2024 was an absolutely awesome year to be a gamer. We had a ton of great releases, but I absolutely was not expecting an Indiana Jones game, let alone one from one of Bethesda’s studios!

The game turned out great too! I was expecting it to be good, but it absolutely turned my expectations into gravy as it beat them into a pulp. Read on to find out more!

Graphics & Audio

There’s no disappointment to be had with the graphics or audio design in the Great Circle! Seeing as MachineGames has a relatively steep hardware requirement. Part of the beautiful graphics’ requirements rely on ray tracing hardware. This makes for some truly fantastic looking vistas with realistic-looking lighting. However, users with older GPUs may suffer quite a bit. I played the game (and captured the screenshots in this article) with an RTX 4070 mobile (laptop) GPU with 8GB VRAM playing at 1080p. You’ll want plenty of VRAM for this title. My 8GB was barely cutting it, even at an older resolution like 1080p. However, as a true next generation title, I can’t fault it much. It looks amazing.

Character rigging and animations looks wonderful. Cutscenes are awesomely choreographed and truly make you feel like you’re watching a movie, let alone playing one! MachineGames did a truly awesome job bringing the characters to life, including some characters that are, unfortunately, no longer with us. There are plenty of moments where it really feels like I’m seeing an unreleased Spielburg classic.

The audio design is very good too. You’ll feel immersed in cities, tombs, and more as you explore your surroundings. I’m not sure if it was my headset or what, but the spatial audio is really on point here too. You’ll want a good headset too because it adds so much to your immersion, and this is one game that will truly suck you in!

Controls

What good is a game if it’s hard to play? Well fortunately for the Great Circle, it controls extremely smoothly. I didn’t try mouse and keyboard as this game isn’t much of a shooter, but I’ve heard those controls are fine. Controller support is great and works very well. I don’t recall ever screwing up an input or having weird buttons do certain actions.

Using the whip in combat or during exploration really made me feel like I was fighting and exploring as Indiana Jones. I did my best to recreate how he would explore combat. I think I only actually shot one enemy to death, and that was accidental. If I picked up ranged weapons, I always shifted them around to be used as melee weapons. Indy didn’t just go around blasting everyone!

The game features excellent melee combat. I feel like the shooting portion isn’t as deep, but that’s because Indy never really was one to shoot a lot. Ammo is pretty scarce, so you’ll get much farther by using stealth and melee tactics. Exploration is heavily rewarded with disguises that fool most of the enemies you’ll come across. Captains aren’t fooled as easily, so it’s best to stay away from them.

Story

The story is probably the biggest factor in getting hooked by this game for me. I couldn’t put it down during the two week break I had from school during the holidays. Taking place between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, and fits in really well. We follow our protagonist as he fights off fascists and Nazis to find the secret of the Great Circle with a bunch of smaller side stories like Gina’s sister’s whereabouts.

The story is enough to keep you engaged and (more importantly) feels like it came from the Indiana Jones timeline. It really fits in well with the other classic stories. Like a really good book, you’ll want to keep playing and see where things go, as I won’t be posting any spoilers here!

Characters feel good and fit in with their surroundings and time period. I can’t state enough just how well MachineGames handled this project. In true Indiana Jones fashion, Indy is shown amazing Biblical constructs with unimaginable powers, and of course, the Nazis want to take control of it to use in their effort to turn the tides of the war in their favor.

Closing Thoughts

I seriously can’t state enough how much I loved this game. As someone that grew up watching and loving the Indiana Jones movies with my grandmother, this game really felt like it fits in perfectly with those movies and captured so much of what I love from them. I’m truly happy and I absolutely feel like it’s worth the price of admission.

It’s also one of the very, very few games that I’ve bothered to 100% complete. I did everything I could and even got all the achievements. I truly didn’t want the game to end. I’m so grateful to MachineGames for bringing the Indiana Jones universe to life and capturing it so faithfully. I’m eagerly (not patiently) awaiting the DLC to see where things go! You can pick the game up on Xbox and PC, but keep in mind that if you’re buying on PC, you’ll want a relatively beefy rig! Happy gaming, everyone! Until next time!