Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Bethesda Softworks
Uncover one of history’s greatest mysteries in a first-person, single-player adventure. The year is 1937, sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only one person can stop them!
THIS GAME BELONGS IN A MUSEUM!
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the latest game in the Indiana Jones series, and it’s fantastic. Developed by MachineGames, the renowned developer of the Wolfenstein series, and published by Bethesda. The Great Circle has a lot to offer. It has an original story based on the film series and spans different real-world locations using a mostly first-person perspective.
The Great Circle is set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, following Indiana Jones in a new story. In 1937, Indiana Jones attempts to stop various groups trying to harness a mysterious power connected to the Great Circle, a ring of ancient sites that form a perfect circle when connected together on a map.
It follows exactly from after Jones leaves his fiancee, Marion Ravenwood, and needs to go to the Vatican while investigating the theft of an artifact. He discovers that different sites of spiritual significance have been built through history and form a perfect circle across the world. Jones fears that a nazi archaeologist and occultist by the name of Emmerich Voss has discovered a secret that may unlock the Great Circle’es hidden power and set out on an epic journey to beat him to it.
This game has an incredible linear story that sends players on a treasure hunt around the world. It’s easily one of the best Indiana Jones stories. Completing the story should take around 17 hours, excluding the side missions.
Pros
One of the best story-rich games
Engaging puzzles with hints
Beautiful areas to explore
Fantastic soundtrack, vocals and sound effects
Perfectly fits the Indiana Jones aesthetic
Actually feels like a finished game
Cons
Stealth gameplay is very basic
Enemy AI is bad
Combat can get a little repetitive
High-end gaming PCs only
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a relatively slow-paced game that emphasizes story, exploration, stealth, and puzzles. While this game is mostly played in the first person, it does switch to the third person for specific gameplay actions such as climbing pipes or walls. This simple change makes navigating the game much easier without compromising the incredible view from the first-person perspective.
Combat is satisfying and keeps the classic Indiana Jones family-friendly roots with mostly melee combat that can be over-the-top. His bullwhip can disarm enemies, stun them and even grab their dropped weapon before hitting them with it. Guns are in the game, but using them will escalate fights and summon every armed enemy in the vicinity who will fire right back. Not using guns can lead to some hilarious moments where armed enemies forget they could pull out a gun and will only use melee combat instead.
Being a stealth-heavy game, wearing disguises is an option, but high-ranking enemies can see right through them and will immediately begin to attack. The stealth is a little basic, as enemies have limited vision and can be quite easy to sneak past. However, this is where the difficulty options shine. Enemy attributes are split into different categories that can be separately adjusted to better customize the game according to your needs.
While this is a linear story game, The Great Circle does contain many side missions. You can travel to previous areas, and the side missions can even be completed after the main adventure is over.
In conclusion we had a blast showcasing this on stream with ZOTAC GAMING and offline too. Its also worth noting that the developers, MachineGames have a great reputation for quickly fixing major and minor game bugs – quite rare these days I know! Queenie and I didn’t spot any but patches have already started to roll out for resolution issues. The hardest part people will find about this game is your PC needs to be beastly. MachinesGames and Bethesda are playing the long run here with state of the art graphics and top range sounds. I quickly discovered the settings presets went from Medium, High, Ultra and to a whopping SUPREME setting with all the incredible DLSS 3 and ray tracing effects you can find on a brand new graphics card!
If you’re looking to upgrade, you can get Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Digital Premium, worth £100 when you purchase a ZOTAC RTX 4000 series graphics card. Its the perfect time to update, head over to ZOTAC GAMING and see their bunch of Christmas offers!
Overall Rating
