Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

My first surprise with The Great Circle was the genre slip. I went in expecting a cinematic shooter with Indy window dressing and got something closer to an immersive sim with puzzle-dungeon DNA threaded through every major level. MachineGames, the studio behind the Wolfenstein reboots, took a deliberate step back from run-and-gun and built something that rewards patience, observation, and messing around with improvised weapons more than trigger discipline. The result lands at an 87 on Metacritic and sits at Very Positive on Steam, with good reason. The game is set in 1937, slotted neatly between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, and that canonical gap gives MachineGames genuine room to breathe. Troy Baker's performance as Indy is the first thing critics mention because it has to be: he sounds close enough to a prime Harrison Ford that you stop noticing after about ten minutes. The locations, from Vatican City's underbelly and the Giza pyramid complex to a Nazi battleship teetering on a Himalayan cliff, are lavishly detailed. Smaller open-area maps like the Vatican level are where the game stretches out properly, letting you explore side missions listed in Indy's journal, hunt Fieldwork objectives, and generally lose a couple of hours before getting back to the critical path. Playtime sits around 12 hours if you sprint the story, considerably more if you dig into the optional content. Combat works on three registers: stealth takedowns with whatever blunt object is nearby, melee brawling with blocks and counters, and a pistol you'll rarely want to use because gunfire draws a crowd fast. The whip handles traversal, disarms, and sets up follow-up hits, and post-launch Adventure Book perks like "Open Season" and "Sleight of Hand" add whip-based combo options that weren't there at release. The hint system is where the design gets clever: stuck on a puzzle, you pull out Indy's in-world camera, snap a photo, and the characters work out the next clue organically. No UI menu, no external guide, just a mechanic that keeps you inside the fiction. Trap-ridden dungeons, mural-cipher puzzles, and tight stealth infiltrations like the nighttime Castel Sant'Angelo section show the range the designers were going for. Where it stumbles is also where it's most honest. Stealth is forgiving to the point of being occasionally silly: enemies forget you exist after a short wait, AI patrol logic is inconsistent, and a handful of later stealth setpieces feel undersupported by the toolset on offer. Some reviewers flagged that the pure stealth sequences feel lifted from a game with more information and gadgets than The Great Circle actually provides. Combat animations drew minor criticism at launch, climbing has a touch of jank, and the central MacGuffin never quite commands the same mythic weight as the Ark or the Grail. These are real cracks. None of them sink the experience, but players expecting the stealth sophistication of Dishonored or the brawling fluidity of a dedicated action game will feel the edges. The overall atmosphere, score (recorded at Abbey Road Studios), and sheer quality of the storytelling carry more weight than the rough patches cost. The bottom line: this is a single-player, first-person adventure that earns its license honestly. Story-first players who like exploration, environmental puzzles, and a game that trusts them to be curious will get the most out of it. Pure action players who want responsive combat above all else may find it uneven. A story expansion, The Order of Giants, is available if you want more after the credits roll. Alex, Scout Team

Valve rates this game Steam Deck Verified. Runs great on Linux after minor tweaks. Based on 147 ProtonDB community reports.

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