Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: Nazi punching never felt so good

In Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, the best way to deal with a Nazi is to tear them limb from limb. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle walks a different path; it finds catharsis in humiliation.

Despite working with a more family-friendly property with less blood and guts, Machinegames’ latest still has all its teeth in place. A globe-trotting action-adventure romp becomes a slapstick comedy about outsmarting fascism rather than outgunning it. Its enemies are dimwitted punching bags that are so frail and oblivious to their surroundings that you can tip one like a cow with only a toilet plunger. In a crowded media landscape laser focused on Nazism and its unimaginably ugly resurgence worldwide, Machinegames offers what might be the radical thesis that we need right now: Nazis may be dangerous, but they’re also very, very stupid.

When Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is at its best, it’s a clever mix of Dishonored and Uncharted that rewards players for using their brains to get one step ahead of a fascist power grab. It does that while retaining the campy charm of Steven Spielberg’s original trilogy, even if its attempts at Hollywood spectacle can feel a little flat when compared to a medium full of adventure games that have long since beaten Indy to the finish line.

To a pulp

Set after Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle kicks off when a mysterious giant man breaks into Marshall College and steals a priceless, though seemingly random, artifact. Indiana Jones gives chase, a journey that takes him across the world as he uncovers a larger conspiracy involving his Nazi rival Emmerich Voss and a series of stone artifacts in sites that line up to form a “great circle” around the Earth. While it’s all treated like a Hollywood film, the story isn’t much more complex than that of a Yoshi game: There are magical MacGuffins and a bad guy with a vaguely evil plan for them.

That plainness comes with the territory; Indiana Jones is a proud work of pulp. The franchise is a natural fit for video games with its emphasis on treasure hunting, blockbuster action, and lighthearted fun. There’s a reason why it’s been spiritually adapted so many times by the likes of Tomb Raider and Uncharted — though both series have long since lapped Great Circle when it comes to narrative ambition. Machinegames’ focus here is on authentically paying homage to Spielberg’s ’80s films in all their campy glory.

The voice cast is all in on that mission, though some actors feel more confident to put their mark on the series than others. Troy Baker has the impossible task of filling Harrison’s Ford shoes, and he does so by doing the best impersonation he can. He sounds exactly like his movie counterpart, nailing Ford’s uniquely dry wit, but it sometimes sounds like he’s a bit too hesitant to explore his own interpretation of the character. On the flipside, Marios Gavrilis shines as the maniacal Emmerich Voss, who always feels one step away from teetering into madness.

One touch I appreciate is the multilingual approach Machinegames takes. This isn’t the kind of game where you go to Egypt and find everyone speaking perfect English. When Indiana Jones is in Italy, the Blackshirts speak Italian. As a seasoned world traveler, Jones can both understand them and speak a bit of the language. That goes a long way toward making me, as a player, feel less like a tourist and more like an archeologist who both respects and seeks to understand the local culture wherever he goes.

Other parts of The Great Circle struggle to fully live up to the high production value of Indiana Jones’ blockbuster legacy. On the positive side, environments shine here. Crumbling ruins, dry deserts, and dense jungles are all brought to life with rich detail and warm lighting that gives the image a pulp texture. Less effective is its faces, which strive for photorealism but tumble into the deepest trenches of the uncanny valley. Character models look remarkable at a glance, but are a bit unsettling in motion. They all have Polar Express syndrome, especially Jones himself with his freakishly wide eyes that make him look like a serial killer in cutscenes.

There’s a similar lifelessness to The Great Circle’s empty soundscape. There isn’t much ambient noise to give its environments life, and NPCs sound like they’re talking through a tin can if they aren’t directly next to you. Machinegames gets the most key details right — the crack of Indie’s whip, punches that hit like gunshots, and Gordy Haab’s faithful interpretation of John Williams’ original score — but it showcases the highs and lows of gaming’s pursuit of realism. It’s a fragile illusion that’s too easily broken, and The Great Circle is full of little cracks.

Walk like an archaeologist

You’d think that adapting Indiana Jones into an interactive experience would be an easy slam dunk, but Machinegames sees the trap hidden under that pressure plate. It would be too easy to just make a second-rate version of Uncharted, creating a game of telephone with another game inspired by Indiana Jones. In fact, The Great Circle does stick a bit too close to Naughty Dog’s formula in a handful of short linear missions that make up the adventure’s weakest moments. In those scenes, I’m going through the motions as I slowly platform my way through environments or fend off enemy boats in chase sequences that feel like underwhelming imitations of Uncharted’s best moments.

Thankfully, those sequences only make up a very small part of what’s an otherwise brainy take on the genre. The Great Circle plays like a mix between Dishonored and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. It’s a first-person stealth game that’s just as much about exploration and deduction as it is thrilling set pieces. The bulk of the adventure takes place in three open areas — from Vatican City to the jungles of Siam — where Indy has free reign to hunt for secrets, solve brain-busting puzzles, and take photos of the scenery. That’s mixed in with some light immersive sim influences that let players sneak into Nazi outposts however they see fit.

