Video games based on movies can be excellent, but they rarely push the envelope when it comes to gameplay, graphics, or even the storyline. However, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle breaks that mold by capturing the essence of the films while also being a fun game.
We’ve made every effort to discuss Indiana Jones and the Great Circle without giving away any spoilers. However, if you’re particularly sensitive to spoilers, we recommend bookmarking this article and returning after you’ve completed the game.
1
Excellent Graphics (Without Sacrificing the Frame Rate)
You might have heard in the news that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the first game to require ray-tracing as a minimum specification. The game’s minimum system requirements for the game include NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER, AMD Radeon RX 6600, and Intel Arc A580.
This decision has sparked frustration among gamers, as the developers could have made ray-tracing optional, allowing those with older hardware to play. For instance, if you own an older but capable GPU like the NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti (which lacks ray-tracing support) you won’t be able to run the game.
Setting that ambitious requirement aside, this game looks absolutely stunning and, more importantly, it runs well. The high-resolution texture pack in combination with the ray-traced lighting and detailed models make this game look unlike anything else.
This is the first game I’ve finished on my new PC, which is powered by a mid-range AMD RX 6800 XT, and I was getting 80–100 FPS in most scenarios, despite running the game at maximum settings and a resolution of 1440p, without using upscaling or frame generation.
2
Hours of Quality Cutscenes
If you’re going into Indiana Jones and the Great Circle without expecting a movie being secretly baked into the game, you’re in for a surprise. The game has well over three hours of cutscenes, so even if you don’t play through any of the side missions, you’re still bound to watch a feature-length film.
While this might sound overwhelming to some players who just want to get through the game, the good news is that the cutscenes are entertaining and well-written. Although the plot is filled with familiar tropes (as expected from an Indy adventure), I still enjoyed watching them, as they’re vital to the plot.
The voice acting, facial animations, and cinematography are all top-notch. Plus, the cutscenes are spread throughout the game, and most of them are only a few minutes in length at most.
The only downside is that the cutscenes are completely unskippable. Combined with the lack of quick saves to use between cutscenes, this can be frustrating. My game crashed a few times during a few specific cutscenes, meaning I had to watch them all over each time that happened.
3
Difficulty Settings That Matter
Difficulty settings in most games can be tough to figure out, but not in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The settings stay true to their word—for instance, if you want to play the game for the story, the light difficulty option will work great.
I like a tougher-than-average experience but also don’t want to spend hours grinding (which is why I don’t play souls-likes), and the hard difficulty setting did just that. Boss fights were punishing, so some took me more than ten tries, but it never got to the point that I’d rage-quit. Additionally, the game features expanded difficulty settings, so I ended up lowering the puzzle difficulty as I progressed.
4
No Resets When You Die
While having no quick save button is objectively bad, I still like how the game always keeps your inventory and vital stats consistent. For instance, I went through two locations without ever using my revolver, and when I finally had the chance to use it, it only had four bullets in the chamber instead of six.
Similarly, if you die, the game won’t restore you to full health. It can be frustrating if you forget to bandage up or eat before an unexpected boss fight, but it also raises the stakes, making the game all the more interesting. It adds an unexpected layer of resource management that I haven’t seen in many other mainstream AAA games.
Needless to say, I didn’t make the same mistake twice after the first major boss fight.
5
Horror Elements in a Non-horror Game
I’ve never been a fan of horror games or movies. The genre is just too scary and stressful for me to handle. However, I still enjoy elements of it, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a game that knows how to implement horror in small doses.
While I think they might have gone overboard by including two terrifying situations in the main story—so much so that some casual gamers might quit—I still appreciated the change of pace. These moments of heightened tension kept me on edge, followed by a huge sense of relief and satisfaction once I finally overcame them.
6
Power-Ups That Actually Matter
To upgrade Indy, you can’t just level up through normal activities as you play the game. Rather, you have to find Adventure Books sprinkled throughout the map and unlock them with Adventure Points, which function similarly to experience points. There are also health-related books that you can buy at the pharmacy using Medicine Bottles, which you can also find in various corners of the world.
