4.5/5 ★ – ChucklesBiscotti's review of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Everything about the build up to The Great Circle is what I fear most about an upcoming game from a big franchise. It's a game developer I really like. A genre I really like. A franchise I adore. It has all the makings of being what I want, but I also know the history of games based on the franchise is not so great and so I remain wary up until release. But when it works out, it's a wonderful thing because I almost come to it with tepid expectations, and thus it's easier to be blown away by the results. While I'm maybe not quite "blown away" by The Great Circle, it's just about everything I'd expect from MachineGames when they're at the peak of their powers (a couple of those Wolfenstein games are some of my favorite shooters of the last 10 years), and from an Indiana Jones experience -- a movie series that is born to be made into 20 of these games (and I say that with a gulp and some shock that we didn't get here sooner). I'm also the number one Uncharted stan out there, so it's always good to have the original man-baby back in the swing of things to challenge the half-tucked-white-shirt-wearing-knock-off-man-baby that I've championed for years. And, what's even cooler, is this doesn't try to be like an Indiana Jones skinned Uncharted. It is supremely confident in being the OG popcorn explorer and saying get the fuck off my throne, Nate. Troy Baker does an incredible job creating the feeling of having Harrison Ford back in the mix without all the icky concepts of AI or de-aging the real Harrison Ford, which is one of many issues with the latest Ford-led Indiana Jones movie. On top of that, it tells a way better Indiana Jones story than Crystal Skull or Dial of Destiny. The camp is just so perfect in terms of hitting some of those Spielberg notes, and Nazis remain the greatest villains of all-time. They're always evil through and through, and yet they can fit into so many boxes from comic evil to pure evil. The writing for essentially all the characters keeps up with the rest of the game, which is a very hard thing to pull off when you're aping a franchise that was last good in 1989 while still making it relatable, funny, and nostalgic all at once. The Great Circle can get bogged down in its own pursuit of collectibles to some degree, but some of the puzzles, mysteries, and finds you make along the way make that sort of collect-a-thon make sense. You need some sort of reward for finishing various puzzles, so the groups of collectibles are packaged up into various game-long quests to tie it together. Finding codes, puzzles, and everything else out in these sprawling levels (there are 3 major levels with some one-off areas mixed in) can really lead to some Indy magic when it all falls into place. You don't have to get bogged down in all the side stuff, and you can even buy maps to place everything on your map, but just walking across this stuff in a more natural way is special when it all clicks (this game is one of many where I'd say mostly turning off the UI and map is the right choice because exploring is this game's superpower). It's a good argument for the idea of pseudo open-world levels that games like Rebirth on the RPG side and then obviously Hitman on the action game side of things have really made work in recent years. In addition, much like the character himself, this game feels like a throwback to the '90s or even early '00s where it's not too worried about what sort of game it is. It goes from supremely linear to nearly open world, and it will flip the switch and go between those poles as well. This is all before stating the obvious that this game is beautiful. Its frame rate is almost always consistent and that's impressive in a game that looks this amazing. Technical impressiveness aside -- the transitions from level to level are seamless and insane -- the way each level feels so different is a testament to the art team and also makes it so you truly feel like you're jumping all over the globe. There is very little that is ever reused level to level because you're going from one extreme to another. In a sense, it's a classic "ice, desert, jungle, water" platformer out of the Mario handbook as it checks all those boxes, but all nailed down with visual detail and flair that is nearly unmatched. The animations don't always keep up with the graphics, especially when it comes to the hand-to-hand combat, but it almost has a Far Cry 2 vibe to me in that there's a smidge of bugginess to the platforming, and the way you open your map and look at it (while other games have done it) points right back to Far Cry 2 for me. There's layers of Dishonored and Hitman in the gameplay as well, but for me, it's a mix of Far Cry 2 and Wolfenstein (the stealth of that game at least) that most resemble the feelings I have when playing Great Circle. I don't want to overlook how rare these big-budget properties work out in all facets, and so that's perhaps The Great Circle's biggest achievement in that it's a "AAA franchise" with a "AAA budget" that is simply being a single-player "experience" without any other baggage attached to it. At this point, I think I'm ready to say MachineGames is now the studio within the ZeniMax umbrella I care about following the most because now they've done right by both Wolfenstein and Indiana Jones. Arkane, id, and Bethesda are all battling for second place for now.