Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has captured the climactic scale of the franchise's action set pieces, but it's far from a one-trick pony. Throughout The Great Circle, players will experience all the emotional highs and lows that come with a classic Indie adventure, meeting interesting new characters while seeing the explorer in his prime once again. While The Great Circle nails the action-packed segments worthy of the franchise, it also manages to capture the humor that made the movies so memorable in the first place.

While the Indiana Jones films were never solely a comedy, each had more than its share of hilarious moments and lighthearted humor. The comedy sprinkled throughout the films and The Great Circle finds a great balance between their darker supernatural moments and lighthearted fun, enhancing the experience rather than detracting from it. One of the best examples of this use of humor is an optional side quest that not every player will encounter on their The Great Circle's first playthrough.

A Nun In Trouble Has A Perfect Indiana Jones Scene

A Fieldwork Quest Players Wont Want To Miss

Disguised as a priest to make it through the Vatican without getting hassled by the blackshirts patrolling the area, Indie can talk to Gina, the nun, to get information about the stolen cat mummy. After having a short talk and following her out of the room, Indie unintentionally grabs the attention of a suspicious but overly excited black-shirt soldier. Thankfully for Indie, this confused enemy wants a confession from the famous American priest.

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Despite Indie's initial attempts to escape the situation with snappy responses, he learns the horrifying truth about the sobbing soldiers' extremely messy relationships. Reacting out of character to his disguise, Indie manages to punch the soldier through the confession booth window just before he can alert anyone else of his true identity.

This cutscene highlights just how well The Great Circle can replicate the franchise's more comedic moments as many of the game's cutscenes play out like clips from a classic Indiana Jones film.

Comedy Is An Essential Part Of Indiana Jones & The Great Circle

Faithfully Adapting The Vision Of The Films

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle image with Indy in a suit.

Like action-packed fistfights and explosive chase sequences, comedy is an irremovable aspect of the full experience, as shown early on in The Great Circle's trailer. Throughout the trailer, fans saw the absurd fascist villains frequently encountered in the story, whose cruelty is only matched by their incompetence.

Making the fascist opponents Indiana and his friends hilariously incompetent while remaining a deadly threat is a difficult line to balance, but one that The Great Circle does best.

The humorous writing style of The Great Circle manages to flow into the experience naturally.

Rather than having characters walk around telling constant jokes or making one-liners, The Great Circle's humorous writing style flows into the experience naturally just as well as the films, if not better, at times. While its movie-like quality does have the downside of an overwhelming file size, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle feels like a true triple-A experience from start to finish.

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Your Rating

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Top Critic Avg: 87/100 Critics Rec: 95%
Released
December 9, 2024
ESRB
T For Teen // Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Mild Language, Violence
Developer(s)
MachineGames
Publisher(s)
Bethesda
Engine
id Tech 7

Franchise
Indiana Jones
Number of Players
1
Steam Deck Compatibility
Unknown
PC Release Date
December 9, 2024
Xbox Series X|S Release Date
December 9, 2024
PS5 Release Date
April 17, 2025
Platform(s)
PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
X|S Optimized
Yes
OpenCritic Rating
Mighty