It’s not the years, but the mileage. And lately, the Indiana Jones franchise has been showing both. With the diminishing returns of the modern sequels and its aging protagonist, people have been wondering if Indiana Jones is coming to its natural end. That’s why everyone was surprised with the announcement four years ago that there’d be a new game in the series, the first since Disney’s acquisition of Lucas Arts.
At first I had my doubts. First, to do an entire modern AAA game with motion capture and voice acting would be tough – Harrison Ford IS Indiana Jones, and at the time I felt it impossible for him to be replaced. Second…what kind of name is “The Great Circle”? But after playing, I can assure you my first reaction was entirely unwarranted. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle brings the best of the movies to your XBOX. As for the name…well, the name grew on me.
It starts off with a throwback as a means of tutorial, yet it’s not content to rehash it 1 for 1. It feels familiar, but different – something the game strives to emulate throughout. That middle ground of “familiar yet new” is a tough balance to strike when creating a new story for a well-established IP – veer too far on either side and fans will be upset (Just look at episodes VII and VIII of Star Wars!). Yet MachineGames effortlessly executed on this, to the point where it feels like Great Circle can stand toe-to-toe with the original trilogy.
That’s not to say it feels exactly like the spectacle of the movies. There’s more puzzles and sneaking than you’d think. It’s not that there’s not action – there are exhilarating setpieces and plenty of combat. But the focus is definitely on the puzzles, which feels fitting when stretching a film over the length of a game. The puzzles themselves are varied and thought-provoking, ranging from simple cryptograms, to classic mirror puzzles, to ones you might need to take some notes for.
There is also an in-game hint system for bigger puzzles, which blessedly is at your request – there’s rarely an assistant pointing out what you should do before you’ve even processed the puzzle. There are separate difficulty sliders for adventuring and combat however, so if you worry about getting stuck on a puzzle with no hint system, knocking that down might help. I preferred to get by with minimal assistance, and rarely was I stumped – the puzzles are by and large complex enough to test you but not stump you.
The story is quintessential Indiana Jones, though stretched out over the length of a game, it has to pace things differently than a blockbuster would. Not only is evil portrayed as evil, in typical Indiana Jones fashion it’s also depicted as asinine. I’ve always enjoyed that Indiana Jones has been able to balance menacing villains with goofiness without the one detracting from the other.
Surprisingly, Catholicism is involved almost from the get-go! Spoilers for some of that will be in the parental warnings, but the first area you unlock after Marshall College is the Vatican, which (as expected) is rife with Catholic imagery and puzzles. It’s pretty well handled – there’s one big miss, and a few missing details (why are there no tabernacles?), but overall it’s much more accurate than I expected. There is an infamous confession scene (we’ll also get into that in the parental warnings), but suffice to say, I found it funny and don’t think it was disrespectful.
As the adventure progresses, other world religions get roped in. Yet even then, the lion’s share of its lore comes from Genesis. It’s not exactly spouting doctrine – like any Indiana Jones film, it’s sensationalizing the truth and taking what interesting things it can from myth. But the tone never comes off as disrespectful or flippant.
While much of the material comes from Genesis (with a smattering from Numbers), you’d think it would have a clearer moral. But it’s tougher to glean than you’d think. Great Circle is very interested in using the tales and symbols, but seems content to not investigate its implications. Spiritually, Indiana doesn’t struggle with much here, and I don’t think the average player will either. I will give Great Circle points for arousing interest in the Old Testament and Catholicism, but I can’t say it was as spiritually edifying as The Last Crusade was. Come to think of it, not exploring its spiritual themes is par for the course for Indiana Jones.
The best I can glean from the story is that God is powerful and will judge. But Indiana Jones has always struggled to have a consistent narrative theologically – in a way, ALL gods are real in the Indiana Jones universe. And as such it’s hard to feel much weight behind the idea that “God will judge” when there’s so many gods to be found.
Ultimately Indiana has to decide whether satisfying his curiosity is worth the cost to himself and others. Weighing the hunt for knowledge with charity is something we all can struggle with. For us, knowledge is a tool, but it ought not be used as a cudgel. Indiana is under circumstances of death and danger, but the answer remains the same: it won’t do to search for knowledge if it comes at the cost of our charity.
Scoring: 89%
Art: 9/10
Music: 10/10
Story & Writing: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Design: 9/10
Morality/Parental Warnings
Violence: Gun and fist violence abounds. Blood is not copious – for a lot of this section, remember how the movies were and you’ll get a good picture of the severity of its issues.
Language: Damns and damnit’s, and some using of the Lord’s name in vain.
Representation of Faith: [MINOR SPOILER WARNINGS] At one point Indiana says to his priest friend that he needs the blood of Christ for entrance to an inner sanctum. A priest takes a bottle of wine off his shelf, blesses it with the sign of the cross, and hands it to Indy. It’s hard to tell whether the priest actually wanted the wine to be consecrated. A rational priest would obviously know that’s not enough to do the job, but we’re dealing with a representation here. Ultimately I landed on him not consecrating it into the Blood of Christ, what with the form being wrong and Indy’s intentions to use it for something beyond consumption. Otherwise that priest will be in some trouble.
In the Vatican, Indy gains a priest’s disguise (from said priest friend) and Gina, an investigative journalist, dresses as a nun.
At one point Indy in disguise is asked to perform a confession, which he tries to get out of. Once his cover is almost blown he knocks the Nazi out in the confessional. As none of this was intentional and its played for humor I don’t see the harm in it.
Some people were concerned that the Pope would be depicted poorly and be seen collaborating with Nazis, which is not historically accurate. However, they offscreen the Pope immediately by making him sick. It’s presumed he’s being poisoned by the true villain.
