Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Review

Plenty of games have borrowed from Indiana Jones; this one finally feels like him. Set in 1937, between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, it sends Indy from Marshall College to the Vatican, the pyramids of Giza, the Himalayas, Shanghai and the flooded temples of Sukhothai in pursuit of the Great Circle. Troy Baker catches Harrison Ford's wry, weary charm remarkably well, and the villain, the supporting cast and the pulp dialogue all earn their place.

MachineGames plays it in the first person, and the choice pays off in exploration. The larger areas, above all the Vatican and Giza, are dense little sandboxes of locked doors, hidden passages and optional puzzles, and the puzzles are among the best in any big budget game of recent years. Photographing clues with Indy's camera and working through the notebook make the detective work feel physical, and the whip is a tool as often as a weapon.

The action is the weaker half. Knocking out guards with frying pans and shovels is fun, but the stealth is simple, enemy awareness is easy to game and the gunplay is deliberately thin. The early Vatican stretch also runs long. None of that dims a handsome, witty adventure that understands its hero as well as anything made since the original films.