and I’m intentionally vague about the details here, but the story is worthy of the Indiana Jones series. A well-defined villain, a few protagonists that may not immediately understand Jones’ intentions, and plenty of action and suspense to keep your attention locked in.
Gameplay that still hits
We have a lot to talk about with the gameplay, as there are plenty of moving pieces and parts that affect the entertainment value of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Most of what you’re going to read is positive, though not all notes hit on the right scale. Let’s get this gameplay party started.
First-person perspective
Previously worrying about the first-person perspective the first go around with this game still feels valid. Most Indiana Jones games are either third-person or point-and-click-based. Seeing all of Indiana Jones in past games helped to sell the fact that you were playing Indiana Jones in an Indiana Jones adventure. Not seeing Indiana Jones outside of the cutscenes, which were gorgeously done in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, took some getting used to again but still turned out strangely well.
There’s something nice about Indiana Jones putting up his dukes and fighting bad guys in first-person, and that ‘something nice’ starts with mechanics. It’s easy to box and hit people, plus easy to block attacks from this perspective. To boot, it’s very easy to throw out the whip and disarm (or pull at) bad guys from this view. It’s just like aiming down the barrel of a gun with the whip, where you point, whip, and then prepare for battle. In addition, when there is gunplay, this works very well, as it should. It has a bit of a Battlefield taste to it, where it feels like a typical FPS with the aim being solid, the firing feels good, and you would swear this was a BF game if you didn’t know better.
Anyway, thanks to dialogue that goes with the first-person perspective, which puts you in the shoes of our hero, as well as sound effects straight from the movies that are firm reminders that you’re playing as Indiana Jones, this perspective is perfect for this action adventure. It’s a comfortable way to play and it keeps the action squarely from the viewpoint of Indiana Jones. I’m not sure I would be satisfied to play another way now.
Mechanics
Related, the mechanics of the whip, fists, weapons, and whatnot fit perfectly into this perspective. MachineGames nailed accuracy and ease of use with weapons and fists. The weapons are fantastic, though they are finite in usage (no unlimited ammo, sadly), as is the whip as I mentioned previously. It feels comfortable and they must have borrowed a lot of blueprints from Wolfenstein to bring solid weapon mechanics to this game. It feels a lot like that series.
As for the melee, I still thoroughly enjoyed how that worked. The melee is broken down into protecting yourself from attacks, punching your way through enemies, and pushing away an enemy to buy yourself time to refocus and reset your strategy. It’s nothing incredibly special but it is incredibly smooth in how easily you can execute the melee. Anytime your brain doesn’t trip up on the hows of mechanics, you probably have a solid set of mechanics to work with. And to make your efforts with melee even sweeter, the developers attached the infamous punching sounds from the films. Just to make it seem a bit more Indiana Jones.
Beyond weapons and melee, the movement of Jones through the world was more Skyrim-like than Wolfenstein. Climbing up ladders, scaling the outside of buildings, and any type of movement just seemed very familiar. It felt smooth, while at the same time flexible when it came to navigating and traversing different environments.
Overall, the mechanics were solid. I think the first-person viewpoint was the way to go and every mechanic used with it made sense. The developers had a thin line of success/failure for this portion of the game and they squarely fell onto the success line.
Menu – Navigation
My only big complaint, which I know was my only big complaint the first time out, is the menu navigation. While it still may sound like a whiny complaint, please hear me out. I’ve got reasons.
The quick menu system is driven by the directional keys on the controller. If you press up, you access items that are permanent and non-weapon, food, and/or health-related. This could be a lighter, a torch, or anything that you carry with you that you want to access quickly and often. Not too bad and easily accessible.
If you press left on the directional pad, you get access to a weapon. This could mean a shovel, gun, or anything that could take down baddies. Again, nothing too complicated, unless the weapon breaks and it will eventually break (and easily break) because real-world wear-tear is imminent when you take down a bevy of baddies with a single item. For example, if you whack someone with a sledgehammer, you have about 2-3 uses before it breaks. It delivers a powerful blow, but that weapon will wear down to the point where it simply doesn’t last. Whether you love or hate that option is a personal choice. For me, it was annoying, and I constantly had to access (with the left d-pad) the broken weapon, then select a repair kit to repair it…only to have it break again soon after.
On the right side of the d-pad landscape lies your inventory. You can access different costumes, items to use (such as a repair kit), and items of interest when you need to look at something or deliver something. It’s the biggest side of the bunch and it features a lot of spaces to navigate quickly. Which means you’re not going to navigate them quickly. I would have almost preferred to have that inventory in a separate backend category. As it stands, it was all packed into the right d-pad.
The down d-pad holds all your edibles and bandages. When you get damaged or need more stamina (you have limited amounts of this), then you would press down to quickly access these items. It’s not bad unless you’re panic-pushing buttons or you’re on the run trying to figure out where item X is in your menu system.
Anyway, something about the menu system just never stuck well with me. It felt like it was a bit disorganized in its design and execution, while at the same time, it didn’t seem incredibly intuitive or seamless. Stopping and thinking about the location of an item makes for a not-great time when you’re in a rush or you’re being attacked. I know it’s a manageable element of the mechanics that you can work through, but it never became comfortable enough to work seamlessly on the fly. It was a bit more of a mess when compared to other quick menu systems of its type.
In the same vein was the backend map and journal system. Indiana Jones brings up his map in an angular fashion. This means you must hit an extra button (R1) to pull up the map fully. By not hitting R1, you can move with the map in your hand, which is extremely helpful if you can manage the downward angle the map is set on. If you hit R1, then you aren’t moving anywhere, and the map just becomes a full-screen reference. Having a two-button push to get a map properly pulled up is not efficient.
