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REVIEW: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Action, adventure, and lots of whip-crackin' make The Great Circle a blast.

By Keith Langston

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle™. Screenshot courtesy of Xbox and Bethesda Games.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle™. Screenshot courtesy of Xbox and Bethesda Games. /
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Bethesda and MachineGames have finally launched the long-awaited Indy game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The game is debuting on Xbox and PC before receiving a PS5 port next year. For anyone in a hurry, the TLDR is that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a fantastic game that manages to live up to the massive hype surrounding it (which is not an easy task for games these days). Here’s a completely spoiler-free review about why I thoroughly enjoyed playing The Great Circle and why I think it’s the type of proper AAA game we’ve all been waiting for.

The Graphics and Music Are Fantastic 

First and foremost, the game looks gorgeous. The ninth generation has been filled with gamers wondering how much advancement really happened between the eighth and ninth gen, since so many games these days look and feel the same as games that came out almost a decade ago. The Great Circle on the other hand is lush, crips, stunning, and vivid. The graphics, the lighting and shadows, the colors…it all just looks perfect. 

The soundtrack is also fantastic and was composed by Grammy-winning composer Gordy Haab, who is best known for doing the soundtracks for numerous Star Wars games. The Great Circle’s score is heavily inspired by John Williams and fits perfectly within the Indy universe.

Indiana Jones on a boat in the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle™. Screenshot courtesy of Xbox and Bethesda Games. /

The Game Has a Variety of Play Styles 

One of the biggest pitfalls for video games is finding a mechanic and then revolving the entire game around it. The repetition usually ends up boring me and after a few hours I don’t care enough to keep playing. 

But in The Great Circle, you get to build your own playing experience. You can sneak past enemies, or throw bottles to distract them, or even pick up a shovel and bash your way through. And this isn’t a one-size-fits-all rule either. You can stealth through some parts and bash your way through others. The game lets you create the Indy story you want, and for me, that was really cool and kept everything really fun.

Cracking the whip in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle™. Screenshot courtesy of Xbox and Bethesda Games. /

The Environment Felt Real and Alive

The little details in the environment also made the game feel so much more real and vivid than most other games. For example, each object has its own uses and physics. If you pick up a wine bottle as a weapon, you’ll need to strike a bad guy with it way more than if you picked up a hammer, a bat, or even a guitar. Everything in the world has its own weight and strength, making decisions matter. 

I learned this the hard way when I picked up a rifle, thinking I’d just shoot some guys rather than get too close. But the sound from the rifle altered every enemy in the area and suddenly I was surrounded by nine enemies and had to blast my way through. That kind of unexpected realism really makes the game exciting and memorable. 

The Verdict 

Whereas many AAA games have felt underwhelming lately, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was a total blast. It has great action alongside an epic journey, all within a lush and gorgeous world. The game could have felt like some Tomb Raider or Uncharted clone using Indy as a cheap way to earn sales… but Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was excellent to play and proved that Indy is still the king of the adventure genre. 

Rating: 9/10