Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review: This is cinema

Movie tie-in games are almost never anything special, so my initial assessment was to write this one off as well, seeing that I am not even a huge Indiana Jones fan. The three things that made me change my mind are in order of importance the following: the developer, the fact it was on game pass, and good word-of-mouth.

MachineGames' Wolfenstein games (Youngblood excluded, obviously) are some of my favorite shooters, mostly due to their specific style. They are not taking themselves too seriously but somehow do that without being ridiculous, the gameplay loop is extremely strong and engaging and their cinematics are top notch.

This game mostly maintains that flair, but does so while feeling distinctly different. The pacing of Wolfenstein would have been misused here and I am glad that they did not go for the same vibe. This is generally a more tactical and stealth-oriented experience, with a lot less bombastic set pieces and a lot more tomb raiding (in the actual sense of the word, no relation to the video game series :D).

The plot also feels a lot more character-centric than previous MachineGames instalments, where the focus was more on the action. In this game most of the intrigue comes from the bonds between Indiana and the people he meets along the way, both friends and foes alike. I would like to give a special mention to the voice acting and performance capture in this game, as they are both exceptional.

Troy Baker as Indiana Jones is not something I ever thought could fit, but as always, Troy absolutely delivers. This guy is the voice of so many roles (seriously, look it up) and yet somehow, I never think "oh, this is obviously just Troy Baker". His performance as Indiana Jones leaves nothing to be desired (with the only exception is his over-use of the iconic Harrison Ford finger-pointing in the beginning acts of the game) and the rest of the cast is at a similarly high-level.

Facial animations and micro-expressions are also very much on point for the entire cast, therefore it skirts around the usual uncanny-valley effect you usually get when trying to bring real actor faces into video games, especially when you cannot scan their age-appropriate face and performance directly (an example of this would be Death Stranding, where each character is mostly scanned at their current age and motion captured by themselves).

Technologically, this game is once again excellent. The custom fork of the id Tech engine impresses with excellent environment detail at a very reasonable performance level (with one exception being the requirement of hardware Ray Tracing on your GPU, because of the lighting model).

This engine really puts Unreal Engine 5 to shame in terms of performance/features ratio and I only wish we'll somehow see more of it, at least from Bethesda-published games. Fully ray traced lighting is also an option at a heavy performance cost, but the option is extremely welcome, though not entirely necessary as the game already looks amazing without it. A single word of warning in terms of performance is VRAM requirements. Playing this game on an 8GB GPU is extremely problematic for resolutions above 1080p, and 12GB is the sweet spot for 1440p. At 4k, 16GB would be best. Failing to comply with these requirements will incur a huge performance penalty.

Story

I dwelled on the technical aspects of this game because I think those are the most remarkable. The rest of the package is quite decent as well, but does not manage to stand out in today's gaming landscape. As I said previously, the focus is on the relationships Indy develops with the rest of the cast, but I don't feel like any of the characters are generally multi-dimensional. Gina is faultlessly good, Voss is inexcusably evil and the only character that shows true change is Locus, whose appearances are sadly episodic.

The plot is decidedly Indiana Jones as well, with the focus being on artefacts with world-altering power that are very nearly falling into the wrong hands. The location variety is extremely strong however, and that's one thing that deserves praise. Side quests as well usually tie into the main story quite nicely without ever feeling like you are missing something if you don't do them. There's also an assortment of collect-the-item quests that I did not bother with :P.

Gameplay

The offering here can be very different from the usually run-and-gun style of previous MachineGames titles. Depending on how you play, the game can be very stealth-focused or very action-packed. The nudge is generally towards the former, as enemies can easily overwhelm you if you alert the entire base, especially as you are not at all resilient when it comes to taking bodily punishment. There are guns in this game, but their ammo is constrained to a single-mag and these weapons are usually in the hands of the enemy, so you must first disarm them before you are able to get some firepower.

Stealth is unfortunately underwhelming for such a stealth-focused games, with most enemies being incredibly slow to spot you, and even less skilled at punishing you for being spotted. Therefore, for my last few hours in the game when I was confronted with yet another enemy base, I usually beelined towards the objective, trusting I will survive the occasional enemy detection while sprinting at full blast. On very rare occasions was I confronted with a situation in which this approach was not viable, and I don't really think that should be the case on medium difficulty.

Other than that, there's a multitude of puzzle-based dungeons, but these puzzles are rarely complex enough to warrant significant brainpower (at least if you have played something like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time).

Conclusion

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is overall a fun experience, with some truly remarkable technical achievements and decent gameplay and story. One of the better AAA efforts of 2024 and worth a try if you're into the Indiana Jones universe or looking for some engaging eye candy. That being said, I don't think it rises to the highs of the best Wolfenstein games, but that's a pretty high bar to clear.