3 Hours of hands-on with 'Indiana Jones and the Great Circle' Shows It's Dishonored Wrapped in Pure Spielberg Vibes

After nearly three hours with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, I can say with absolute certainty that this is now one of my most anticipated releases in the coming months. Where I was once on the fence about MachineGames’ take on this iconic silver-screen hero, I’m now eagerly awaiting the full experience when it drops on Xbox Game Pass this December.

While the Swedish studio is best known for reinvigorating the Wolfenstein series with action-heavy shooters, The Great Circle proves they can craft something truly special without resorting to shock and awe tactics. It’s more subtle but promises to still keep fans holding onto their (fedora) hats for an unforgettable adventure.

Pack It up, Pack It in, Let Me Begin

My hands-on demo begins with Indy exploring Marshall College late at night, drawn by strange noises and a series of crashes. Naturally, Marcus Brody is fast asleep in Indy’s office, presumably having indulged in one too many glasses of scotch during their research the night before.

After a quick walk around the university, Indy confronts an imposing figure (played by Tony Todd) who’s been ransacking exhibits in search of something. This encounter gives players their first taste of combat, but it’s brief—Indy is quickly overpowered and knocked out by the towering brute.

From here, the game truly begins to unfold. The next morning, you’re back in the college, piecing together clues and solving puzzles to determine your next steps. While only a short intro, this gameplay loop will become a key part of the game, feeling more like Uncharted’s puzzle sequences than the all-out action MachineGames is known for.

Before long, Indy is packing his briefcase for another adventure. The tell-tale music swells, Marcus Brody is in a flap over who’ll cover his classes. Whip, check. Hat, check. Diary for scribbling notes, check. Soon we’re watching a plane fly across the Atlantic, with a red line tracking the journey on a globe, while Indy uses Morse code to message a friend in advance.

It feels like watching a deleted scene from a Spielberg film, and as far as cold opens go, the introduction to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a strong one that’s already sold me on the promise of MachineGames' original story.

Nazis. I hate these guys.

My first proper taste of gameplay comes in the next section which takes place at The Vatican and it's here where we get to see a few more of the underlying fundamentals in action. Principally this is a stealth section, with Indy required to use everything at his disposal to find a way around the Nazi patrols, who are making the rounds on every street and corner.

You’ll find yourself using Indy’s whip to scale walls, climbing obstacles to open up new paths, throwing objects to create distractions, and even luring unsuspecting soldiers into the shadows to knock them out with a candlestick. There are also hidden keys to discover, unlocking new sections and pathways to explore.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fully explore this level before the developers moved us to the next stage of the preview build (more on that in a bit). However, I can confidently say that during my 45 minutes with this portion of the game, I never felt shortchanged by not having Indiana Jones beautiful face constantly front and center on screen during gameplay.

A Familiar Face

The decision to opt for first-person over third-person had been something of a controversial design choice when it was first announced, but having played the game, I can safely say I'm glad that MachineGames opted for the first-person camera.

Yes, the gameplay could have opted for an Uncharted-style camera setting, but I'm not sure it would have gained much. Based on my time during Marshall College and The Vatican, MachineGames gives players more than enough cutscenes and close-ups of Dr Jones to showcase his subtle mannerisms and facial expressions.

Fans of the movies will likely know what I mean, the wry smile, the glint in the eye at the prospect of a new adventure, the steely look of defiance when.

According to Radiotimes, Lucasfilm shared photo sets and other assets from the 1980s movies, allowing the team at MachineGames to create their own version of Ford using the assets from the right era. Based on everything I saw, it feels realistic enough, and given the game leans on these small cut scenes frequently enough, you'll never feel let down by not having Indiana's mug on screen when you're playing.

The best digger in Egypt

The bulk of my preview took place in Egypt, in the shadow of the pyramids of Giza, with Indy once again on the hunt for some ancient artifacts. Nazis are once again on patrol across the map, so you'll still need to be a bit sneaky from time to time, but in truth you can run past most as this area was huge.

