Though each area has a set of primary missions to work through, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the dozens of side-quests, collectibles and secrets dotted around. The game rewards you for every discovery – be it a document pilfered from a safe or a photograph of an interesting sculpture – with world-building context but also with Adventure Points, which you can spend to upgrade Indy’s abilities. And as you discover keys to locked doors, disguises to fool your enemies and breadcrumb trails leading to treasure and exploits, your journal of notes, fieldwork, maps and insights grows.

Storytelling is a major strength throughout, even if this is a 20-hour video game rather than a two-hour movie. The world is grounded in its believable settings despite the inevitable supernatural elements, and although you can feel the pre-war tension in every location, the people and the history you encounter are a comforting counter to that. The cast of supporting characters is well-realised and a lot of fun, but I also love how Indy mutters to himself to frame every minor archeological find or impromptu scuffle within his very specific perspective. In fact, MachineGames has more to say about the character than the last two films.

Jones is a scholar and a professor who cares deeply about the preservation of history, but he’s also not above robbing graves if it serves his purposes, and won’t hesitate to kill people who are trying to kill him. He has fairly progressive values when it comes to race, religion and gender (considering he’s a man of the early 20th century), but in The Great Circle he also takes the first excuse to fly off across the world specifically to avoid talking about his feelings.

The game is smart about speaking to the fascism of the time as an instrument of insecure white men and those who manipulate them, and touching lightly on where Jones sits within or breaks out from that framework, without ever lecturing or breaking the fourth wall. Both villains and heroes are funny and ridiculous, with Indy and main antagonist Voss especially allowed to chew on the scenery, but the dialogue also touches on something relevant and true.

Making it up as you go

The first-person perspective is an unusual choice for a game that is very much not about shooting guns, but works well. In areas full of guards you’re generally sneaking and avoiding, which is a lot more tense at eye-level, and seeing Indy’s hands manipulate maps and puzzle items helps make the whole thing immersive. You never forget you’re Indiana Jones though; the dynamic shadows frequently remind you of the fedora and the whip, while performing certain actions has the camera pull out for a brief third-person view.

Puzzles are largely expected adventure game fare, though many games were inspired by the likes of Raiders, so that checks out. For example, there’s a room in a necropolis with some debris you need to burn to get past, but the only entrance to the room has water running down it and will extinguish your torch. So you have to find an adjacent room and throw a lit torch through a hole in the wall.

The combat fully embraces the slapstick silliness of the films, and even the most straightforward encounter can become memorable. Environments are littered with objects that can be picked up and swung as weapons, from lead pipes to guitars, and if you creep up on your quarry you can dispatch them without alerting others. You can also throw objects to maim or distract, engage in fist-fights, or utilise your whip for disarming, tripping or grabbing. Chairs and furniture will explode if struck, bad guys will fall if backed over a ledge, and if you happen to try to take someone out with a fly swatter you found, well, it will go as well as you might expect.

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There were times that I got myself into something of an unwinnable situation though. The AI is dumb enough that you can pick them off one by one and they might not notice, but raise the alarm out in the open (by firing a gun for example, or picking fights in a Nazi camp) and you can end up with dozens of bad guys swarming after you. For the most part, you can predict what the fascists will do (officers will see through your disguises for example), but occasionally it felt like a Nazi with a sixth sense had spotted me and telepathically called his friends.

This is one of only a few frustrations I found with the game, another being that a few quests (among many interesting ones) are just A-to-B deliveries or extremely simple tumble-turners that undermine the credibility of a man who’s supposed to be the world’s most famous archaeologist.

The health and stamina systems, which you can bolster by eating bread or fruit respectively, also have the familiar video game issue of not letting you eat stuff you find lying around; you have to eat from your inventory to make space to pick up the new thing. As funny as it is to have Indy running around housing lemons to sprint farther, it’s annoying when grabbing some grissini off a guard’s table for a quick boost becomes a multi-step process.

Outside of those few issues, it’s an exciting and thoughtfully made game that seems designed to be enjoyed by anyone. You can set the difficulty of the combat and riddles independently, and using Indy’s camera to photograph a puzzle will provide a series of hints if you need them.

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