An adventure in the form of a first-person walking sim, seasoned with a dash of action. A game that wanted to be a movie; faithful to the original concept and a worthy addition to the Indiana Jones franchise. Solve puzzles, punch some Nazis in the face, roam the world, and repossess ancient artifacts that "belong in a museum" as the most famous archeologist-adventurer of modern times.

Did you ever want to experience what Dr. Jones' life would be like? This game is for you. Traveling, exploration, it’s all here—but also the social aspect, and even the anxiety and personal worries that make the character human are present. Many people ask the wrong questions here. It's not about plausibility or realism, point of view, combat mechanics or even wokeness—but if this game is really Indiana Jones enough. And the answer is a resounding yes.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is about being a fantasy archaeologist—sort of, anyway. It's more walking simulator than action-adventure, adventure-action or RPG: like a modern, immersive take on those point-and-click Indy games of yore. About the same amount of action, backtracking and puzzles, that is. Still, it captures correctly the Indiana Jones ambience and mood. From the fantastic Peruvian intro that replicates Raiders of the Lost Ark, boulder and all, you can feel you are in a movie too. There are dialog snips that fans will surely recognize, as well as nods to the classic Indy trilogy—thankfully no Crystal Skull or beyond! The devs closely studied the source material and it shows. There's the Wilhelm scream, moments of Spielberg-grade silliness that would make the filmmaker proud, and a healthy dose of the laconic humor so characteristic of our favorite professor. This is a work worthy of the franchise.

If anything, I sorely miss John Williams and his triumphant score. You can hear sound-alike rousing fanfare every now and then, but too far in between and except for the intro there's no Raiders March to complement those worthy heroic moments. Music in these movie-based games is extremely important. Why is nobody talking about that?

At first I approached the game carefully, due to the particular notorieties surrounding it. There's the high price, the game's dubious length and even the wokeness discussion; and yet the biggest issue is the steep hardware requirements. I played on a RTX 4070Ti Super with an Intel i9-14900 and 32 Gb of RAM with no problems, but it does look demanding in terms of lighting. There's a reason for that, though, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle takes advantage of illumination and reflection in a beautiful way: puzzles and dark environments peppered with light beams, reflections and other engaging effects. One "boss fight" stands out as particularly interesting—both smart and scary—but this is no place for spoilers.

People argue a lot about aspects like mechanics and combat, but this game was clearly planned after the movies: it looks like one and behaves like one. It's the narrative that shines here, giving the player the opportunity to become the famed archeologist and do what he is notable for. All plot points and features are here: exotic places, opinionated female companions, crazily obsessed opponents, fearsome critters, powerful artifacts, ancient mysteries, and the confluence of the magical, the religious and the adventurous in the style of the 1930s pulp magazines. While the story is undoubtedly great, at times I disliked the excessive handholding.

Yes, there's some platforming here and there, and also some first-person combat, but this is all secondary and very simplistic; certainly not the focus of the game. If you expect to go all in with guns blazing and solve problems FPS-style, look somewhere else. Puzzles in general are on the easy side, but they make you feel smart nevertheless. Not overly complex, but diverse enough and fun. Showy like those from the movies, and clearly inspired by them. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is slow-paced with exploration, action sequences and cutscenes to balance everything out. It's not about killing enemies, or clearing a map of icons, but enjoying the view and savoring the experience.

Large open-world areas are the norm, letting you decide when to approach the different objectives, with a fair bit of exploration and some backtracking, especially if you are the collecting type. Level design is thoughtful and functional. Some activities are optional and not really difficult, while quality-of-life features like fast-travel and shortcuts are in place for the impatient. Hidden relics complement the archeological experience, and scattered notes provide additional lore and context for your adventure.

Regarding NPCs, at first I was skeptical about Gina, but after a couple of perilous adventures together she managed to grow on me. Unlike other Indy girls, Gina is resourceful, brave and smart, and her calm demeanor and composure contrasts with the irritating, treacherous or just plain dumb previous female companions. As for other movie friends, besides Marcus Brody there are some nods and lots of mentions, but no cameos; not even in pictures. Character models just partly resemble their real-life counterparts, and some uncanniness might ensue.

For all they want to be praised, graphics are not perfect—I especially disliked how hair and animal fur looks—and textures could be more crisp and sharper. Definitely not next-gen looking, but serviceable. There's lots of customization options though, so you can tailor it to your preferences to some degree. Lip-sync is good even if the character models could be more expressive. The voice acting, as noted elsewhere, is brilliant and definitely a highlight of the game, no arguing there.

All that said, there are things I do not like. The gameplay feels old or even dated, and immersion is constantly broken because of this. Certain aspects are too gamey and out of place for a modern work that aims (or claims) to be a simulation, like the interactions between characters. If an NPC stands in front of a doorway, there's no way you can push through unless you attack them, friendly or not. Corpses lying on the ground—no matter how many—will soon be ignored as patrols resume their regular routines. Even companions tend to be vacant-stared and do weird, absent-minded things. Sometimes physics are wonky, and environment interactivity is not always readily clear. In general, I had a feeling of "disconnectedness" between mechanics and story.

One of my fears was of a very short yet unjustifiably expensive game, but I found the length to be adequate. Once again, I must mention that quantity and quality are not the same, and you can skip most extra and collecting activities and breeze through the main story if such is your desire, and still enjoy a very nice experience. The price, however, could be 25-30% lower and still be fair.

In terms of bugs, I experienced none. Only a couple of visual glitches with NPCs clipping through surfaces, but nothing really important. I am aware of the many that people report in the forums, though.

While it leans heavily on franchise nostalgia—and despite its clunky imperfection—It's still an enjoyable game. There are many movielike moments in which I couldn't help but smile and nod. If you are a true Indy fan, hop on and enjoy the adventure. You're in for a ride like it’s 1981.

Adventurously recommended.