I am Indiana Jones. I'm trying to check out the Great Pyramid of Giza but there's a bunch of Nazis looking for the same artifacts as me at the moment. Some of the lower ranking soldiers do not pay any attention to me because I am dressed like local workers. However, the higher ups see right through my disguise which causes problems: I am forced to either flee before they raise the alarm, or fight them and risk bringing down a horde of Nazis on my head. One has to be forced to pick it up.
But! Through fearless searching and stealth I have managed to find a new, improved outfit, which disguises me as a Wehrmacht soldier. Surely those evil commandants would recognize me as one of their own and I would be able to plunder the tombs of the Pharaohs at Giza without molestation. But within five minutes of wearing my new dress I was shot by one of those dangerous commandants.
my time together Indiana Jones and the Great Circle It was full of such disappointments. Overall, those moments summed up a prevailing sentiment – this game would be better as a movie.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Takes place within the Indiana Jones canon between raiders of the lost ark And last crusadeIn this, Dr. Jones (whom I always forget) is named Henry No Indiana) is investigating the theft of one of the artifacts “liberated” from an Egyptian tomb. His quest takes him on a wild, globe-trotting journey thwarting the ambitions of the Nazis and the designs of an ancient cult of “giants.”
great circle Filled with all kinds of references and flourishes that scream, “This is an Indiana Jones movie.”
great circle Filled with all kinds of references and screams, “This is an Indiana Jones movie!” It has a fun, John Williams-esque orchestral sting that plays when Indy discovers a secret. The dialogue is full of wit and one-liners that sound exactly like something Harrison Ford would say to his co-stars. even punch sound effect Is snatched straight from the moviesThose elements are fun, even relaxing crystal skull And dial of fate Failed to attract audiences like the original trilogy. But the developers of MachineGames, The studio best known for wolfensteintook their mandate very seriously, which is essentially the spiritual successor raiders And temple of doomInstead of a video game that is fun to play.
The game is played in a first-person perspective. However, don't expect Lara Croft or Nathan Drake to capsize and drown, as the platforming is a bunch of ladder climbing and wall climbing, broken up by the occasional swinging of a whip. I appreciate that the developers took this Yellow paint Sermon Seriously, choosing white as the color to represent a climbable surface. It's still there as a visual marker if you get stuck, but because the faded white color blends in a little more naturally, you don't feel as blinded by it when you notice it.
Don't expect to capsize and sink like Lara Croft or Nathan Drake.
Like the platforming, the puzzles also leave a lot to be desired. The puzzles I encountered after nearly 25 hours of playing are extremely inconsistent. Some come pre-solved, requiring you to simply press a button to enter the solution, or these are puzzles you've seen in almost every adventure game (for example, light to open doors). Use the rays of). In contrast, others are so intricately constructed that they are not easily solved.
I got very excited when I came across a locked safe right next to a cryptogram, which contained a poem with some letters in a circle, and a key with letters and numbers on a grid. I thought the way it worked was to treat the circled letters as coordinates that would point to the correct number on the grid. I tried every permutation of letters and numbers to get the right combination. Nothing worked. I even googled what type of puzzle it was, found a website that solved them, and inputted the letters and keys and still couldn't find the correct answer. With no hints or way to find the solution in the game, I was forced to abandon the only puzzle I realized Good About trying to solve.
With the usual platforming and puzzle solving being a little more simple, the final gameplay element is combat and, well, even that wasn't that enjoyable. great circle There was a lot of emphasis on giving me options. When I encountered an enemy, I could choose to confront them directly, covertly, or not at all. I often chose not to do so at all, sneaking around locations and hiding behind objects until my enemies would appear to any sane person. When forced into combat with an enemy, the guns were useless, if not downright hostile to me as a user.
i get that secret game for like great circleGuns are meant to be used sparingly as a weapon of last resort. I did the same. I spent every encounter killing enemies with various blunt objects scattered throughout the game. I started using firearms in one of the later levels of the game, where gunning was almost mandatory since I didn't have a lot of melee weapons to find alone. I would shoot the Nazis in the face at least three times before they went down, or, as was usually the case, I would die almost instantly before they shot me once. It felt like I played the game the way he told me to, but I was still punished for it.
said that, great circle Not entirely joyless. The levels include multiple ways to reach an objective and it's legitimately fun to fumble around to find offbeat solutions. I discovered for the first time that wearing a Wehrmacht uniform required a key behind a locked door, and I left frustrated because I didn't have the patience to go around for the Nazi who had the key. But I suddenly looked up and saw that this closed room was connected to a tower with an open door; All I had to do was get there, beat up the guard alone, and the uniform was mine. that was fun. When I noticed that the two enemies I had beaten were standing in a pool of water examining a broken electrical device, I reloaded the checkpoint to see if I could electrocute them instead. Can give a shock. I can do it. Very good.
But those little thrills were few and far between as it felt like MachineGames had messed up with its game design.
But those little thrills were few and far between as it felt like MachineGames had messed up with its game design. Its most interesting moments, such as Knockdown, the lengthy fight that occurs mid-game with the main villain, were presented as cutscenes. Meanwhile the less interesting parts are the actions you have to perform. It certainly matches beat-for-beat the kind of things that indie films have to offer. But they already exist, and I can see them at any time. great circle Something even more important is missing: a reason why it was necessary to make this adventure a game.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Launching on Xbox and PC on December 9th, PS5 version coming in 2025,