Clueless fascists hamper Indiana Jones: The Great Circle's potential

REVIEW: A global romp that compliments the films, only let down by some janky moments and odd enemy AI.

Exotic locales, exotic enemy behaviour.

It's a shootout of true Indiana Jones proportions. Playing as the intrepid archaeologist, I'm hiding out in Giza on a small wooden platform secured to the side of the Sphinx, surrounded by Nazis. The few that are armed are gunning me down. The few that aren't, well, they're acting a bit peculiar.

I used my classic Indiana Jones whip to get to this platform. There's no way an ordinary Nazi can make it over, but it doesn't stop them from trying. They climb to the edge of the precipice and just stand there, throwing rocks at me. It's a little odd, and surprisingly effective, until I easily shoot one, and yank the other off the platform with my whip.

Thanks to some unusual enemy AI, moments like these are inevitable in Indiana Jones: The Great Circle, a video game adaptation of the George Lucas movie series. It's a first-person game that puts the well-known archaeologist on a globe-trotting adventure, akin to the films.

To check I wasn’t being unfair, I recreated the moment on the Sphinx. This time they stood around armed with digging tools, while the one — with a gun — to the left watches.

Set just before World War II, this game sees Indy explore the Vatican—while it's overrun with Mussolini's fascists—the ruins of The Great Pyramids in Giza—occupied by Nazis—and ancient temples of Siam—with some brief detours to the Himalayas and Shanghai.

Pulling away from what could easily be an Uncharted reboot but with Indiana Jones, the game ambitiously attempts to create its own genre, borrowing from quite a number of others. It's part puzzle-solver, part shooter, part brawler, part platformer and part stealth exploration game. This strange cocktail of mechanics is both one of its strengths, but sadly also leads to some slight weakness in the overall package.

Indiana Jones and the curious case of blending game mechanics

To better explain the game, I'm going to take a bit here to go through each mechanic, as there's quite a lot going on.

Exploring the waterways and channels of Siam by boat.

Let’s start with exploration. The maps are dense with secrets and clever puzzles, that will have you checking notes and other artefacts that you find on your travels. There's also plenty of collectables for those who are determined to explore every nook and cranny. Indy's whip plays a huge role in traversal in this game. It's used to climb, swing and pull, enhancing the platforming component of it. If there's one thing this game absolutely gets right, it's the map size. Each open area is dense enough that there's plenty to discover. But they are also small enough that it only takes minutes to move from one side of the map to the other. Fast travel is in the game, but it seldom feels necessary.

Stealth is generally where this game operates at its best. Indy can use everyday items, like brooms, bats and pans to brain fascists with ease. They usually give you a 10-second window in which to deal with them after being spotted; otherwise, they use a whistle to sound the alarm and turn every enemy in the vicinity on you. Eventually, Indy will find disguises in areas that allow him to circumvent most stealth components, aiding in preventing these mechanics from overstaying their welcome.

Indy also knows how to throw a punch. Hand-to-hand combat in this game is agile and easy to execute. The focus here is on blocking, dodging and waiting for an opening. The Nazis and fascists don't go down easy, and a few hits from them can floor you. Again, everyday objects are your best friend here—Indy is an absolute ninja with a broom.

This game isn’t short of incredible vistas.

But of course, something has to give. And in this case, it's the shooting. As a shooter, the game is a little sub-par. Aiming feels off compared to most modern shooters, and very limited ammunition often discourages you from going in guns blazing anyway. There's one portion of the game where you man a gun in a plane chase across Shanghai that feels particularly jarring due to slow aiming and grindy reload mechanics. Indy, evidently, isn't good with guns. But as part of an overall package, that's fine.

That leads to the greatest challenge of this game: creating enemies that can serve as a surmountable foil to Indy's arsenal. Not all enemies are armed. Some will just charge at you, regardless of whether you have a gun or not. Others will shoot you at point-blank range. As described earlier, others will stand at the edge of cliffs and throw rocks at you, with the full might of the Führer. '

This level of jankiness lends to the game's charm, but also perhaps holds it back from being a standout AAA title. Contrast it to The Last of Us 2, where enemies proactively and permanently changed their behaviour after spotting a body, or after seeing you. Here, if you hide for long enough, they'll pretend like you never existed in the first place, even if you deleted half of the Reich.

It's a tough critique. But when a title is priced at a AAA level ($120 AUD), I'm holding it to the level of other premium titles. A narrower scope would have likely led to a more polished product, but would have artificially limited what Indy—as guided by the movies—is capable of. This game explores all of his skills and should be commended for that.

A film that's been fully realised as a game

The classic map montage also makes it into the game.

If you are playing this game for the story, you won't be disappointed. There's conspiracy, intrigue and a love interest in Gina, a journalist on a quest to find her missing sister. The mystery behind the Great Circle will have you playing to see how it all ends.

The banter between Gina and Indy is a standout. There's care and chemistry between the pair that evolves over time, with performances given that are akin to any of the source material. On that, there's plenty of roundabout, comical fight cutscenes and tense moments that feel like they were ripped straight out of a film script. Here, that's a good thing.

Gina and Indy’s relationship finally heats up… as the game ends.

Speaking of films, the soundtrack is also attuned to the movies, sounding at times a little bit like a Star Wars score (à la George Lucas films). But it ultimately lends itself to what appears to be the goal: neatly transposing a film into a video game.

There's also a strong incentive here not to beeline the main game. In what is becoming a cliché, some of its best story moments are actually hidden in the side quests. But for those on a deadline, the game can be safely finished in under 15 hours, with a more expansive play-through bringing it up to around 30 hours.

This game was recently released on PlayStation, which is why I'm reviewing it now months after its Xbox release in December 2024. For the most part, it's a clean port. Yet for some reason the haptics of this title make my controller buckle and click uncontrollably at weird moments. Once Indy's done with the Great Circle, I might call him over to solve that one for me. It's very strange and I hope it's not breaking my PS5 controller.

Mysteries aside, I can't deny, however, that the game was an incredible global romp and one that Indiana Jones fans will cherish. Smarter Nazis and fascists may have elevated this already remarkable game, but perhaps that's a deeper criticism in and of itself.

Reviewed on: Playstation 5 Pro

Worth trying if you like: Uncharted, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, The Indiana Jones movies.

Available on: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft Windows