There’s an uncharted, tomb-raiding-shaped hole in the video game industry, a real lack of action adventures that focus on solving puzzles, retrieving ancient artefacts and uncovering deep dark secrets that could change the fate of the entire planet. With a whip-crack, a smirk, and an iconic fedora, Indiana Jones is here to save the day, which feels like an odd thing to say in 2024. Yet somehow, this globetrotting escapade, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a brilliantly exciting time, capturing the big-goofy Hollywood feeling of his best stories while also just being a damn good video game. Cue the theme song: Adventure awaits.

Regarding timeline, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle takes place between his first two cinematic capers, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ and ‘The Last Crusade’. This means Indy is at his youngest, cheekiest best, as he makes quips about the often dangerous situations he finds himself in, and has that true mischievous sparkle in his eye whenever he encounters an ancient artifact that he knows full well will probably trigger some trap. It’s fun, especially after the recent not-so-great Indiana Jones movies, to step into the shoes of the legendary archaeologist and take on an entirely new mystery; sinister forces are scouring the globe for the secret to an ancient power connected to the Great Circle, and only you can stop them.

The great Troy Baker does a wonderful job of bringing Indiana Jones to life. My husband at one point overheard me playing, and genuinely questioned whether they’d somehow got Harrison Ford involved. He brings a nonchalant, brazen and funny attitude to the performance, from quips about Nazis to being spooked by snakes and everything in between. It wouldn’t be an Indiana Jones story without a companion, and Gina Lombardi (voiced by Alessandra Mastronardi) is more than up to the task of keeping Indy on his toes. She has her own mystery to solve in the disappearance of her sister, and the classic ‘unlikely allies become romantically intertwined’ comes into play here, which is a genre trope that makes total sense given the context. Big bad Emmerich Voss (Marios Gavrilis) also has just the right amount of cartoon villainy that you’d want from a Nazi antagonist, all coming together to make for a memorable Indiana Jones tale that stands with the best of them.

Cleverly, there are moments when the camera does switch to third-person, like when you’re swinging on your whip from ledge to ledge, or when you’re climbing, for example. This allows you to really get a sense of your surroundings, like keeping an eye on nearby enemies or being aware of traps and switches that you might otherwise miss. I’m glad they identified this and made that choice, rather than sticking to one perspective the whole way through, which has made parkour-related activities in other games somewhat frustrating.

This also means that combat is extra-punchy, and I mean that in a literal sense. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle goes against what MachineGames are known for with their Wolfenstein series, focusing more on stealth and avoiding encounters, although getting caught doesn’t mean an instant fail of a mission. Instead, fisticuffs are a viable option, and landing blows, countering strikes and taking on enemies face-to-face feels good. An extra wrinkle, and a nod to Indy’s ingenuity, there are plenty of objects that can be used as weapons, too. Sledgehammers, pipes, or even bells and guitars can be wielded, and it lends battles an extra bit of pizzazz as you look around the area for items you can wallop opponents with instead of just using your fists.

Combat can be inventive and enjoyable, certainly, and I did enjoy kicking foes in the shins when they were blocking my high attacks, using the whip to pull their legs out from under them, or smashing a broom over their skull, but it can also feel pretty button-mashy, at times. When caught, I occasionally would just press the punch buttons quickly, taking down enemies in a few hits without much strategy. Additionally, the AI of the guards you’ll come across is incredibly forgiving, almost to the point of being laughable. You can take down someone by smacking them across the head with a foreign object, causing a guttural scream as they go down, and a guard just a couple of meters away won’t blink an eye if they’re facing the opposite direction.

This means you can avoid fighting pretty easily, which seems to be the point; you have access to your revolver, but shooting that will alert everybody in the area, so it’s only useful when things get crazy. If you try to play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in ways that weren’t intended, it becomes a little silly and uninspired. For example, if you trigger a bunch of baddies, you can climb out of sight, and wait for them to climb up and follow you one by one so that you can knock them down to their death easily. If you manage to snag one of their guns, this is even easier, but shooting a bunch of people in cold blood doesn’t feel like it’s in the spirit of Indiana Jones, a largely family-friendly hero.

In one instance in particular, I was bored of getting caught by my poor stealth attempts, so I simply ran past everybody to the next checkpoint; sure, several foes were chasing me, but I was able to use a respawn ability called ‘Lucky Hat’ that allows you to recover from being knocked down, resetting all enemies who had previously seen you. Again, cheesing through key beats like this is an unsatisfying way to play, but there aren’t a lot of guardrails in place to stop you from being dodgy if you want, and the AI doesn’t seem to be effective enough in countering it.

Abilities and upgrades are done through Books, rather than a skill tree. This means you’ll be looking for physical books in the world that can then be activated by spending Adventure Points, a sort of XP equivalent that’s given out for completing quests or taking photos of key landmarks. It’s quite a novel way of handling new abilities; it’s possible, if you’re not combing through each area, that you could miss some key ones entirely, making for a more difficult playthrough. That said, they tend to only enhance your basic skills, to the point where you wouldn’t feel lost without them, and it’s a unique way of working on your character that feels baked into the universe rather than being simply nestled in a random menu.

But really, I came to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for the puzzles and the hidden underground temples, and I have left as one satisfied customer. There’s something very gratifying about feeling like you may be the first person to uncover a secret that has been left for centuries; figuring out what are essentially elaborate escape rooms deep beneath the surface is when the Great Circle is at its absolute best. While none of the puzzles I encountered felt too difficult, there were one or two that definitely had me stopping to ponder. They all lend themselves well to “a-ha!” moments, whether it’s discovering a combination code from piecing together various clues, or twisting an old mechanism into the right formation revealing a hidden pathway. They mix it up, too, with traps that will trigger, forcing you to think quickly, lest you be burned alive or drown.

That’s not to say anything negative about the more linear moments, though. There are plenty of high-quality cinematic cutscenes that make the Great Circle feel like a true Hollywood blockbuster, complete with high-intensity action scenes and more campy adventure bits like our heroes dragging a body out of sight just as another character enters the frame, or a silhouette of Indy tussling with a snake in the background while a serious conversation goes on in front. It’s also home to some absolutely ridiculous action movie moments, that would be implausible in real life, but fit in with the almost superhero-esque Indy. The whole experience feels over-the-top in the best possible way, bolstered by its high production values.

The level of detail in each of the 1930s environments is also staggering. The Vatican City, which I’ve had the pleasure of visiting before in real life, is represented incredibly well, even allowing you a peek at the Sistine Chapel, as priests and nuns walk around whispering. Lovers of all things Egypt will get a kick out of searching beneath a Sphinx and Pyramids in the desert-like Gizah, and as you’re boating through the rivers of Sukhothai with the dense jungle and ruins surrounding you, the light spilling through the shadows of tall trees, it’s hard not to be impressed. Even the map you use is a literal one that you whip out and walk around with in front of you, a nice touch that keeps it part of the world instead of simply tacked on to the UI, maintaining the adventurer spirit.

MachineGames have gone the extra mile for authenticity, too. Bread, a form of buff you can apply, is different in each area; it’s Biscotti in the Vatican, Milk Tea Bread in Sukhotai, and so on. The design of each location is immaculate, with a gorgeous presentation that has become synonymous with the developer. While I encountered some visual glitches (particularly with pop-in where there was more dense foliage than normal), it’s a beautifully shown-off affair with a lot of love and care put in to ensure you feel transported throughout the several regions you’ll bounce between on your quest to discover what the Great Circle is really all about.