Of Whips and Sand - Hands-On with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

"Fools. Bureaucratic fools. They don’t know what they’ve got there.”

"It belongs in a museum."

Of all the many iconic elements of the Indiana Jones series, Professor Jones' catchphrase is the one that rings in my head as I play through the early parts of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

The game starts with tutorialisation in Marshall College, set as the game is between Raiders and The Last Crusade. There's a break-in, and Indy has no choice but to investigate the disturbance. A giant of a man steals an artefact from the college's museum, and so Indy is set to embark on a brand new adventure.

It's a tutorial level — nothing to write home about — but it does impress upon me the importance of exploring literally every single nook and cranny about the game. There’s oodles of extra detail hidden about the world, and for finding it Indy is often rewarded with "Adventure Points". These are used to upgrade his abilities as the game goes on — though he can only spend them on books he's found along the way.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Author: Joab "Joaby" Gilroy
Date: October 29, 2024

The Dark Project

It's not until the next level, when Henry Jones Junior is sneaking into a Nazi-occupied Vatican City, that I realise why I can't stop thinking about that classic line.

It's the dead of night as our intrepid archaeologist slinks into the Holy City, and there's a comparison I can't shake. Indy is moving quietly past guards, causing distractions, worming his way through hidden tunnels behind walls and crouch-walking across rooftops when it dawns on me…

"Indiana Jones is 'no graverobber', but my god does Indiana Jones and the Great Circle play like Thief..."

It belongs in a museum, sure. But whose museum? Because as Indiana Jones pocketed yet another ancient trinket to put on display in a glass case far away from the place it belonged to, there was only one game I was thinking about any more.

Thief. Indiana Jones is 'no graverobber', but my god does Indiana Jones and the Great Circle play like Thief in this level. There's so much sneaking, so much geometric puzzle-solving. The levels are designed to encourage exploration.

Even in my playtime, there were puzzles I solved that led to other puzzles I just didn't have the time to get through. Hidden doors, secret walls, there were massive parts of the Vatican City level that I could have easily bypassed if I had any concept of the passage of time and had known I'd be forced to move on soon.

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Probably the only thing I got stuck on in the preview session was purchasing a lighter. Indy needs a lighter to use torches littered through the tombs in the game, so it's a pretty valuable item. And because it was a preview session, money meant nothing—I wouldn't be playing this save again, so any currency I did have was free to be spent. But my problem — and this is gonna seem so dumb — is that the shopkeeper who sold it had just the one item for sale. And sure, maybe they hadn't implemented any other items, or they'd removed them for the preview, but the item was the lighter in question. And it cost $100. With inflation, $100 in 1937 would be worth $2,189.59 today. Average US income in 1937 was about $1800 a year. Is Indiana Jones bad with money?

Check Out This Gizeh

But time makes fools of us all, and moved on I was.

And while the darkened halls of the Vatican made me think of Thief, it was far from my mind when we arrived at "The pyramids of Gizeh" — more familiarly known today as the Giza Pyramid Complex.

There's no cover of night here — Indy tackles the area in full daylight. It's a stark contrast, but it doesn't make a huge amount of difference to the gameplay. Stealth is still key for Indiana's progress, as any Nazi who sees him will Achtung! and try to either detain him or get help from others.

"I was constantly being bailed up when Nazi soldiers saw me. But I had a soft lead on a costume..."

It's also the first time the game really opens up, and lets players do whatever they might. We're given vague directions to acquire a map, and a few suggestions about points of interest, but we can go anywhere we want in what is honestly a massive sandbox. You see we're in the desert, so… anyway.

I was almost paralysed for choice, though The Great Circle does a good job of subtly guiding players. Because it's daytime, I was constantly being bailed up when Nazi soldiers saw me. But I had a soft lead on a costume, and that would allow me to move freely through at least some of the areas on the map.

Whipped into Shape

Until I acquired that costume, however, I was going to have to confront some Deutsche Douchebags. And I gotta be honest, combat in The Great Circle is great.

Indiana is a classic scrapper, always happy to use whatever is close at hand to get through a fight, and this is replicated beautifully in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. All sorts of items can be picked up and used in fights. I was hitting people with shovels, torches, batons, jars — anything nearby was a viable candidate. If an enemy was carrying something, I could tap the whip button and flick it from their hand. Next thing you know, I was wielding it myself. That meant rifles and pistols too, and while the game isn't a 'shooter', it's clearly got a great shooting model behind it.

"I punched, grabbed, whipped and shovelled my way through a handful of Nazis, only to be confronted by a giant brutish man who didn't seem to care..."

My favourite combat moment was when I got caught sneaking through a high ranking officer's tent. The alarm was raised, and I had to fight my way out, and what ensued was a brawl for the ages. I punched, grabbed, whipped and shovelled my way through a handful of Nazis, only to be confronted by a giant brutish man who didn't seem to care about my blows.

Panicking, I whirled around and saw the option to pick up a nearby item. Without thinking I grabbed it, and I spun back to hit the giant with it. It did nothing. In true slapstick Indiana Jones form, I had picked up and attacked the heavy with a flyswatter.

It was a moment straight from one of the films.

Tomb Raiding

The disguise I was after was right at the entrance to one of the many pyramids in the complex — though not the main one. And I figured while I was there, I might as well do a little 'archaeology'.

I will say that I found the puzzles within not terribly challenging, although the atmosphere was spectacular. Creeping through an ancient Egyptian pyramid felt like a scene direct from a lost Indy film. Troy Baker does a phenomenal job as Indiana, and his occasional quips lent a great deal to the vibes of my adventure. The pyramid itself is inhabited by scorpions, which… why did it have to be scorpions?

The scorpions are scared of light, which makes me think the lighter I bought was worth it after all, and the pyramid itself is structured around light puzzles. Reflect the light around the room, bounce it off mirrors, that sort of thing — a staple of the LEGO Indiana Jones games (and probably some other media).

"I had a great time playing it, but MachineGames has also gone well out of its way to encourage players to want to play more of it, too..."

After more than a few harrowing arachnid encounters, I make it through the Pyramid to the other side. It's worth it for the experience itself, but Indy gets… something out of it that makes it more worthwhile as well.

And that really sums up what it was like playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in our preview session. Because I had a great time playing it, but MachineGames has also gone well out of its way to encourage players to want to play more of it, too. There are so, so many ways to get side-tracked while playing, and so many great reasons to essentially ignore the main quest to do other stuff.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle launches on Xbox and PC on December 9, and there are top men (and women) working on it right now

About the Author

Written By Joab "Joaby" Gilroy
Joab Gilroy is a games critic and author from Sydney, Australia. He has won awards as a games and esports journalist. His new book Till The Heavens Burst is available via joabyjojo.com now.
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