izigame.me

This is one of the most engaging, best looking, well written, well-acted games I've played. It feels like a long-lost Indiana Jones film that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made after Temple of Doom but never released. My only real criticisms are aimed at the stealth and combat which are a little bit wonky. Everything else is S tier.
12/9/24 Edit: Going to expand on my thoughts some more now that I've had a night to mull things over.
Negatives:
- The reveal of what the Great Circle is felt like it came out of nowhere. Maybe there were some notes that I missed that would've made it clearer. The reveal itself is cool but maybe it could've been prepped a little better.
- Stealth jank. I'm hesitant to point this out because a lot of stealth orientated games struggle with this but it's worth mentioning that there are times when the AI will not work as intended. Some enemies are all-seeing, and some are as blind as a bat. Still a marked improvement over the stealth systems that were in Wolfenstein II.
- Combat jank. My complaints in this area revolve around parries and blocks. There were several instances where it felt like an enemy was able to punch through a perfectly timed parry or that my blocks were doing nothing.
Positives:
- Slapstick comedy. While the enemy AI is bit janky it also very funny. Throwing hammers at people's heads never gets old and the cartoonish stumbling that an enemy does before collapsing into unconsciousness is immaculate. The stealth takedowns are also great.
- NPC damage and expression. I really liked that enemies would end up with black eyes and bleeding noses when you were done punching them in the face. Likewise, the expressions of anger that they'd have on their faces when fighting was one of the best that I've seen in a game like this.
- Troy Baker as Indiana Jones. Performance of a lifetime. Absolutely stellar. He nailed Harrison Ford's timbre and vocal mannerisms. The motion capture was great as well. Harrison's characteristic smirk and finger wag were spot on.
- Alessandra Mastronardi as Gina Lombardi. A fantastic supporting character who doesn't overstay her welcome or feel tacked on as the "hot lady companion that Indy hooks up with and dumps later on".
- Marios Gavrilis as Emmerich Voss. He genuinely might be the best villain that Indy's faced off against. A narcissistic megalomaniac that expertly threads the line between sincere and cartoonish. His demise is very satisfying which is what you want from a bad guy.
- Tony Todd as Locus. He's a legend. No two ways about it. You give him a role and he'll nail it. Rest in peace, Tony. This was a worthy performance to go out on.
- The writing. You will automatically earn big points from me if you avoid the pitfall that is Millennial/MCU dialogue writing. There's plenty of quips but they're not grating or out of place. Everyone's written like a real person and not like a marketing executive's idea of a person. Great character writing, great story writing. A+ all around.
- Ethos of Indiana Jones. It's abundantly clear that MachineGames did a lot of research on what makes the world of Indiana Jones so compelling. There was a time when video game adaptations of popular films were viewed with suspicion and rightfully so. Many such adaptations were blatant cash grabs with little time or effort spent to ensure a quality experience was made. This is not one of those instances. Like I said before, this feels like a lost Indiana Jones film that was made during the franchise's golden age. So much thought and care was put into this and it shows. The Great Circle is a worthy addition to the OG trilogy.

I'll begin with the negatives. Though some of these "negatives" might not qualify as negatives for you. And no, I have not finished the game yet, it feels like there is much more to go, so I'll update the review if my thoughts change.
The game is slow paced in general. There are some big action set pieces, but you won't find them often. It took several hours to reach a point where the game started to pick up drastically with big action and faster pacing. Though it might slow down again going forward.
The game play is somewhat limited. The vast majority of time is spent skulking around in large open areas, finding side objectives and little puzzles, with a healthy dose of stealth. The enemy AI isn't particularly smart or dumb, just your average stealth enemy detection. You will probably die if spotted next to any larger number of enemies. It works well enough.
Almost all combat will be with melee objects and fists, guns extremely rarely used. It appears a bit janky on video, but in game it feels smooth and satisfying.
Exploration is fine and fun, with plenty of stuff to find and do in each area. Although I will say that I do an internal sigh every time I have to slowly climb something, it's too slow and dull. Though thankfully its not too common to climb for so long it feels frustrating.
Now for the clear good aspects and why I find myself recommending the game.
While nothing special, I find the game play and exploration fun. It's fun to sneak around and bash Nazis with a metal pipe and throw hands. Its fun to find all the little and big secrets and tombs and disguises. And to steal pastries. And to solve puzzles.
Most puzzles are pretty simple, but I have run into a few good ones. Similar to Uncharted puzzles I guess in general. Mostly not brain teasers, but engaging anyway.
I also ended up liking the first person perspective much more than I thought I would. Everything feels very immersive and designed to feel very tactile. Everything from picking up environmental weapons to turning a key in doors feels good. And transitioning to third person for cut-scenes and some game play doesn't feel too awkward, I think they made it work well.

