4/5 ★ – jordybgood's review of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

A wonderful return to form for movie licensed games and for Indy himself. Lucasfilm has had some rocky years in the Disney-owned era for many reasons too long to get into here, but I would argue the video games have also suffered greatly compared to the Lucas Arts era. Aside from the Fallen Order Series, I haven’t felt engaged by the newest gaming offerings and have been hungry for a new game that’s at least half decent. When I heard Machine Games was developing a first person Indiana Jones game, I was indeed skeptical. I liked the new Wolfenstein games fine, but the creative decision to make it on first person adventure just seemed like a bizarre choice. Now that I’ve played it I still don’t know if this was the correct choice, but I admire Machine Games’ attempt to really immerse you into this iconic character and make you FEEL like you are living as Indy. On a creative level this game has almost everything you could want in an Indiana Jones game. The combat, the stealth, the platforming, it’s all just fun. While it may seem like it riffs a bit off Uncharted when it comes to spectacle and platforming, there’s something retro about seeing it from the perspective of an Indiana Jones adventure, like this game was years in the making and finally get to see this type of game the way it was always meant to be. On a technical level this game does have some glaring issues. The stealth can be very inconsistent. The AI of enemies seemed to be too responsive or not responsive enough depending on certain sections, and I was very confused as to why I would be able to run past so many stealth based sections but then not be able to even get past one corner with how Ai was placed/reacting to my moves. The game isn’t necessarily glitchy but I could tell certain sections at the end could’ve used some more polishing to the point where I was doing certain sections out of order and the game didn’t prevent me from doing so. I would progress through a section then hit a hard stop in the story and realize I was playing it wrong especially when Indy’s voice lines were meant to be spoken to a companion character and they just weren’t there lol. In that sense I wish the game would feel less restricted in HOW you want to play it, if I want to use stealth, I should get to choose when I get to use it, if I want to be like Indy in raiders when he pulls out his gun to one shot the swordsman, I feel like that would’ve been a clever idea to incorporate into combat if it was a sparingly used option. The guns in this game are almost useless and don’t have enough impact to warrant using them. Had they given this a little more time to flesh out these ideas, maybe even incorporated a third person camera option, this would’ve bumped up the game to an easy 10/10 no question. From a story standpoint this is easily the best Indiana Jones since the Last Crusade, and that’s all in part due to Troy Baker’s performance. Not only does he evoke Harrison Ford in the best ways possible, but his presence and charisma scream Lucas and Spielberg’s style in every line delivery. I wish I could say the same about the other characters because I do like Gina but she isn’t quite as memorable as Marion and I would’ve liked to see her have more agency in the mystery of the journey. Voss could’ve been a compelling villain but he falls back too quickly on the crazy archeologist foil that Indy could’ve become much like Belloq. The mystery itself of the great circle is also a slight disappointment. I liked the finale set piece but it evoked too much Raiders for my liking, especially when it takes literal visual cues of how the Nazi’s get obliterated from the Ark. I would’ve liked to seen more creative risks taken here. All in all I’m really happy with the game and I would absolutely love to see it continue into a series with more titles with just some tweaks on gameplay and creative decisions like the camera. If we’re going to continue seeing our favorite characters come back in more stories then I think this is the way to go about it. I would rather see other performers doing imitations of these classic characters in video games than cgi deaged uncanny valleys in movies. Because it at least feels in line with the medium and doesn’t feel like it’s over stepping the legacy of these characters and actors. I’m hesitant to say Lucasfilm is back when Star Wars is still quite in shambles, but Indy certainly got a much needed serotonin boost and I highly recommend this game.