Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Surprised Me

By Bethesda - Steam cover https://steamdb.info/app/2677660/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75847090

I finished playing the newest Indiana Jones video game: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and this game was such a surprise to me. The developers of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are MachineGames (best known for making the latest Wolfenstein titles), and I thought they were the best studio to create a new Indiana Jones title. Most people know Indiana Jones for the classic movies in the 1980s, but there have been many Indiana Jones video games as well. The last Indiana Jones game I remember playing was Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb on the Xbox around 20 years ago (maybe this game is worth revisiting). With that said, here are my thoughts on the newest Indiana Jones video game.

Right off the bat, the best thing about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are the visuals and cinematics, and this was evident right from the opening cutscene. I was playing this game on my PC, and my PC does not have the most powerful parts, but the graphics looked sensational. Watching the cutscenes felt like I watching an Indiana Jones movie, and it is rare that the graphics and visuals are almost exactly like the game previews. One thing I found particularly impressive in this game is how realistic the shadowing and the lighting is. It is something that you must see to believe, but Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has some of the best shadow and lighting effects I have seen in a video game.

I would categorize Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as an adventure-mystery game, with a focus on exploration, puzzle-solving, and even hand-to-hand combat. I was surprisingly impressed with how enjoyable and clean the combat mechanics are. I also used a gun maybe around ten times throughout the course of my play-through. It is also no surprise that this game nails the atmosphere of being in the Indiana Jones universe, with the dry, slapstick humour and globetrotting to solve mysteries. I am also happy that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is nowhere near as action-focused as an Uncharted or Tomb Raider game, and it felt more grounded and believable. This means that the Indiana Jones video game franchise can carve out its own niche of adventure and mystery in video games.

The only negative I can say about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is that this game does have its fair share of glitches, which I am sure the developers will fix in future updates. One example of a glitch I would see is that there are icons on the map to collect items, but when you go to that location, the item is not actually there.

I did not expect Indiana Jones and the Great Circle to be as good as it was. This is a seriously excellent game and it is one of my early contenders for the best game I played in 2025. This game also bodes well for future Indiana Jones video games because movie studios cannot keep trotting out Harrison Ford every time they want to make another Indiana Jones movie. This game is a must-play not just because of everything I mentioned, but who does not want to beat up Nazis?