Indiana Jones and The Missed Opportunity
I love Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade. I like the other two in the trilogy quite a bit but along with being one of my favorite Spielberg films, it's all around one of my favorite films. It has incredible set piece after incredible set piece- Venice boat chase, motorcycle chase, zeppelin escape and the epic Nazi tank fight. I can go on. Last Crusade is also very funny. Denholm Eliot (RIP) and John Rhys-Davies bring much needed levity and wacky humor. Sean Connery comes in about halfway through the movie and steals the show as Indy's father. The ending scene with Indiana, Henry, Marcus and Sallah riding off into the sunset always brings tears to my eyes. Illumination! It was a perfect sendoff to a truly excellent trilogy.
That was supposed to be it. At least film wise. There have been other Indy media. I've recently purchased several books that expand on Indy's adventures. There was the TV show, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, which is sadly no longer streaming anywhere. I won't delve into it too much, but Indiana Jones returned. Twice. With two forgettable films that ruined the series' perfect ending in Last Crusade.
To bring us to the topic at hand, there were also Indiana Jones videogames. The most notable were point & click adventure PC games. There was also a Lego Indiana Jones game that came included on my first Xbox 360. I played it briefly but couldn't get past the fact I was controlling a Lego character.
In 2021, MachineGames, developers of the very good but not great Wolfenstein reboot games, announced they were developing a new action adventure game starring the man in the hat. I was excited! Good developer! Classic IP! Hopes were indeed high.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle released on December 9, 2024, two days after I got married. I didn't get around to playing till about a year after. I don't typically play games at launch for two reasons: Games continually get patched and updated for many months post launch. The other reason- a story based DLC, The Order of Giants was announced for release and that came out in October 2025.
Enough preamble- let's get to what I liked and didn't like about Indy's new adventure.
The Look, Feel and Sound of Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle looks, feels and sounds incredible. MachineGames did an excellent job fully realizing the aesthetics of an authentic Indiana Jones adventure. The locales from Rome to the pyramids of Egypt to Thai jungles are drawn and animated in exquisite fashion. Character models and animations are top notch, matching the high water marks of this generation including The Calisto Protocol and Alan Wake 2.
Like his previous adventures, The Great Circle is heavily reliant on his trusty bull whip and hand to hand melee combat. There are guns but ammo is scarce and gunfire typically attracts more enemies to your location. So Indiana relies on his fists and an assortment of melee weapons- guitars, shovels, wine bottles and hammers to name a few. These melee weapons have varying degrees of durability but along with his fists and whip they are all quite satisfying to use. The snap of the whip, the crack of a punch and the smash of a weapon on an opposing enemy just never got old. I went out of my way to engage with enemies because the melee combat was that satisfying. Like his film adventures, the combat has a certain slapstick/cartoony feel. There is danger but you're never in doubt who has the upper hand.
Like a lot of legacy sequels of the last fifteen years, The Great Circle is heavily reliant on lazy nostalgia and fan service. Here a few examples: The game is set in Italy and Egypt- just like the best two films were. Nazis are the primary villains. Again. The MacGuffin Indy seeks turns out to be an ancient Old Testament artifact. Again. Overall The Great Circle is a lazy microwave reheat of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Indiana Jones and the Nazi party are both after the same biblical artifact that has supernatural powers. Like Alien: Romulus and others before it, The Great Circle resurrects a deceased actor to use their likeness, this time with Denholm Elliott's Marcus Brody. From what I can recall (thanks marijuana), Marcus is in the first section of the game and never returns after. MachineGames could have and should have used completely new university official/friend of Indy for the opening University section. I will never understand the reasoning of animating deceased actors in media created after an actor's actual death. It's a horrible trend that deserves all the backlash and condemnation it rightfully deserves.
If you watch any film from the classic trilogy, you experience a classic Hollywood action adventure. Thrilling set piece after set piece, witty banter, a dash of romance, some puzzle/artifact searching sequences, but overall a rollicking adventure from the Paramount logo to credits roll. Sadly, The Great Circle gameplay loop mainly consists of walking across large semi-open world maps, looking for artifacts and solving frustating inane puzzles. In the middle of the story, there is one section set in Shanghai with chases, airplane dog fights and shootouts that harken back to the classic films and remind you of why Indiana Jones means so much to so many people, across generations.
Much to its detriment, The Great Circle is a first person game. I can't help but think MachineGames got caught up in trying to differentiate itself from the Uncharted and Tomb Raider franchises, games that wouldn't exist without Indiana Jones. They tried too hard to be different, instead of focusing on what would make the game better. The first person perspective leads awkward and unwieldy moments traversing the game's landscapes. It's especially odd when the camera pulls back to a third person perspective, giving players a glimpse of what the game would look and feel like.
The current rumor and innuendo is that MachineGames is returning to develop a new game in the Wolfenstein franchise and this will be our only adventure as Indiana Jones. It's for the best, I'm sure.
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