What you need to know
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is available now for Deluxe Edition owners and for everyone else on Xbox and PC on December 9, 2024.
- The adventure game is akin to a long lost Indiana Jones movie, with an emphasis on puzzling, story, and stealthy combat.
- It has already picked up its first major patch, which contains a variety of polish and fixes.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is here, and it could mark the beginning of a new era for Xbox first-party games.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is developed by Machine Games of Wolfenstein fame, co-produced with Todd Howard of Bethesda Softworks (Elder Scrolls). The game revolves around The Great Circle myth, which is a long-standing theory that major spiritual sites throughout history were built in perfect alignment with a circumnavigable line across the surface of Earth. Indiana Jones and the Axis powers seem to have discovered that there may be more to this Great Circle than meets the eye.
In our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review, we offered strong praise for the game’s unique blend of adventuring, tactile puzzles, and “immersive sim” traditions. It’s not a full-blown first-person shooter like Machine Games’ previous titles, but instead challenges players to use their wits and sneaking skills to manage conflict. Indiana can throw a mean punch when necessary, though.
The game is generally polished, but has some performance issues on both Xbox and Windows PC, where it is currently a timed-exclusive until a PlayStation 5 version in 2025. To that end, Machine Games just revealed the first patch for the game. Full Ray Tracing has been added for NVIDIA GPUs on PC, although you’ll need a very beefy graphics card to get the most out of it.
The full patch notes are as follows.
New Features
Added Full Ray Tracing (Path Tracing) feature on supported NVIDIA video cards. A minimum of 12GB VRAM is required to make use of this feature. Please note that we’re also working to support AMD FSR in a future game update.
General
Fix for a rare crash that could occur while saving the game.
Fix for an issue where you could temporarily lose Pre-Order/Deluxe outfit entitlements.
Fix to ensure your photographs appear more quickly when inspecting them from the journal.
Gameplay
Fix for a broken animation that could occur if you equip the rebreather immediately upon jumping into water.
Fix for a situation where you may not be able to interact with objects temporarily if you tried to push an enemy with your revolver while stamina is exhausted.
Fix for an issue that could prevent you from being able to block punches while looking at a nearby pickup object.
Fix for issue where you may not be able to change your disguise after leaving the Sukhothai village via a fast-travel signpost.
Fix for several places where the whip may detach unexpectedly when swinging.
Fix for an issue where Indy’s legs may unexpectedly snap into place when swinging across the gap in the bridge in Nepal.
Fix to prevent enemies from being unaware of Indy when reloading a checkpoint made very close to soldiers that are guarding the entrance to a restricted location.
Fix for an issue that may result in Gina not appearing near your docked boat when expected.
Fix for camera shaking unexpectedly when dying to scorpions near the end of the Gizeh level.
Fix for an issue where first shot made from a temporary gun would be silent.
Fix for an issue where enemies may have a delayed response after you have stolen valuables from them.
Fix for an issue that might make you appear in a broken animation state if restarting a checkpoint after using a zipline while the game is saving.
Fix for an issue that might result in being unable to use your whip if you were performing a whip crack while saving the game, and then reloaded that save.
Fix for an issue where you may become stuck in the “Lucky Hat” recovery state.
UI
Added “Reset to Default” selection in the Options menu.
Fix for a situation where rapid cycling of the Quick Equip menu might result in the wrong item being shown in the menu.
Added explanation of the Blue Suitcase revisit icon on maps to the in-game manual.
Prevent map location titles from overlapping with photo opportunity names.
Fix for intermittent text flicker during the credits.
Ensure the player’s Adventure Book list is updated immediately after unlocking a new book.
Graphics
Fix for bottles appearing overly blurred when moving around with an equipped bottle.
Fix for an issue where Indy’s right arm might look pinched above the wrist when in a bare-armed costume.
Fix for occasional stuttering that might be seen in cutscenes.
Fix to make Indy’s whip behave more naturally when attached to his belt.
Missions and quests – Please note this section contains some small spoilers
Ensure several photo opportunities are still available when revisiting levels or after completing sections of the game.
Ensure several journal notes are still available to be collected when revisiting levels or after completing sections of the game.
Ensure several Adventure Books are shown correctly on the map after purchasing map information booklets.
Fix to prevent player from getting stuck when dropping Giuseppe’s Key, rather than stashing it, in A Savage Predicament.
Fix to prevent rare issue where Gina may not path to the open door after the fire trap in the Chamber of Fire – Silver Trial mission in the Vatican.
Fix to prevent rare issue where Gina may not use the levers or may get stuck when pathing to an elevator in Wat Si Sawai in Sukhothai.
Fix for an issue where Gina may not help open the Game Room door at the Sukhothai Ziggurat.
Fix for an issue where Gina may not enter a co-op vault or climb when she has recently been in combat.
Fix for an issue where pieces of the Vatican fountain puzzle may keep moving slowly, that could prevent its completion if left for a very long time.
Fix for an issue that could prevent the “Finish Forging the Gold Key” quest objective from ever being cleared in your journal in the Vatican.
Fix for an issue where dying shortly after opening the safe in the Sukhothai HQ may result in player being unable to pick up all of the gold.
Fix for an issue where gates may be locked inside the caves if restarting a checkpoint while sneaking into the Nazi Compound in Gizeh.
Fix for an issue that prevent player from picking up an important book in Voss’ office inside the Nazi Compound in Gizeh.
Fix for an issue that might result in Antonio or Ventura being stuck in a “cower” state while you are in Antonio’s office in the Vatican.
PC Specific fixes
Improved performance on larger game levels if using an 8GB VRAM video-card.
Fix an issue where Alt-Tabbing might prevent you from being able to open your inventory.
Fix to make sure that the “Revert” option works correctly when you change video modes.
Fix for torch or lighter flames flickering when playing the game at a high refresh rate.
Fix for Sand Pouring and Torch flame effects not rendering correctly in Peru level on AMD video-cards.
Fix for issue where enabling HDR and DLSS simultaneously might result in a moiré effect on plain white walls.
Fix for an issue where black artifacts may appear in Indy’s eye during cutscenes inside the cave in Peru.
Fix for issue where black squares may appear intermittently on screen if renderscale is used at certain resolutions on AMD video-cards.
Fix to ensure that your Photos can be exported correctly from Steam cloud saves if you decide to switch to using Xbox cloud saves.
Please note that AMD FSR support will be added in a future game update.
A new era of high-quality for Xbox story-driven games?
While Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s combat hasn’t been to everyone’s fancy, the praise around its story delivery has been near unanimous. Troy Baker’s expert portrayal of Indiana Jones is uncanny, and the entire cast deliver a stellar performance atop what is honestly a better Indiana Jones experience than the most recent two movies potentially.
Xbox has faced some long-term criticism for its ability to deliver character-driven story games in recent years. Microsoft has done well with its simulation-leaning games like Forza, Flight Sim, and Age of Empires, but Xbox’s first party has struggled to deliver consistent quality with its story and action-heavy titles over the past decade. There have been bright spots of course, but Xbox fans have long wondered where the firm’s “Game of the Year” contender is, fair or not.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle sadly missed the cut off date to be eligible for Geoff Keighley’s “Game Awards” show, but it seems as though it potentially had a strong chance to be nominated. With attention turning now to 2025, you have to wonder if upcoming Xbox games like Avowed, South of Midnight, Fable, Perfect Dark, and beyond can help maintain the momentum.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is available now with premium access on Xbox Series X|S and PC, and is launching in general on December 9, 2024, included day one in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