Once I got into the flow, I couldn’t put it down. Each of the three main areas are entirely different from one another, but equally dense with discoveries. When exploring Vatican City, it feels like I’m in an Assassin’s Creed game as I scale rooftops and disguise myself as a clergyman to sneak into churches. Egypt is flatter by comparison, but full of underground tombs in the sand guarded by puzzles. Siam changes things up again by letting Indy motor around to small islands like Kratos in God of War Ragnarok. That makes each area feel like a distinct reflection of the real-world locations they’re based on, full of cultural sights to marvel at.

While there are plenty of fun action set pieces weaved into the main missions, The Great Circle is at its best when it’s letting players embody Indiana Jones, the archeologist, rather than the action hero. I’m not simply incentivized to pick fights and beat up as many Nazis as possible. Doing so doesn’t net me any rewards or experience. Instead, the sole upgrade resource here is Adventure Points, a currency gained through picking up notes and taking photos of the world. Those points can be spent to learn new abilities gleaned through collectible books, which also need to be discovered via exploration. Simply poking around areas is remarkably rewarding as a result, as my brawn is directly tied to my brain. It’s a subtle shift in design philosophy, but one that makes me more eager to observe and learn about my surroundings rather than seeing memos as ignorable side-collectibles.

Just as impressive is Machinegames’ puzzle design here, which requires players to put in some serious brainpower to crack safes and get to the heart of tombs. Some of the multilayered puzzles I encountered left me as stumped as I felt in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, requiring me to closely cross-reference documents for well-hidden clues. One had me frantically translating astrological symbols into numbers, while another required me to find a hidden code in an abandoned game of Mak-Yek left in an outpost. Tombs can be similarly tricky, with clever ancient mechanisms that capture the spirit of the trap-filled movies.

Each of these non-combat systems sells The Great Circle’s central theme better than its script. Indiana Jones finds himself in a race against the Nazis to hunt down a handful of powerful artifacts. Voss and his army have time and power on their side, but Jones and his companions have the brainpower that the Third Reich lacks. It’s a story about combating ruthless aggression with wit. Deduction becomes a superpower, and wielding it effectively is all it takes to stay one step ahead of fascism.

Punch out

While Indy can use his brain to solve problems, that doesn’t mean he can’t deal with Nazis the old fashioned way. Rather than duplicating the bombastic shooting of its Wolfenstein series, Machinegames opts for a more intimate brawling combat system. It’s a more personal approach to first-person fighting, which has me slugging foes with heavy hits, blocking, and occasionally using my whip to disarm Nazis or drag them into a hold. There’s a satisfying heft to each punch, especially when I sneak up behind an enemy and unwind a charged-up sucker punch to knock them down in an instant.

There are a few guns, like Indy’s trusty revolver, but players need to think twice about using them. Firing off a shot is a quick way to alert every Nazi in the vicinity to their presence. Instead, the real hook here is an improvised weapon system, where any object that can be picked up becomes a bludgeon that can take out an enemy in one hit if you sneak up on them. Shovels, sledgehammers, toilet brushes — all of them are equally dangerous in Indy’s hands, even if they break after a few hits.

It’s a thin system, but one that’s delightfully cathartic. When I sneak up on an enemy with a boat oar, I watch as Indy uses it to hit a Nazi with a low blow before breaking it over their head. The treasure trove of slapstick takedown animations does everything in its power to humiliate its fascist enemies. While Wolfenstein basked in its ultraviolet retribution, there’s something just as enticing here about letting players get up close and personal with Nazis and embarrass them.

“Fascists make for gullible stooges,” Indy rightfully observes at one point.

Some of The Great Circle’s more dated design even inadvertently supports that. The enemy AI is classically laughable here; it’s the kind of stealth game where you can break a guitar over someone’s head without alerting someone 2 feet in front of them. At first, I rolled my eyes at how much I could get away with. But I slowly came to appreciate the silliness of it as it sells The Great Circle’s radical depiction of fascists as bumbling idiots. They’re loud-mouthed morons who can be knocked out with little effort so long as you get the jump on them. They can tear Indy up with bullets if they find him, but they’re useless without that power.

There’s something comforting about that depiction, especially in an age where fascists are regaining ground around the world. We’re living through a terrifying moment where it has become socially acceptable for elected officials to parrot white supremacist ideology and make excuses for Nazi marches, but The Great Circle reminds us that these are short-term wins. With enough time, history will always remember fascists as monsters. They always become cartoon villains who exist to have their faces punched in. The Third Reich’s legacy will always be interlinked with images of Nazi soldiers having their junk smashed in with rakes.

That’s the real “great circle” orbiting Machinegames’ satisfying new take on Indiana Jones; it’s a reminder that what goes around comes around in the cyclical nature of history. Those who are dangerous today will become another generation’s punchline.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was tested on Xbox Series X with a code provided by the publisher.