Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a 2024 action-adventure game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is based on the Indiana Jones franchise and features an original narrative that draws from the film series. Set between the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), the story follows archaeologist Indiana Jones in 1937 as he attempts to thwart various groups who are seeking to harness a power connected to the Great Circle, which refers to mysterious sites around the world that form a perfect circle when together on a map. The game spans numerous real-world locales such as the Vatican City, Thailand, Egypt, and China.
The Great Circle is primarily played from a first-person perspective with third-person being employed for contextual elements such as environmental interaction. Players control Indy as they navigate through a mix of linear, story-sensitive areas and wider, exploratory landscapes. Combat can either be directly engaged with or circumvented entirely through the use of stealth mechanics, and the character's signature whip can be used as both a weapon and a means for traversing across obstacles and solving various puzzles to uncover alternate paths and obscured collectibles.
Bethesda and MachineGames jointly announced the game's development in January 2021, in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. Jerk Gustafsson directed the game, composer Gordy Haab contributed original pieces and reinterpretations of classic themes from the films by John Williams. Todd Howard from Bethesda Game Studios conceived the game's story and served as an executive producer, considering the game a passion project of his. Troy Baker provides the voice and motion capture of Indiana Jones, whose likeness is otherwise based on Harrison Ford, who portrays him in the films. Alessandra Mastronardi and Tony Todd (in one of his final roles before his death in 2024) are featured in supporting roles.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was released for Windows and Xbox Series X/S on December 9, 2024. A PlayStation 5 version is scheduled to release on April 17, 2025. The game received generally positive reviews from critics for Baker's performance of Jones, the gameplay, storyline, puzzles and combat mechanics. It received multiple year-end nominations, including Game of the Year at the D.I.C.E. Awards.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an action-adventure game. In the game, players assume control of archaeologist Indiana Jones, who must stop the Axis powers from harnessing a power connected to the Great Circle, which refers to mysterious sites of cultural significance around the world that form a perfect circle when together on a map. The game is primarily played from a first-person perspective, but switches to a third-person view for cutscenes and certain gameplay actions, such as when Jones uses his whip to swing over gaps or when climbing pipes and walls. Players can separately adjust the difficulty of the game's "action experience", referring to its combat, and its "adventure experience", referring to puzzle-solving and exploration.
Similar to immersive sims, levels in the game have alternate routes for players to reach their objectives. There are many entrances and exits for highly guarded areas. Some of the levels, such as the Vatican City, Gizeh and Sukhothai, are larger, sandbox locations which can be explored freely by players. In addition to the main quest, players may encounter other non-playable characters who will give them Fieldwork missions tied to the main narrative, and discover collectibles such as ancient relics and medicine bottles. Through exploration, players can also collect Adventure Books, which serve as permanent boosts in the game, improving weapon performance and durability, enhancing Indiana's combat skills, and increasing his health and stamina. An ability named "Lucky Hat" allows a defeated Indiana to instantly revive himself after he crawls to pick up his fedora. The gameplay perks provided in Adventure Books must be unlocked using Adventure Points, which can be earned by photographing objects of interest, opening safes and chests, and collecting relics and field notes. Players may also encounter various puzzles, many of which are optional. Photographing a puzzle repeatedly using Indiana's camera will provide players with additional hints for solving it. Indiana will eventually unlock more tools for exploration and solving puzzles, such as a lighter for illuminiating dark areas and lighting torches, and a rebreather that allows him to dive underwater for an extended period of time.
