Indiana Jones is such a fertile concept for video games. As an IP, it’s flexible enough to fit into many game genres and has appeared on consoles as far back as the Atari 2600. Whether Indy is in a point-and-click adventure game, or if he’s made of Lego, or if he’s a 2D action platformer or 3D action game, he just works as an awesome escapist video game character. Indiana Jones, under the stewardship of the team behind the Wolfenstein revival, feels like a natural match. After two consecutive terrible films, Indy is the one who needs saving this time. Can he reclaim his fortune and glory from the awesome original trilogy, or does he belong in a museum?
The concept of Indiana Jones was inspired by the pulpy adventure serials of the 1930s and 40s that George Lucas enjoyed as a child. Unlike modern superheroes, serial protagonists and Indy are often “rough around the edges” and win through improvisation rather than superior power. This creates a powerful emotional attachment as audiences see the hero struggle, get hurt, and persevere. Indy flawlessly embodies these characteristics in the first three films, and this stays true in The Great Circle and even translates to the gameplay.
The first two films, Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Temple of Doom, remain the best examples of the pulp adventure style that the old serials were famous for, rather than the more character-focused drama found in The Last Crusade. Serials featured a menagerie of different foes, which is why the Nazis worked well in the first movie and the devil-worshipping cult fit perfectly in the second film. For some reason, Indy became only the Nazi-punching guy, when really he should be also punching Chinese vampires, mad scientists, masked vigilantes, or even giant spiders or anacondas. As the film series progressed, Indy’s roster of villains was reduced to nothing more than uniformed fascists, which, while satisfying, is also creatively limiting. Unfortunately, The Great Circle falls into this same trap.
Following an exciting in medias res recreation of the Raiders of the Lost Ark intro, the main story unfolds between The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade. Still shaken from his breakup with fiancée Marion Ravenwood from the first film, Indy finds himself in trouble when, one night, a towering giant played by the late Tony Todd bursts in, swipes a seemingly unimportant cat mummy, and knocks him out cold. Inside the relic is a mysterious stone, one of several artefacts tied to sacred sites across the globe. Drawn in by Candyman’s Vatican-linked medallion and set on getting the item back, Indy heads to Vatican City, now under the grip of Mussolini’s fascist regime.
At the Vatican, Indy encounters Emmerich Voss, a Nazi officer who’s a mix of Belloq’s cunning and Major Toht’s buffoonery. An occultist and psychologist, Voss is obsessed with controlling the human mind and tapping into ancient powers for the Reich. Indy also joins forces with Gina Lombardi, a sharp and determined Italian investigative journalist with her own score to settle against Voss. Together, they race through exotic destinations, from the ancient temples of Sukhothai in Thailand to the pyramids of Egypt, across the snowy peaks of the Himalayas, and into Iraq, chasing scattered stones and uncovering the truth behind the Great Circle’s secrets.
Like a good Indy story, there’s an element of supernatural intrigue and mystery that ties into the Nephilim Order, a secretive group of giants historically linked to the Catholic Church and biblical lore. The sites and stones eventually point to Noah’s Ark, concealed beneath a ziggurat in Iraq, where the Nazis aim to unlock its divine or destructive force, which is suspiciously functionally similar to the Ark from the original film. Stripping away the flashier set pieces and distractions, and boiling it down to its core, the structure is essentially a beat-for-beat remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Gina is Indy’s main squeeze in The Great Circle, and while she isn’t as saucy as Elsa Schneider from The Last Crusade, she still manages to be more annoying than Willie Scott from The Temple of Doom. She wouldn’t be so bad if she didn’t completely spoil the puzzles while trying to figure them out. Yes, it’s true. The Great Circle commits the not-so-great and tired cliche of NPCs being overly chatty and giving away the solution while exploring.
It’s a perfectly decent Indiana Jonesian adventure, packed with pulpy action, bursts of violence, and the dry wit the character is famous for, but it’s hard not to feel a bit shortchanged when it ends up being just another rehash of the same general premise seen in the films. The adventure explains Indy’s shift from Marshall to Barnett College, deepening his character in the gap between classic films, blending globe-trotting action, puzzles, and heartfelt moments with familiar Indy flair.
