Over the years, Dr. Henry Jones Jr. has redlined many a golden map by way of stolen automobile or unreliable aircraft; clobbered his fair share of goons in exotic locales; tilted his fedora at damsels in distress and femme fatales alike; and maintained an unreasonably Hobbesian skepticism about the supernatural despite repeatedly witnessing otherworldly forces teaching bad men bloody lessons about humility.
Some of Jones’ adventures are memorable — the boulder, the burning heart, the mine cart chase, the judging knight, “no ticket” — while others aren’t worth the celluloid or choose-your-own-adventure pulp they were printed on. Thanks to director James Mangold, “The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones” is now a little farther from the bottom of that list.
Voss figures this key will initiate the ark — Noah’s, not the Israelites’ — thereby enabling the Third Reich to initiate a blitzkrieg wherever Berlin wants, whenever it wants.
Two years after blowing up James Bond, Hollywood trotted out a geriatric Jones in 2023 to play an untuned second fiddle in his own film, Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” That disaster of a film, which embraced science fiction rather than going the proven cult/religion route, wasn’t just more silver-screen iconoclasm; it was an execution.
Indiana Jones has, however, been resurrected.
MachineGames — the developer behind the Nazi-killing blockbusters Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus — did what Hollywood couldn’t or wouldn’t do: make an “Indiana Jones” title that feels like a faithful companion to the original three films.
While Fate of Atlantis was exceptional and Infernal Machine remains near and dear to my heart — a title that had indianajoes6@hotmail.com beg his parents to buy their first 3D accelerator in 1999 — Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is far and away the best game in the franchise.
Great Circle, which is set between “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” pits Jones against Italian fascists and a monomaniacal Nazi archeologist, Indy’s old rival Emmerich Voss, in a race to uncover the Old Testament link between various artifacts of local spiritual significance that have recently been snatched up around the globe.
The Blackshirts who unwittingly leave restorative meals, cash, and weapons sitting unattended for Indy are digging up the Third World in search of the remaining components of a God-given key. Voss figures this key will initiate the ark — Noah’s, not the Israelites’ — thereby enabling the Third Reich to initiate a blitzkrieg wherever Berlin wants, whenever it wants.
It was an immersion-killer on a few occasions, such as when Lombardi popped a squat next to a pair of jackboots and shout-whispered at me.
Of course, Jones doesn’t want to see that happen but also appears willing to risk everything for the sake of his curiosity. The great circle’s secrets never stood a chance in the war between the competing egos.
You have to contend with far more than a bespectacled Jerry, Italian jackboots, booby traps, and snakes while punching, whipping, shooting, and puzzling as Jones in the first person.
Just as the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword sought to protect the Holy Grail in “Last Crusade,” there is a secret order in the great circle committed to keeping the various components of God’s covenantal gift undisturbed. While similarly bearing tattoos, these protectors operating behind the scenes in Vatican City, Giza, and elsewhere are giants; specifically, the Nephilim referred to in Genesis and Numbers. The overarching story of their fall from grace raises the overall stakes while also projecting greater mystery into the game’s Egyptian, Iraqi, and Roman subterranes. One of these Adamic-speaking giants, Locus, manages to be a big problem for both Jones and the fascists.
Image courtesy of Bethesda
Since Locus is better at delivering punches than exposition, the game leans heavily on another character whom some critics might write off as something of a Mary Sue.
Jones’ girlboss traveling companion, an Italian reporter named Gina Lombardi, is a solid mix of Elsa Schneider from “Last Crusade” and Marion Ravenwood from “Raiders.”
My issue with Lombardi was not the writers’ patent desperation to emphasize at every available opportunity her equality in thought and ability to Jones, versus a Willie Scott type, but rather her ability to bumble around and into enemy characters without being detected on stealth missions. Although a minor game design issue, it was an immersion-killer on a few occasions, such as when Lombardi popped a squat next to a pair of jackboots and shout-whispered at me as I tried stealing into the desert office of some fascist muckety-muck.
For all of her missteps, Lombardi does manage to leap into the narrative breach left by absent secondary personalities Marcus Brody and Sallah, firing off some great lines, helping on occasion, and affording Indy an opportunity to showcase his charm.
Jones’ charm comes across sonically thanks to Troy Baker, who previously voiced the lead in the Indiana Jones knockoff Uncharted 4: Thief’s End as well as the protagonist in the Last of Us game franchise.
You can race to your next primary objective when headed upriver or jump off on numerous shorelines on a whim in search of fortune and glory
To avoid the cognitive dissonance of looking at a young Harrison Ford but hearing someone else’s voice, however closely matched, MachineGames eases in the player at the outset with a near-perfect shot-for-shot re-creation of the opening temple scene from “Raiders.” While this sequence — complete with tarantulas and darts — familiarizes the player with the game mechanics, it has a Mandela effect, bringing Baker’s voice into the original and having it briefly accepted as that which tells the freshly speared traitor, “Adios, stupido.”
Jones sounds the part and, for the most part, looks the part. MachineGames did a great job capturing the younger Ford’s likeness, but its ambitions in letting the character emote sometimes leave Indy looking outright psychotic — a trait better left to his foil.
Image courtesy of Bethesda
Voss, one of the few enemies who has the good sense to call out Lombardi for sneaking around, is more a background threat than a frontline danger. Nevertheless, his presence is felt throughout the game. Although the swastika on his shirt does the heavy lifting in terms of characterization, Voss’ Freudian psychobabble and exaggerated gesticulations, accompanied by Marios Gavrilis’ voice acting, make the character fun to hate.
Although there are numerous callbacks to scenes from the original trilogy — at one point you fly through the Obi-Wan Club in Shanghai and hear Indy remark, “Lao Che won’t be happy!” — the lore is fresh and brilliantly disclosed to the player through Jerk Gustafsson’s well-directed cinematics, side quests, discoverable items and texts, and NPC dialogue.
Great Circle delivers fast-paced excitement in its closed-game sequences but also rewards treasure hunters for careful study in the open-world environments. For instance, when in Thailand, you can race to your next primary objective when headed upriver or jump off on numerous shorelines on a whim in search of fortune and glory. There are similar opportunities for exploration in the game’s other locales, including in a Nazi warship high up in the Himalayas, in a Shanghai newly bombed by the Japanese, in Roman catacombs, and in false-floored Egyptian temples.
While the inability to manually save progress might prompt you to try in a moment of frustration, don’t expect to stack bodies like cordwood, B.J. Blazkowicz-style, in Great Circle. The game is, after all, largely stealth-oriented. Even if you manage to grab a rifle or load your six-shooter, there’s not enough lead for what ails you. Over the course of the 20-30 hours that you’ll play the game, much of it will consist of sneaking, climbing, and swinging. That said, the more you upgrade Jones’ skills, the more damage you’ll do when throwing down with two-footed hindrances and the less time you’ll have to spend lurking in the shadows.
The tagline for “Temple of Doom” was “If adventure has a name, it must be Indiana Jones.” A lot of words came to mind when watching the fourth and fifth films, and “adventure” was not one of them. MachineGames, on the other hand, has produced something warranting the tagline and in the process has revived the character and the franchise.
The professor who cracks books and skulls, who has a knack for ending up a captive witness to his foes’ hard-won consumption by their obsessions, and who named himself after the dog is no longer a punch line in some Hollywood anti-fan fiction but a hero renewed. Hats off to the developer. Hat back on, Indy.
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