The player can choose to use stealth tactics, crouching and hiding behind cover to avoid an enemy's line of sight, or quietly incapcitating them using a melee weapon picked up by Indiana. They can also hide bodies from other patrolling enemies. Disguises can be worn to access restricted areas, though some high-level enemies can still see through his disguise; committing crimes such as stealing or behaving menacingly will also cause his disguise to fail. Indiana can pick up various objects in the world, such as shovels, wrenches and broomsticks, and use them as makeshift weapons. They can also be thrown to distract enemies. While the weapons in the game are easily broken, some can be repaired. He is also equipped with a revolver, though ammunition is scarce. Using firearms and explosives also alerts all nearby enemies. During melee fights, Indiana can punch hostile enemies with his fist, or push them away. He can also block and parry incoming attacks, or dodge them. All gameplay actions, such as fighting enemies, sprinting, and climbing, consume stamina, which regenerate slowly if he rests briefly. Eating bread and fruits found in the game's world can provide additional bonus to Indiana's health and stamina respectively, while using bandages restores lost health. Indiana's whip can be used for transversal, puzzle-solving and combat. Targeting the upper limbs of an enemy disarm them, while targeting their lower limbs cause them to trip and fall towards Indiana.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features an original narrative that draws inspiration from the film series. The story is set in 1937, placing it in between the events of the first film Raiders of the Lost Ark (set in 1936), and the third film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (set in 1938). Like both films, the game takes place before the events of World War II, with the Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan) returning as antagonists. Jones (voiced by Troy Baker) also encounters Blackshirts, members of Italy's National Fascist Party.
The game picks up after Jones has left his fiancée, Marion Ravenwood (voiced by Karen Allen through archive recordings). Following the theft of an artifact from Marshall College by an imposing man known as Locus (Tony Todd), Jones heads to the Vatican to investigate. He discovers that sites of spiritual significance have been built throughout history, realizing that their locations form a perfectly aligned circle around the globe. Besides Vatican City, other locations include Peru, Connecticut, the Sukhothai temples in Thailand, the Egyptian pyramids, Shanghai in China, the snowy Himalayas, and the Ziggurat of Ur in Iraq. During his journey, he teams up with Gina Lombardi (Alessandra Mastronardi), an Italian investigative reporter who has an interest in the case. They go up against Emmerich Voss (Marios Gavrilis), who uses psychological manipulation against his enemies and even his own allies like Colonel Viktor Gantz (Tom Beck).
In 1937, Indiana Jones returns to Marshall College after abandoning his fiancée Marion Ravenwood. One night, a man named Locus breaks in, steals a cat mummy, and knocks Jones unconscious before leaving. Jones notices Locus's medallion bears a symbol resembling that of the Vatican Secret Archive's and infiltrates Vatican City for answers. The city is under the control of Benito Mussolini and his Blackshirts, who have been working with Nazi archeologist and occultist Emmerich Voss. Jones meets reporter Ginetta "Gina" Lombardi, who is investigating Voss for her sister Laura's disappearance; the two team up for their respective missions. They discover that a tribe of giants called the "Nephilim Order" have been covertly working for the Catholic Church to protect the secret of the "Great Circle", with the cat mummy containing a special stone related to it. Voss steals the Order's stones and flees as Jones and Gina stow away on his zeppelin. Jones then explains the Great Circle represents a number of sacred religious sites across the world that form a perfect circle, and fears that Voss has discovered some secret to its power.
Arriving at a Nazi dig in Giza, Jones learns the Order has been working with Egyptians for thousands of years prior to the Catholic Church's foundation. The pair then finds the Idol of Ra for its stone, but Voss recovers it and leaves Jones for dead in the desert. Gina, having intercepted Nazi radio traffic revealing Voss's members went missing in Machu Picchu, rescues Jones and the pair travel to the Himalaya Mountains, where they learn the third stone has transported a Nazi battleship from South America to the Himalayas. After finding Laura frozen to death, Jones is captured by a Nazi colonel named Viktor Gantz. Gina sets off a grenade, which allows Jones to escape but sends the Nazi battleship skidding down the mountain. Jones is able to use the third stone to open a portal, transporting them to Shanghai in the midst of the Japanese invasion of the city, where Gantz dies. After hijacking a Japanese fighter plane, the pair travel to the nearest Great Circle ruin in Sukhothai, Siam. Locus confronts them during their search, warning that the Great Circle's secret must never come to light, but Jones ignores his warnings. Voss attacks them as Jones collects the stone; but as they escape, Gina is captured.
