2024 may not have been a great year for games, but there is one game that surpassed everything and it is my Game of the Year. Yes, gamers, I’m talking about Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, The first Xbox exclusive that is nearly perfect! I don’t know if Xbox has ever had an exclusive game that was perfect. Still, I can honestly say that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle beat out all of their exclusives to date… yes, even beat the Halo games Developed by Machine Gun and published by Bethesda, this game is the Indiana Jones story that we should have had in the form of a movie after the Last Crusade. If you’re an Indiana Jones fan like me, you’ve probably been disappointed with the last two films and I hate to admit it, but Harrison Ford did age out of the role. However, the story of the Great Circle is exactly what we always want in an Indiana Jones story. Even though it is not set after the events of the Last Crusade, it’s actually set a year after Raiders of the Lost Ark, this is a perfect Indiana Jones adventure. The more I played the game, the more I just wanted to watch this movie! The cut-scenes as a film are better than anything we’ve gotten with Indiana Jones since the third movie. And it makes it even better that we get to play this adventure. There’s been other good Indiana Jones games, but not quite like this one. If you’re a fan of adventure games like Tomb Raider or Uncharted then this is the perfect game for you but with our favorite archaeologists who always defeat the Nazis at every turn! Sure, my nostalgia for Indiana Jones stories may affect how critical I am of this game and it’s hard not to feel the nostalgia of a classic Indiana Jones story, but the rest assured, I’m still going to be very critical and talk about what I hope the developers improve if they ever make a sequel, and they should!
So let’s dive in! First of all, the story is amazing. It’s a great adventure across the globe with lots of puzzle-solving and a story rooted in religious and mystic lore that doesn’t seem so hokey. Sorry, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, it’s hard to throw in alien technology with Indiana Jones and make it believable. An Indiana Jones story should not be an X-Files episode. But the story of the Great Circle has just the right amount of mysticism that connects to religious stories the same as the Last Crusade or Raiders of the Lost Ark. I very much enjoyed this story because like a good adventure game, you get to go to different places. It didn’t just take us to the Vatican or out in Giza. Being transported to wartorn Shanghai was a really cool part of the adventure. But let’s be honest, a great Indiana Jones story always has religious zealots and mystics, and a great enemy. So of course Indiana Jones battling Nazis makes for a great story. But one of the things that I truly loved about the story in this game is that he meets a female protagonist who can keep up with him. The story is set in 1937 and Marion Ravenwood has already left him. They touch on that at the beginning of the game and it adds another emotional layer to the story. But they did add a great female protagonist Who very much keeps up with Indiana Jones in the form of a journalist looking for her sister who somehow got conned into working with the Nazis. Gina is a great character and very reminiscent of Marion. And like in all great Indiana Jones stories, you have to have a good female protagonist especially if Marion Ravenwood is not going to be part of the story. There are certainly some similarities to Raiders of the Lost Ark especially with the evil Nazi scientist who wants to use some mystic power to control the world. The character of Voss is a great antagonist and the final boss fight against him at the end of the game is amazing! So the developers definitely came up with a great story and that’s the first part in making a fantastic Indiana Jones game. Like I said, I want to watch this story as a movie because even if we didn’t get to play the adventure it would make one hell of an Indiana Jones movie even in animation form! I have to admit, the story is damn near perfect just like Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade.
My biggest criticism of the game is with the gameplay. I love the puzzle-solving just like in a Tomb Raider game or Uncharted game. I love the fact you constantly have to use the whip to scale walls or bring down stuff that will help you continue the adventure. I love the fact that you can use the whip as a weapon and take weapons away from Nazis. The whip is so iconic with Indiana Jones that having to use it to use it throughout the game are the best parts of the gameplay. I make a lot of comparisons to Tomb Raider and the Uncharted games because those are easily two franchises that are built upon adventure and forms of archeology so it’s only natural that the developers of this game would mimic a lot of things from familiar adventure games such as Tomb Raider and Uncharted. If you’re a huge fan of those franchises then it’s not hard to like the Indiana Jones game. But here is where they got it wrong with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The best adventure games are always done in a third-person point of view. The Tomb Raider and the Uncharted games are perfect examples. I don’t understand the reasoning for doing this game as a first-person point-of-view action game when all of the cut-scenes and some of the puzzle-solving scenes are a third-person point of view. It makes it very confusing and makes the combat a little bit more difficult. I am not saying that a first-person point-of-view game can’t have good gameplay, but that is mostly reserved first-person shooters nowadays. I can’t remember the last adventure game where it was a first-person point of view. I don’t think it takes away from the Indiana Jones game overall, but it is very confusing going back and forth and makes it feel strange, especially with all the stealth actions you have to complete the game. You can’t just take on the Nazis and survive, there is a lot of sneaking around, and shifting between the first-person’s point of view to the third-person is very cumbersome. If the developers had been smart, they would have included an option where you can switch between first-person and third-person points of view. I think most gamers would have chosen third-person because that’s what We have been used to over the last 20 to 25 years in gaming. I would have preferred the third-person point of view like previous Indian Jones games. This limited the gameplay and made some of the actions in combat more problematic than it should have been. It’s a big misstep that can easily be corrected in a sequel by either just making it a third-person point of view or giving the gamer the option to choose between both.