Considering the game’s difficulty, this is a good way to handle upgrades, as it encourages exploration. It also helps the fact that many of these upgrades are quite meaningful and can change how you play the game altogether. Without additional health bars, Indy is an easy target, forcing you to sneak and take enemies from the back until you upgrade him enough to steamroll through them. I didn’t focus much on upgrades, which made the game significantly more challenging.
7
A Journal That You Want to Go Through
While many video games (particularly RPGs) love to include text-based content like books, notes, logs, and codexes, few of them have an implementation this good. The journal in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a core component of the game. After all, no archaeologist would be complete without one.
The game doesn’t hold your hand when it comes to finding quest objectives, so you’ll need to carefully reference the journal and Indy’s notes to progress through both main and side content. For example, if you come across a chest that requires a code to open, you’ll have to gather clues and read through your findings to figure it out. Unlike in most games, where journals often serve just to build lore, this one makes the reading experience itself feel rewarding.
You don’t even have access to local area maps until you search the area and find them. When you use a map, Indy pulls out his journal, deepening the immersion and adding another engaging layer to the gameplay.
8
Excellent Map Design and Pacing
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an adventure game, so much like the Uncharted series, it only makes sense that it takes you along a variety of different places around the globe. The distinctiveness of these locations enhances the experience, as it would feel monotonous to travel from one desert to another.
The game’s cold open sets you in Peru, followed by Indy’s workplace, Marshall College in Connecticut. However, the true open-world exploration begins in the Vatican, which is probably the most detailed and impressive section of the game.
Once you’re finished with the packed Vatican section, you’re transported to the wide, open area of Gizeh, Egypt. Exploring multiple open-world maps in a row can start to feel repetitive, but the game shifts gears by introducing smaller areas like the cold Himalayas and war-torn Shanghai, both of which are shorter in content.
The game culminates in the expansive Sukhothai region and finally Iraq. These varying landscapes keep the game exciting, so no area overstays its welcome.
9
Puzzles That Integrate Into the Story
I used to enjoy puzzles in games, particularly during The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim era. I didn’t play many games with puzzles before the 2010s, so it was a novel way to progress through content. However, when every game in existence started mixing puzzle elements into their games, it started to be annoying. Even if it makes sense from a narrative and gameplay perspective, puzzles often feel like a chore and aren’t satisfying to figure out on your own. Raise your hand if you go online every time you’re stuck on a puzzle.
While Indiana Jones and the Great Circle also has an unhealthy obsession with puzzles and traps, I can give it a pass because puzzles and traps are integral to the movie franchise’s identity. Plus, most of the puzzles in the game are well-thought-out and essential to advancing the story, rather than being relegated to side content.
Although the puzzles were challenging, I could solve most of them after spending a few minutes thinking them through. The only puzzle I struggled with was the Demon’s Tomb, but only because one of the key slots was bugged. I didn’t realize it was unsolvable until I reset the game.
10
Complete Freedom in Combat
This game places a lot of emphasis on stealth. Bottles, brooms, pots, and other non-lethal weapons that you can use to knock out enemies are easily accessible everywhere, all the time. However, the game never explicitly forces you to play that way. With enough bullets, you can go in guns blazing, though be prepared to get shot down if you’re not taking good angles. You can even find dynamite, ignite it, and throw it onto unsuspecting enemies.
That said, close combat is where the game truly shines. Brawling with enemies requires fast reaction times, counterattacks, blocks, and breaking their posture. You can also quickly grab a blunt weapon to improve your damage, which is exactly what someone would do in a real fight for survival.
11
The Main Menu Pre-Renders the Game
If you’ve played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, you’ve likely noticed that the game takes longer than usual to boot up. This delay occurs because the entire game pre-loads, allowing it to transition smoothly from the main menu to gameplay in an instant.
The background of the main menu even renders the last location you left Indy, creating a seamless experience. The atmosphere of the location sets a fitting tone for your upcoming session.
Going into Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I wasn’t expecting the game to include such a long list of new and innovative ideas, technologies, and techniques. While I’m aware that most of them (aside from the ray-tracing requirement) likely aren’t unique to the game, they’re all perfectly executed and polished. If you’re a fan of first-person stealth adventure games, this is a must-try.