Seeing that Jones attaches more importance to Gina than the stones, Locus helps him follow Voss's trail. At the last site for the Great Circle, the Ziggurat of Ur, Locus summons the Nephilim Order to attack the Nazis, allowing Jones to rescue Gina. Ignoring Locus's warnings, the pair travel deeper and find Noah's Ark. Voss captures them and reveals that the Great Circle is related to all of the flood myths in history, with God granting Noah the power of the Great Circle to travel around the world to collect two of every animal and eventually repopulate the world. Voss intends to use this power to help the Nazis take over the world. Jones remarks that God had chosen Noah, and if Voss attempts to harness the power of the Ark, he will be judged and incur God's wrath. Nevertheless, Voss activates the Great Circle's power, causing another Great Flood. Voss, an expert in the Japanese art of karate, brawls with Jones before being killed by the unstable power of the Ark. Locus teleports the Ark away through another portal, averting the flood. Afterwards, despite sharing feelings for each other, Gina parts ways with Jones for her career after a heartfelt goodbye.
In a secret ending, Jones discovers a hidden mural showing all of the locations on the Great Circle pointing to the South Pole. There, footprints in the snow are seen leading away from Noah's Ark, suggesting that Locus has survived.
On January 12, 2021, Lucasfilm Games and Bethesda Softworks announced plans to eventually release a video game based on the Indiana Jones franchise. It would be developed by MachineGames, with Todd Howard serving as executive producer through Bethesda. Both companies are owned by ZeniMax Media. Howard considered MachineGames an ideal company to develop the project because of its work on the Wolfenstein series, which involves a battle against Nazis, like the Indiana Jones franchise. Howard conceived the game's story. As executive producer, he would occasionally check in on the game's progress rather than having a hands-on role.
Howard, an Indiana Jones fan, had previously pitched such a game to George Lucas around 2009, although the project did not move forward at that time, partly because Bethesda did not have the resources to develop it. In addition, Lucasfilm wanted to publish the game, a role that Bethesda sought to fill, and the two could not come to an agreement.
The game's 2021 announcement was accompanied by a teaser trailer which included various Easter eggs and hints about the game's setting. As of mid-2021, the game was in a very early state of development. It was developed using the custom Motor game engine (based on the nascent id Tech 7, first used for Doom Eternal). Jerk Gustafsson served as the game's director. Jens Andersson joined the project as design director in late 2022, after previously being hired in the same position for the planned 2009 game. Andersson had also served as lead designer on The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (2004) and The Darkness (2007). The Indiana Jones team includes more than 20 developers who previously worked on The Darkness.
The title, story details, and first gameplay footage were unveiled on January 18, 2024, during Microsoft Gaming's Xbox Developer Direct video presentation. Also announced was the game's first-person perspective, which received a mixed response. For MachineGames, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle continues MachineGames' tradition of developing games in the first-person perspective, and to make it distinctive from similar third-person adventure games like Tomb Raider and Uncharted, both of which took heavy inspiration from Indiana Jones. The first-person viewpoint was also chosen to fully immerse the player in the role of Indiana Jones.
Lucasfilm had final approval over the game, which is the company's first non-Star Wars game in years, and the first Indiana Jones game since Indiana Jones Adventure World (2011). The game uses Indiana Jones actor Harrison Ford's likeness, while Troy Baker provides voiceover work for the character. Ford praised Baker's performance as "brilliant," and was pleased that no artificial intelligence was used in its creation.
Other voice actors included Alessandra Mastronardi as Gina Lombardi, Marios Gavrilis as Emmerich Voss and Tony Todd as Locus. The soundtrack was composed by Gordy Haab, based on the work of John Williams, who composed the film scores. Haab previously worked on the score for Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (2009). Certain actions were created for the game by stuntmen performing in motion capture suits. Additional technologies featured in the game include SpeedTree for dynamic vegetation, SpeechGraphics for lip syncing and Oodle for optimized game loading.
Due to the frequent appearance of the Axis Powers' forces and propaganda in the game, known for their various and heinous war crimes against humanity in World War II, the game also includes a cultural sensitivity warning that appears when the player begins the game for the first time, indicating that neither the game nor its developers condone the Axis Powers' actions.