The stealth action was actually really good. n fact the hardest part of the game for me was infiltrating a Nazi base and stealing gold to buy a breathing device to go underwater. You can’t fight your way out of that base, you constantly have to sneak around and time everything just right when knocking out the guards. But the stealth takedowns weren’t as smooth like other games such as Uncharted, Tomb Raider, or Assassin’s Creed which is built upon stealth action in the gameplay. Again this is an easy fix by allowing the gamer to choose what point of view they want to play the game. But the fact that Indiana Jones can’t just fight his way out of everything and has to sneak around and put on disguises, that’s One of the best parts of the game. Roaming around the Vatican in disguise made the game a lot of fun. But then again fighting Nazis is always fun as well. I am critical of the hand-to-hand combat and being able to parry. Older games like the first couple of Uncharted games seem to have smoother hand-to-hand combat. Perhaps this can change with the option to switch between a first-person point of view and a third-person point of view I know it seems like I’m harping on this one issue, but its really the biggest flaw of the Indiana Jones game. I feel like in a lot of ways this game would have been absolutely perfect if it weren’t for this flaw.
The only other critical issue that I had with the game is being able to take down bad guys with one blow. Having to hold the left trigger button down to have a forceful punch or blow and even when that didn’t work but should have especially if you’re using a big rock hammer to knock someone out, it gets extremely irritating when you’re trying to knock someone out from a heavy blow and then you end up having to fight them which will alert other guards. Takedowns should be simple and smooth just like in Tomb Raider. And if you want to get down to it, Uncharted 4 really mastered being able to quietly take down guards with your bare hands. They actually improved upon the “takedown” from the first Uncharted game to the fourth one. This is something that the developers can improve with a sequel. Now it doesn’t take away from playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, It just makes the game harder than it should be. But once you’ve mastered it, your second play-through shouldn’t be as difficult.
Overall, this is a great game with a few minor critiques. I won’t give it a perfect score, but there’s an awful lot to love about Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. Not only is it the best Indiana Jones video game we’ve ever gotten, it’s the perfect adventure story that should have been a movie, but perhaps is more fun to play if you’re an Indiana Jones fan. I have to praise Troy Baker for voicing Indiana Jones. It’s no small feat walking in those shoes and he very much sounds like Harrison Ford. The performances of the game are fantastic especially that of Tony Todd. This was his last official video game performance before his death in 2024 and he was fantastic. He will truly be missed. If this game proves anything then the continuation of Indiana Jones adventures is not in movies anymore or even on the small screen, it’s in video games. MachineGames has proven that you can make a great Indiana Jones venture that is better to play than anything that we would see on the big screen. And if I’m being honest I’d rather replay this game than watch Kingdom of the Crystal Skull or The Dial of Destiny, two movies that probably never should have been made.
I will forever love the first three Indiana Jones movies, but the best Indiana Jones adventures now are the ones we get to play. If you love the Tomb Raider games and the Uncharted games then You absolutely must play this game. You will not be disappointed. I know some critics are going to be overly critical for the sake of being a critic. I also know some other critics will give in to their nostalgia for Indiana Jones. Yes, I have a lot of nostalgia for the character, but I’m not afraid to criticize poor storytelling like in the last two movies. The developers got it right with this story and even if the gameplay isn’t perfect, the story outweighs any problems you might have with the gameplay. There are so many video games today that you’ll play through it once and you may not even complete it, and you certainly won’t go back to replay the game. Not Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It definitely has a lot of great replay value. At the time of this review being published, I’m ready to play it again. It’s been one of my favorite games over the last 10 years. It is certainly my 2024 game of the year! The developers put a lot of love into Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Their love for the character and good storytelling is very evident. Yes, it’s not perfect, but it’s close especially the way the game starts and ends, and feels exactly like an Indiana Jones movie. I got goosebumps when I heard The theme song for the first time in the game and hearing it at the end during the credits almost brought tears to my eyes. If you’re a fan of Indiana Jones, you’ll probably have the same experience. And while I hope the developers change the point of view in the gameplay for the sequel or at least give us an update to where we can choose from first person to third person in this game, those minor criticisms Don’t overshadow the awesomeness of the game. I can be overly critical, it’s true, but I had So much fun playing this game that I have to give the game a 9. The fun we have in a video game always outweighs the criticisms we have of that game. And that’s why I rate this game as high as I do. I can’t ignore how much fun I had and how much I want to play the game again. And I can’t wait to play another Indiana Jones adventure.
