There’s a lot working against Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as the game approaches its release to the world in just six weeks. Despite their exhaustive list of studios, there’s a seeming lack of goodwill around Xbox’s first-party portfolio, and there’s a portion of the audience who’d turn their nose up at the idea of a first-person action-adventure Indiana Jones game.
However, in a world where Nathan Drake has lived his life of adventure, dominating that third-person space, I think it was the only choice. And thanks to the pedigree at MachineGames, which includes staff who worked on both Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness, I’d say they’ve got top men (and women, of course) hard at work. Better still, the game’s elevator pitch all along was to put players in both the shoes and fedora of Indy as he goes on one of his signature, globetrotting adventures.
Based on the time I’ve spent with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I have to believe fortune and glory await those helming this authentic, charming adventure.
Slotting tidily in between the stories of Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, this original story picks up with the theft of an artefact from Marshall College’s campus drives Indiana, still licking his wounds after separating from his fiancée Marion, towards the danger of a new campaign that sees the doctor, as always, making it up as he goes. His investigation leads him to key historical sites around the globe, our demonstration alone took us from Rome to Egypt, as he stumbles across the fact all of these places are aligned around the globe by a perfect circle—a great circle, if you will.
The Great Circle, straight from the jump, has the special sauce that makes it feel cinematic and, more importantly, totally consistent with the films. It’s clear that the people involved have a care and love for the source material. Troy Baker might be everywhere, but his performance, which sees him emulating Harrison Ford’s own, wry cadence, feels studious and selfless. I’m sure there was part of Baker who’d have loved to make this Indy his own, however, his willingness to put that aside to pay homage and find the fire Ford himself no longer has in his belly, is admirable.
The first portion of our hands-on saw us acting as the unfortunate first responder to the Marshall College break-in, which pits Indiana Jones against a towering giant, modelled after the great Tony Todd as he attempts to defend the artefacts. Ultimately, he’s outmuscled and wakes hours later to piece together the motivations behind the theft. Being early on, it’s a pretty simple matching game that begets a revelation that points the way to Rome. That said, watching it unfold through Indiana’s naturally inquisitive lens, it stands as proof that piecing together this conspiracy and toppling the burgeoning Axis forces, is going to take much more than just brawn, it’ll take the professor’s brain too.
I’d not thought much of how gameplay looked during the short previews we’d seen prior to getting a hold of the sticks. Thankfully, having gone hands-on, it has all become a bit clearer. Indiana Jones might be brave in the face of danger, but he’s ultimately a guy. He’s armed with a whip, a leather jacket with a matching journal, and a thirst for knowledge. He can trade blows when required, but no one would describe Indy as a marksman. While it almost stands opposed to everything MachineGames achieved with Wolfenstein, a game where you shoot a lot of shit, I do believe they do an unbelievable job at making you feel like you’re Indiana Jones.
So much of the team’s pedigree bleeds through in the hand-to-hand combat alone. It’s slow, deliberate, and calls to mind Escape from Butcher Bay, which gave heft to the prison fights you’d get into. As a scrappy pugilist, Indy can also pick up most anything not bolted down and brandish it against the Nazis in your path. As I neared the Vatican, I trashed more guitars than Pete Townsend. The enemies you snot drop guns both big and small, however, they’re very much a means of last resort as the rat-a-tat-tat of machine gun fire is nothing more than an invitation for opposing forces to swarm in greater numbers than you can handle. Despite being one of the best in the business at developing run-and-gun, Indiana Jones flips the script and feels more like a gun-then-run setup.
So it’s always a good idea to keep a low profile, which you can do by finding disguises that’ll help you blend in with the locals. After the disappointment with how Star Wars Outlaws handled stealth and all of its fail states, I was glad that Indiana Jones is simply allowed to comedically bungle his attempt at subterfuge because, as we all know, to err is human. So if you cock up and miss wrapping a shovel around a Nazi’s head or a captain sees right through your get-up, going loud is a more than viable last-ditch effort.
Much like his famous fedora, Indy’s whip is very much function over fashion. It’s the player’s multi-tool in this big, scoped-out romp around the globe. It’s the great equaliser in combat whether you’re disarming enemies or seating them on their rear, it helps you swing across insurmountable gaps, and even rappel into crypts to do a bit of old-fashioned treasure hunting. And although it thankfully can’t be used to harm animals directly, a well-placed whip crack can even be used to scare off patrolling Nazi attack dogs.
In terms of how each location is handled, Indiana Jones appears to deliver open zone exploration rather than curated, linear stages. Both Vatican and Gizeh, home of the Great Pyramids, both felt broad in scope, though it was the latter that felt like it benefited most from multiple pathing options through its map as you plumb the depths of the Nazi’s excavation of the Sphinx. Of course, it’s the main adventure and its story that brings you to these places, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a wealth of things to do and see. Each area has a heap of side quests, referred to in-world as “fieldwork”, and Indy’s curiosity will naturally lead him to more than a few age-old mysteries to unravel.
You’re able to document key points of your investigation, as well as general curios like your local contact’s pet snake Osiris, using Indy’s camera. Most everything you capture rewards you with ‘adventure points’ which, unsurprisingly, tie into the game’s upgrade systems. Similar to The Last of Us, and in an effort to avoid messy skill trees, Indiana Jones tucks its titular hero’s upgrades behind the discovery of books scattered in the world. One such upgrade I found was called Lucky Hat, it lets the downed player crawl about in an attempt to collect and dust off his fedora, deliver a trademark smirk and use a bit of that plucky resilience Indy is known for.
Locking down the use of Harrison Ford’s likeness aside, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle manages to nail the iconic Indy presentation. The game is truly beautiful, and the team pored over every small detail in each of the locations. Marshall College’s walls are adorned with certificates, its cabinets full of priceless wares, and its shelves bowing with textbooks, and where you’d expect a generic placeholder asset to litter the shelves, several unique, titled books sit, beckoning as though their spines were ripe for cracking. The team has also done magnificent work with lighting and shadow, especially when Indy’s lighter sparks to life in a spider-infested Egyptian tomb, and manages to dimly light the thought-lost features of the treasure trove you’re exhuming. Not only are the visuals up there, but each moment is made better for every small, nostalgic swell of John Williams’ legendary score.
After a couple of hours going hands-on with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I’ve not only gone back to revisit the films thanks to a revitalised want for adventure, I’ve come away unexpectedly high on the project after spending so long unconvinced. Not only was I unequivocally wrong to doubt MachineGames, as their care for this IP seems second to none, but they’re set to deliver the Uncharted that team Xbox has needed, albeit through a much different lens.
Indy once professed that “X never, ever marks the spot.”
This summer, for a short time at least given the limited exclusivity, Xbox does mark the spot for what will be one of the year’s hottest action-adventure games.