The game serves as the final voice acting role for Tony Todd, who died of stomach cancer at the age of 69.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was released on December 9, 2024 for Windows and Xbox Series X/S as a timed console exclusive. A PlayStation 5 version is slated to launch on April 17, 2025. It is available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass until it's added to the Standard tier for console at a later date. A cosmetics pack inspired by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) was available as a general pre-order bonus or for pre-loading the game on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass. Alongside the standard release, a Premium Edition and Collector's Edition are also distributed. Both editions enabled a 3-day early access period to play the game from December 6, 2024, an extra outfit for Indy inspired by his appearance in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), and instant access to the game's story expansion The Order of Giants from release, in addition to a Digital Art Book. The Collector's Edition also comes with a SteelBook display case, a physical replica of the Allmaker Relic displaying a download code for the digital game, a journal resembling the one belonging to Indy, and an 11-inch globe marking key locations in the game's story, with space for hidden storage. The Premium and Collector's Editions for PlayStation 5 includes the packaged version of the game on a Blu-ray disc as opposed to a download key.
The original contract between Bethesda and Lucasfilm parent Disney stipulated that the game launch as a multiplatform title, but said terms were initially amended to exclude a PlayStation 5 version when Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media in March 2021, thereby receiving ownership of Bethesda Softworks and MachineGames. Disney felt that Windows and Xbox Series X/S made up a large-enough marketplace to justify exclusivity as originally planned. By February 2024 as Microsoft Gaming was preparing to ship some of its first-party software onto non-Xbox platforms, Bethesda was reported to be internally considering a PlayStation 5 version of The Great Circle for launch following the Xbox and PC versions, which it confirmed as in development in August 2024. On the decision to pursue a PlayStation 5 version of the game after initially announcing it as an Xbox console exclusive, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer cited the strong reception to prior Xbox titles Pentiment, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush and Sea of Thieves, which launched on PlayStation and Nintendo systems earlier in 2024. Furthermore, he described the necessity to provide returns to Microsoft to receive support on game development, and the desire to maintain strong interest in their franchises while growing the Xbox ecosystem across console, PC and cloud, calling multiplatform development "a strategy that works for us".
The Great Circle is set to receive a story expansion titled The Order of Giants following the game's launch.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle received "generally favourable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregator website Metacritic, and 92% of critics recommended the game on OpenCritic. It received praise for its combat, exploration and puzzle systems and storytelling.
Eurogamer's Katharine Castle wrote in a 5/5 review that The Great Circle is the best Indiana Jones adventure since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), calling it "a rip-roaring, globetrotting tour de force that marries The Last Crusade's eye for fun, wit and slapstick humour with smart, player-driven investigations that really put you, as Indy, in the driving seat".
The game's sidequests, known as fieldwork, was commended by Video Games Chronicle for feeling "just as meaningful as the game's main quests" while not existing for padding the game's runtime. They also complimented the game's puzzles as being "well-designed" with a hint system that doesn't shout the answer at the player like some other AAA titles.
Rick Lane's review in The Guardian praised the story's political message and relevance, writing that it "acutely dissects far-right ideology as a whole, and actively explores how aspiring autocrats build their power on the bodies of disaffected young men". For example, the game's lead Nazi antagonist, Emmerich Voss, says that "Nothing is quite so easy to manipulate as an insecure male". In a review for Digital Trends, Giovanni Colantonio viewed MachineGames' thesis presented in the game as being that "Nazis may be dangerous, but they're also very, very stupid" and this "might be the radical thesis that we need right now".
Harrison Ford used the game to voice his support for actor Troy Baker and other video game performers on strike in 2025, protesting the use of artificial intelligence to duplicate their work.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was the 2nd best selling game in the US during launch week. It was the 14th best-selling game in the United States in December 2024. The game was the 18th best selling title in the UK for the week ending 14 December 2024. Satya Nadella, Microsoft's CEO, added that 4 million players had played the game by January 2025. Microsoft revealed Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was one of the games on Xbox with the highest single-day active users in 2024.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle appeared on several lists of the top video games of 2024, being ranked in sixth place by GamingBolt, eighth place by the Associated Press, and tenth place by The Guardian. It was also selected by Eurogamer as its Game of the Year.
When asked about the possibility of follow-ups to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Lucasfilm Games vice president and general manager Douglas Reilly stated that while they are currently focusing on making the game and its forthcoming DLC successes, "I think we’re always looking for great stories. And the good news is, there’s a lot of space in between the films where we could tell more and more Indiana Jones stories that I think would be super interesting".