In 2006, when the TV show 24 was in its fifth season, one of my fellow game journalists told me he’d gotten an opportunity to play the video game 24: The Game weeks before it came out. When I asked him how it was, he said something along the lines of, “Yeah, it’s good.”
But then he asked if I was a fan of the show, and when I said I was, he got very excited. “Oh, then it’s really good,” he exclaimed, “It totally feels like an episode of the show.”
This is the same reaction I’d give anyone who asks me about Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, which is now available on PlayStation 5 after first coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC. While it may not be what you want from a game starring the eminent Dr. Jones, it’s a great recreation of everything we love about his movies.
Set in 1937,
between Raiders Of The Lost Ark and Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle opens with a mysterious figure stealing an artifact from the university where Professor Jones teaches, and it’s Indy’s quest to get it back that sends him on yet another globetrotting adventure.
Now, let’s get the obvious question out of the way: If you’ve already played Indiana Jones And The Great Circle on Xbox or PC, there’s no reason to play this PS5 version. It’s exactly the same game.
There’s also no reason to play it if you only want an Indiana Jones game that’s like Tomb Raider or Uncharted but with that guy from that Apple TV show Shrinking in it. Indiana Jones And The Great Circle ain’t that, and Harrison Ford ain’t in it either (though even he’s said that Troy Baker, who does Indy’s voice, did a really good job).
Instead, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is a first-person action / adventure game that’s light on the shooting, and devoid of complex acrobatics, but heavy on stealth, exploration, and problem solving…with some punching and petty theft thrown in for good measure.
In fact, it’s more like Alien: Isolation or Dishonored than, say, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider or Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
Take the fisticuffs.
Indy has always been a bit of a brawler, and not only knows how to block, dodge, and parry attacks, but he’s also not afraid to use hammers or shovels to smack people upside the head.
Oh, and yes, his punches do have that thunderous sound, just like in the movies.
As for when he uses his gun, it’s not often enough to classify this as a first-person shooter, as he’s just as inclined to turn it around and use it to knock someone out. Which is helpful since, when he wants to take out an unsuspecting enemy, he doesn’t choke them out or snap their necks. Instead, he has to use a hammer, shovel, or the butt of his gun to render them unconscious.
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is also different from those aforementioned Indiana Jones-influenced games because Indy has his trusty whip, which he can not only use to momentarily stun and disarm enemies, but also to swing across chasms and climb up ledges. Platforming is a big part of this game, though unlike some first-person games we could mention (we’re looking at you, DOOM), it actually works well here, in part because it switches the perspective to third at the most opportune moments.
Now,
as you’ve probably inferred from the paragraph about knocking people out, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is big on being sneaky, and shares some mechanics with such stealth action games as Sniper Elite: Resistance and Star Wars Outlaws. Not only can you toss empty bottles to distract people, but you’re also encouraged to hide their unconscious bodies so you don’t alert other enemies.
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle even employs elements of such open world role-playing games as Avowed and Dragon Age 4 by giving Dr. Jones some side quests, but only if he stumbles across them, while he improves himself and learns new skills by reading books and other documents like in Fallout 4.
In fact, the only time Indiana Jones And The Great Circle feels like Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End or Shadow Of The Tomb Raider is when you get to the situational puzzles you have to solve to unlock parts of a tomb. Though we all know where they got those ideas from…
Ultimately, though, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle feels more like one of Indiana’s cinematic adventures than his interactive ones. And not just when you turn on the “cinematic” camera option that changes the screen dimensions to letterbox. Great Circle is driven by a story that perfectly fits alongside the ones in his movies, especially Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny. Y’know, the ones with Nazis.
Indy even teams up…
with a woman who is every bit as feisty and fearless as, well, most of the women in his movies: Gina Lombardi, an Italian reporter who’s masterfully voiced by actress Alessandra Carina Mastronardi [Master Of None]. While it often gets tiresome hearing video game characters say the same things over and over, I will never get tired of her calling me “strambo.” I mean Indiana, she calls…never mind.
All of which make Indiana Jones And The Great Circle an engaging and exciting game if you’re a fan of the movies, especially the ones where he kicks Nazi ass.
That said, this does have some issues, and no, they didn’t fix them for this new edition.
For starters, there’s a stamina meter, and while it doesn’t drain all that fast — probably because this is set in 1937, when Indiana was relatively young — it’s still as annoying here as, well, it is in every game that has one.
There are also…
some mechanics in Indiana Jones And The Great Circle that, annoyingly, have unnecessary extra steps. When you want to open a locked door, for instance, you have to press left to equip the key, then press the square button to insert the key, and then press left on the thumbstick to open the door.
It also doesn’t make sense that Indy doesn’t carry a flashlight with him, considering how often he finds himself in places that aren’t well lit. Especially since — as I learned through a quick Google search — flashlights were invented in 1899.
Despite these issues, though,
the PlayStation 5 version of Indiana Jones And The Great Circle — like the one on Xbox Series X|S and PC —is an exciting and engaging adventure for the titular archeologist. The story is compelling, the action is spot-on, especially the brawling, and the adventure is as epic as any he’s taken on the silver screen. And while yes, this may have been more fun if it was Uncharted or Tomb Raider but with some dude in a fedora who carries a whip, this is still a great adventure for the courageous college professor.
SCORE: 8.0/10