While the story may tread familiar ground, it excels at fostering gameplay that values exploration, improvisation, and wit over superhuman abilities. The Great Circle captures Indy’s keen sense of resourceful, everyman-hero charm in interactive form, making players feel as though they’re living the pulp adventure instead of watching it. The gameplay blends a variety of ideas, best described as a streamlined immersive sim reminiscent of Dishonored, combined with the smooth action of MachineGames’ Wolfenstein series, but more methodical. Sometimes it feels like a first-person reimagining of the point-and-click adventure classic, The Fate of Atlantis, complete with exploring, interacting with NPCs, and hunting for items in a laid-back setting.
The balance of exploration with methodical combat, stealth, platforming, and puzzle-solving has The Great Circle delivering an experience that feels like stepping straight into an epic Indy film. Played mostly from a first-person perspective, it amps up immersion by letting players see the world through Indy’s eyes and inspect artefacts in vivid detail. With full body awareness, there’s a deeper, more grounded connection to the main character, making Indy feel like a living, breathing man rather than just a pair of floating hands. The game switches to a third-person view for whip-swinging, climbing, and key cinematic scenes, allowing players to enjoy Indy’s physicality and signature moves without breaking the flow, while enhancing spatial 3D awareness during these pivotal gameplay moments.
Levels combine linear, story-driven sections with larger, open-ended areas inspired by immersive sim design, encouraging players to explore ruins, temples, and enemy camps in search of secrets, collectables, and optional side quests that enrich the narrative. The Order of the Giants DLC is incorporated seamlessly into the Vatican stage as a sidequest that starts as a simple treasure hunt but soon unravels into a darker mystery involving ancient cults and the remnants of Nephilim giants. Lasting around five hours, it’s a detailed side objective that’s more focused and linear than the main game, featuring intricate puzzles, atmospheric trips through catacombs, canals, and hidden Roman ruins, along with platforming and battles against new enemies and cultists.
The balance between combat and exploration is spot on, enhanced by the upgrade system. Throughout the game, Adventure Books are scattered and hidden, encouraging exploration and discovery in true Indy style. Each book belongs to categories like Survival, Fitness, Brawling, Combat, or Exploration. Using Adventure Points lets you unlock skills and perks, which you earn by discovering secrets like artefacts, letters, maps, treasures, and other curiosities tucked away across the stages. Many skills have multiple tiers, with each level needing its own book and a higher AP cost, allowing steady progress in areas like health, stamina, melee combat, stealth, carrying capacity, or traversal, much like the levelling system in a classic Bethesda RPG. It’s a solid system, and players are free to continue to power up Indy through new game plus playthroughs, adding replay value.
Mechanically, The Great Circle is a very polished game and looks amazing even on the comparatively low-spec Nintendo Switch 2. The original release has very lifelike graphics that closely resemble the film’s distinct visual language and texture. Indy has been nearly flawlessly rendered in the game, perfectly on model and brought to life by Troy Baker’s jaw-dropping Harrison Ford impression. Before long, he completely disappears into the role, making it feel as if Harrison Ford never aged a day.
On Nintendo Switch 2, image quality mostly sticks to 1080p, and the frame rate is a very consistent 30fps, which doesn’t seem possible considering the sheer density of the level of detail on display. Other neat features are the gyro-aim options, which give this version a higher degree of control and accuracy when aiming weapons.
It isn’t perfect. The Great Circle shows signs of pushing beyond its limits, with questionable lighting quality, flickering shadows, and minor stutters between camera cuts during cutscenes. Other telltale signs of the Nintendo Switch 2 being under strain include minor instances of texture streaming, lower NPC count, and asset detail loading in more taxing environments. Despite a few minor technical hiccups in the Nintendo Switch 2 port, they never took away from the fun and excitement of the adventure.
