3/5 ★ – alcoholicgoat's review of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Very conflicted here. The narrative itself mostly worked until the third act. Thailand pretty much killed all the momentum for me and it struggled to cross the finish-line. There are moments here that feel disconnected and threadbare. What was Voss talking about in the desert? In the pyramid in Gizeh, I saw Gantz behind the door as it closed on me. Was that a bug? Was Gina supposed to betray you but that plot point got cut? How exactly did we get to Noah's Ark? That seems like a really big conclusion to jump to (everyone was right, but I found the big reveal to be underwhelming). So much great stuff here, but there's a lot more generic material. There is so much Uncharted 2 here. Fuck you, it's fair to make that comparison if the game doesn't disguise what it lifts from. I went in expecting Butcher Bay 2, and I engaged it on that front. For the most part that's what it was doing. There are plot points that pretty much go nowhere if you don't collect a bunch of shit (that's bad storytelling, supplimentary plot points is bad game design). There wasn't enough to justify the 18 hours it took me to beat this. This game is very much guilty of "playtime equals dollar value" and literally nobody agrees with this sentiment. I know the reason why the controls are sluggish and the maps are obnoxiously big. It's Game Pass. Takes you longer to beat it. More of a chance that you'll pay for 2 months to play it. I'm tired of this trend. Silent Hill 2 was guilty of this too, but that game has so much more to offer if you ask me. What did I like? The gameplay (when it actually worked) was fairly engaging. The voice acting, music, performances, all great. Tony Todd is awesome. Voss is an amazing villain. So is Gantz. You can feel the Wolfenstein DNA. I actually like MachineGames as the choice for developer here. Not many first-person triple-A singleplayer narrative games nowadays. It feels very very authentic to the original trilogy. They really captured it. Unfortunately it plays things sooo safe. Indy has no character arc. What is going on with him? He's just kind of along for the ride. The stuff I disliked really weighed on me. The animations can't be cancelled. Fuck me. THEY CAN'T BE CANCELLED. Everything takes 20 minutes. Indy stops running randomly and you drain your stamina trying to outrun something when he feels like going for a fucking stroll. The combat is kinda ass? Blocking barely works. You can't shove people properly. The whip is extremely inconsistent. Why is it you can lean with some weapons but not your pistol? Why is reloading so annoying? The enemy AI is really stupid. It's not as Im-Sim as the game wants you to think. It's very rigid. I got hit with some bullshit checkpoint bugs, and a few times I got stuck on terrain, causing me to get a fail-state. These were segments that should have been playtested. I wasn't going off the beaten path, I was trying to use stealth routes that were clearly signposted. Why is repairing weapons so convoluted? Why can't I heal using a hotkey? Why is everything in-game? Please don't do that. Please don't do that. PLEASE DON'T DO THAT. Also I kind of fucking hate the final boss. It's genuinely terrible. Dark Athena is better. The game just has shit hit detection with Voss' stupid fucking crane kick. The ending itself was very flaccid too. It attempts a Raiders climax but nothing feels built up to. The game also relies so much on the movies. You need to have seen them to get every reference. It can be pretty exhausting. Iraq also just gets pulled out of the writer's ass. This was not telegraphed. How did he know where Voss was going? We need to SEE this information Also, how did Gina not drown after the climax? We were really far from shore. I really liked it up until act 3. It falls apart after Shanghai. There were clues that signalled towards a bigger reveal with Gina, that never came. It didn't feel subversive, it just feels empty. Do I want another? Yeah, if they get it right next time. I don't care there's a lesbian in the game. She was a fine character. Probably a little unrealistic she'd be so open about it in 1937, but that's not a dealbreaker. My issues are just basic writing stuff. Pacing, doling out information, character arcs. Too bad Voss died. He was such an entertaining villain. That is one thing I will consistently praise MG/Starbreeze for, is crafting amazing villains. Don't get it twisted. My reasons for disliking the game isn't in the same solar system as that cretin Synthetic Man. The existence of women doesn't make my blood boil like his does. As far as rep goes, I feel like lesbians are a really safe choice. Why not two dudes in the next game? Think about it, games industry. Where's the love?