Now that I am done talking game mechanics, I'll briefly talk about the things that I think are equally important in games like this. The story, writing, visuals, and voice acting.
They are all just straight up fantastic. The story is interesting, the writing is on point, the visuals are stunning, and the voice acting is pretty much perfect. I couldn't ask for much more in this department, and it will be the main thing keeping most engaged.
They really did nail the Indiana Jones-ness to near perfection. And I think it is up to par with the best of the movies, even if it is generally slower paced.
And lastly, the game isn't a technical nightmare, its pretty polished. I haven't run into a single bug or crash outside of a shadow pop in issue that is noticeable in a few areas. And despite the game using RT for global illumination, they got it running well and looking great. I really can't complain much at all.
All in all, this is a definite recommend from me. If you are unsure if it will vibe with you, its on game pass to try for cheap, or wait for sale, or just pass it by if it doesn't look good to you.

This is an early review but holy cow it's hard to express how perfect this game is. I've only played the first two missions so it could have issues that I haven't seen yet but it's been non-stop green flags so far. First off it's a technical marvel. I'll go as far as to say it's the best optimized game I've ever seen! For a game with life like graphics the way it runs is insane. I'm using a 7900 xtx and I have every setting turned to Supreme which is max, above ultra, native 1440, and I'm getting 120 fps with no frame gen no nothing. That is one thing but my 99%fps is right around 110 with almost 0 fluctuations. I've never seen anything like it especially on release. it seems the "Full RT' they mentioned in the spec sheet didn't show any Intel or AMD cards for a reason they arn't an option in the settings. So I assume RTX cards are the only ones that'll see those options. However you wouldn't guess there's more RT features from the look of the game. The GI, AO, and shadows are immaculate as is; there is still hardware RT (you actually can't even run the game without a card with hardware RT cores.) So technically overall it's astounding and I can't wait to see Digital Foundry's vid on it. I know they will sing its praises just as much if not more. It does everything you can ask and doesn't host some of the main tech issues of most modern games. No stutter, no frame drops, no shimmering, no texture pop in, no nothing. The game itself is so well done and feels so truly Indiana Jones. From the first two missions alone I feel confident in saying this is the best and most true Indy story we've seen since The Last Crusade. The vibe is just so perfect, the VAs, the art style, everything. Also the gameplay is something I was weary of when we first got details but man I was wrong. It not only is way more Indy than the Indy inspired games like Tombraider and Uncharted (I love both those series and they're both some of my fav games ever, to be clear) but it feels good and is a lot of fun. So those games are third person shooters and that's great but it's not very Indy. If we were third person shooting and killing hundreds of guys it would just feel wrong and create this huge disconnect making the cutscenes and gameplay feel like two totally separate disconnect experiences. The gameplay they went with perfectly represents Indy. You feel like you're actually in his shoes. It has a big focus on puzzles and exploring this environment. With actual combat you are primarily an opportunist more than anything which is exactly how Indy has always handled situations. Then when you do have to fight you primarily brawl and use the environment to give you an advantage. In more desperate situations you can fall back on your revolver. Also you of course have your whip that's used for traversal, puzzles, and for combat.
Overall I'm so happy and impressed with this game so far and I implore all Indy fans to play it. Then non-Indy fans please try it too. Gameplay wise it's most like something like Dishonored but more grounded. So anyone that likes story focused, puzzle, adventures, with solid and fun combat please give it a chance. I guarantee you'll become a fan of the character. When I finish the game I'm gonna come back and give revised review based on how it holds up or improves over time and what I think of the story. After playing over 6 hours it more than holds up. It really opens up and most of the game is massive levels with a ton of freedom. Also a surprising amount of side content. I ended up moving on cause I wanna see the story then I'll do a more extensive 2nd playthrough but there was like idk 10 side missions I could of done. Also technical wise once the game opens up and you have giant areas with loads of NPCs the gpu performance is largly unfazed but the CPU performance becomes extensive. I have a 5800x3d and it's getting maxed out when you're in the largest areas with like 20+ NPCs on screen. It struggles to maintain 120fps, never drops far below but it definitely wavers. I changed the cap to 100 in those areas and it was steady there. So just a heads up if you don't have a great cpu and you're going for triple digit frames. 60 should be 0 issue
Finished it and I gotta say this a masterpiece. It has easily become one of my all time favorite games. It never has a slump, which is rare, those no section where I don't look forward to it on my next playthrough. On the technical side there is one such section though that doesn't have the same level of perfection. The Rain forest section is the only one that maxes out my GPU and caused me to lower the fps cap but that wasn't the issue. That section is very large and you have a boat to travel around it with. While driving the boat there's a good amount of pop in happening. I assume it's something fixable; especially because there's not much else for them to focus on fixing. So getting a patch out that at least improves that seems feasible. Back to the game though it's something special. Just as an Indy story it's incredible and a confidently say it's my third favorite outing of the character. Right behind Raiders and Crusade. I say that as someone who loves Temple and return to it frequently. The game is just that good. Then solely as a game it's fantastic. The finale is second to only Crusade and not only is a good ending story wise and just cinematically but gameplay wise. I was curious going into it how'd they'd handle it but they nailed it. It focuses on one of the best mechanics in the game and it makes sense. I know that probably makes no sense if you haven't beat the game but I'm trying to be vague to not spoil it.
I really hope this games sells well so that Machine Games considers making a sequel. The franchise is essentially over if not. The movies just won't work without Harrison and I don't have high hopes of another dev coming along and matching this level of quality and understanding of the world. Fingers crossed, I would happily play many more Indy adventures in this format