In my 90 minutes with this section of the game, I was able to explore the opening town, sneak across the desert to find a merchant who sold me a lighter (useful for dark pyramids), sneak into a Nazi encampment using a disguise, and (eventually) sneak past some guards to explore one of the main pyramids, which was packed with small puzzles.

Puzzles inside the pyramid remained relatively straightforward, the likes of which will seem fairly familiar to anyone who's played a Tomb Raider or Uncharted before. You'll be bouncing beams of light to open doorways, or opening secret passages to uncover a way forward, or using torchlight to keep scorpions away. 

Broadly speaking it was a little too easy, but I'll assume this is an earlier section of the game that wasn't intended to be too tasking. We've already seen footage before of puzzles where sand is filling the room which Indy needs to escape from, so I'm hoping that final game is slightly more challenging, but it was still enjoyable enough, and with the addition of a few traps certainly helped give the sense that this was the definitive Indiana Jones archaeology experience. 

However, I was rushing, and there were easily another two main encampments I'd not explored on the map, not to mention two towns that I passed through relatively quickly. I'm quite sure this one section of the game could have taken me another 90 minutes to fully explore; and that's before I factor in the numerous collectibles in this area and sidequests that I could choose to complete.

Intriguingly though, for a game based on a film series that's largely more associated with action and adventure, both my opening 45 minutes with the game and the subsequent 90 minutes in the desert felt closer to that of 'Thief', or 'Dishonored' and it works incredibly well.

He Chose... Poorly.

Having spent most of my playthrough opting for a stealthy approach, and with my time at Bethesda's preview event running out, I had just enough time to see what happens when players decide to unholster their weapons and go in guns blazing. So with the reckless abandon of BJ Blazkowicz from MachineGames' Wolfenstein series, I pulled out Indy's revolver and started firing at anything goose-stepping around the Nazi encampments.

However, despite what Raiders of the Lost Ark would have you believe, sometimes pulling your revolved isn't the best course of action. Or at least, that's how it felt.

Surprisingly, I didn’t enjoy this side of the game as much as I thought I would - especially given how much I’ve liked MachineGames’ first-person shooters in the past. To be clear, the shooting mechanics weren’t bad. Far from it. The guns felt weighty, and small touches like shooting a Nazi's helmet off at point-blank range, or turning the guns sideways to use as a club at close quarters added to my immersion. But it just didn't feel as satisfying as I’d hoped. Maybe by that point in my playthrough, I was content to avoid combat altogether, sticking to the occasional hand-to-hand scuffle.

It was also pretty tough. Granted, I wasn't exactly being careful, nor did I have much cover while standing in the wide-open space of an Egyptian desert. But as soon as I fired a single shot, Indy was quickly surrounded. Enemies in earshot swarmed my location from every direction, and each additional gunshot only brought more trouble. To make things harder, it seemed like Indy couldn’t take much damage—naturally—since two shots were usually enough to put me down.

So, if you’re a Wolfenstein fan hoping for that familiar thrill of mowing down Nazis, this might not be the game for you. Of course, this is only a small slice of the game, so who’s to say if later sections will be more engaging? But based on this preview, I can only see myself playing it one way: avoiding combat whenever possible and bonking Nazi's on the head with candlesticks from the shadows.

It Belongs In A Museum!

Friends know me as a self-confessed fan of PlayStation’s story-driven titles, so the biggest compliment I can give Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is that it’ll absolutely have me turning on my Xbox, resubscribing to Game Pass, and diving in on day one.

Although I didn’t get to experience the full story myself, I’m confident that the rest of Indiana’s adventure will be a globetrotting thrill ride, packed with Hollywood-style set pieces to rival the Uncharted series.

What I can say, though, is that the preview has hit all the right notes I’d expect from an Indiana Jones game, from the score to the subtle nuances of Indy’s mannerisms on screen. It’s also reassured me that the gameplay will be highly enjoyable without relying too heavily on action, and that the choice to go first-person was well justified. In short, it’s clear that MachineGames isn’t just honoring Indiana’s legacy—they’re building on it with a story of their own, one that action-adventure fans would be foolish to miss.