The backend also features a journal, which is related to the map you’re looking at, and maps change with the quests you choose. There are also books, which are just what they sound like, and Travels which are sketches akin to Henry Jones Sr.’s book from the Last Crusade. These all provide clues that help with the adventure. Each backend option is nice, and it helps keep you on track but the map portion does bother me quite a bit. Again, I’m looking for efficiency with the menu navigation and this just feels like it slogs along.
Now, what doesn’t slog along are the enemies.
Stealth was the way to go
Last summer, MachineGames discussed how Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was more about stealth than it was about going gung-ho into a situation. Believe it. Pulling out your gun and taking down Nazis, while enjoyable and satisfying, just means you’re more than likely going to die quickly. This doesn’t mean that you can’t whip out a gun and go at it, because I took down about 10 soldiers during a fight, but the chances of dying are greater with this method of play. And the intelligence of the enemies makes it worse.
The enemies are smart. They can hear when you fire a gun. They will blow a whistle to call for backup. They will actively try to find the best method for you to die. They’re dangerous in this game, so playing it stealthily is the safest way to make it through, even though it’s not perfect.
During stealth, enemies can detect you through sound or visuals. They can also identify you through clothing. For example, during the second half of the story, whilst I was in Egypt, I dressed up as one of the workers. If I stuck around a guard too long, the guard would look at me suspiciously and declare that I wasn’t like the other workers. Then trouble began. I’m truly impressed with the amount of effort that went into enemy intelligence with this game. It was far better than expected.
Of course, just because they can drum up suspicion and figure out who you might be doesn’t mean they’re geniuses. They still fall short in the human target side of dumb where they won’t actively avoid gunfire, but they will certainly try to overtake you with numbers whenever they can. That’s intelligent and that makes stealth the best option between fighting or sneaking.
The stealth in the game is easy to pull off and the game is very flexible with loosey-goosey stealth methods. You can flub up here and there, as enemies have detection indicator circles that will fill up as they gradually become suspicious, so it’s a bit more fun than I thought a stealth game could be. I’m mostly miserable in a stealth scenario but this game changed my perspective on it.
Overall, the core mechanics of the game and how Indiana Jones moves and functions within Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is good and solid sans the menu navigation. It is far better than I expected, and it makes the game fun as hell more than not.
Story vs Adventure
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features two layers of gameplay. The first layer is the story, which is certainly linear. You go from point A to point B following breadcrumbs as you unlock the next acts in the narrative design. It’s typical, it’s what makes a game fun, and connects the player with the main characters (not that anyone will need much help doing that). In this regard, especially with the length in some levels (Egypt is huge), you’ll have plenty to keep you occupied and certainly double the time of a normal campaign adventure.
Now, there is a way to keep this going. As you go through the game, in typical Bethesda Softworks fashion, you can take on side quests or go artifact hunting on your own. The space on each map is wide and long. While you won’t get the size of Skyrim or Oblivion with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, you will get more than a linear, restrictive path.
The quests and random artifacts you can acquire come from exploring parts of maps during gameplay. Maps contain locations where you can help someone out, thus, the quests, and/or happen upon random finds. I think I spent far more time exploring maps and trying to uncover secrets than I thought I might with this game. I never imagined it would have a hint of an open world, but it does. You will find yourself exploring bits and pieces of the game and going off the beaten path. This will mean more hours of gameplay and more fun with your efforts.
Puzzling puzzles that are fun
You can’t have an Indiana Jones game or movie without some mystery and puzzles. The guy is a professor, so he must show off his brains to balance out the brawn, right? Well, puzzles help to balance that out, and they help to extend the gameplay quite a bit, as some of the puzzles in this game are straight-up time-consuming. For example, there is a level where you must navigate an inferno with multiple solutions to get to the next piece of the story. This level, which I don’t want to dive into too much because I’ll give away things, took about 45 minutes to fully complete. It was an early piece of the game, and the puzzle pieces were entertaining to navigate and solve.
Most of the puzzles you run into are difficult enough to challenge you but not frustrating enough to feel like they’re wasting your time. And all of them could be straight out of an Indiana Jones adventure, as they are intelligent and intriguing, all with big payoffs. I appreciate the amount of time and effort that went into not only creating good puzzles that vary depending on what you’re trying to do but also how they fit into the overall story.
It’s just another cog in this game’s machine.
Presentation
On the presentation side of things, let’s talk about acting, music, and visuals. Starting with our main character, Troy Baker knocked his portrayal of Indiana Jones out of the ballpark. He sounds like Harrison Ford acts like him and just embodies this titular character. It’s a fantastic performance and doesn’t miss a beat with all aspects of his performance.
As with Baker, the rest of the cast did a wonderful job of bringing the story to life. All the characters you run into, the side characters you tangle with, and even the minor characters you might constantly beat up, bring their acting ‘A’ game to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I enjoyed everyone’s performance and thought they all watched the movies and understood the type of characters that exist within an Indiana Jones world. Their performances complement the story perfectly.
On the visual side of the tracks, the PlayStation 5 excels. The game looks gorgeous on the platform and features all kinds of lighting and environmental details. It’s on the same visual delivery level as the Xbox Series X version of the game. If you own a PS5 Pro version of the system, then you get some additional enhancements to push it beyond both previously mentioned platforms. Does the latter change the experience or the story? Nope, but it sure does look good.
The final piece to the presentation puzzle is the sound. The sound is remarkable and John Williams-like. The music will put you in the Indiana Jones mood from the opening scene. The sound effects from the films have also been brought over, including, and I know I mentioned this earlier but it’s worth saying again, the punching sounds. They will trigger some core memories of the movies.
Anyway, the presentation for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is outstanding.
On that sweet note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from developer MachineGames and publisher Bethesda Softworks brings the Indiana Jones world to life with a great story and fantastically designed game.
