Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: everything we know so far

3 weeks ago 2

Grab your fedora, whip, and pistol because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is plotting a course to consoles soon. After being announced via a small teaser in 2021, we’re now finally starting to put the pieces together on the mystery that is this new title from MachineGames.

While many very popular and successful games have been inspired by the Indiana Jones film franchise, including Uncharted and Tomb Raider, Indy himself has yet to star in a true action-adventure game worthy of his legacy. Will this game be the one to remind audiences who the true pioneer of set-piece action and globe-trotting puzzle-solving is? Only time will tell, but we can at least guess based on all the clues we’ve unearthed.

Release date

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch on Xbox and PC on December 9, with the PlayStation 5 version coming in spring 2025.

Platforms

We already gave it away with the release date, but Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is not an Xbox console exclusive like we all thought. This game will join the four other Xbox titles set to come to the PlayStation 5 at a later date.

Trailers

The initial trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle reintroduces us to Indy, who, as you would expect, finds himself neck-deep in trouble (literally). The trailer stays quite vague on details, but the developer commentary from the Developer Direct event where it was shown filled us in on the basics of the game’s plot.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will take place between the films Raiders of the Lost Arc and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. After realizing a seemingly unimportant artifact was stolen, Indy will go looking for answers as to why. This promises to lead him into a greater mystery and conspiracy that will unravel throughout the course of the game. While that is the bulk of what we know now, we do know that Nazis will be involved and it will be up to us to stop whatever they are planning.

Official Showcase Reveal: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - Xbox Games Showcase 2024

The next look we got at Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was during the Xbox Games Showcase in 2024. It was almost entirely cinematic and set up a few plot points. We already knew Indy would be on the trail of a stolen artifact, but now we know this is one of many he needs to find. The locations he will need to travel to all form a circle on the globe, hence the game’s title. This trailer focuses on the Himalayas.

Exploring a frozen battleship, Indy and investigative reporter Gina Lombardi find what they’re looking for only to be quickly ambushed by Nazis. In traditional Indiana Jones fashion, Indy and the big bad quip at each other for a few moments while Gina gets into position to toss a grenade and cause some chaos so Indy can fight back.

The Date Reveal Trailer has more behind-the-scenes footage than raw gameplay. We get a look at how Troy Baker, who will be playing Indie, got into the role and how he hopes to bring this iconic character to life and do him justice. While we see a bit more footage of the game itself, nothing new about the story is revealed.

Gameplay

Indiana pointing at a diagram on the wall.

There was plenty of debate about whether or not Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would be a third-person game. Our first look cleared that mystery up very quickly, confirming that the game will almost entirely be in first-person. The only exceptions are cutscenes and when performing traversal actions like climbing around the environment. This makes sense as the developers are most experienced in creating first-person titles and wanted to really put players in the shoes of Indiana Jones.

Combat so far consists of melee fighting with bare fists, a frying pan, using your whip, and pulling out a trusty pistol to blast away enemies. No other weapons were shown (with the exception of a machine gun mounted to a plane during a set piece), so it is unclear if you will stick with these core tools or swap out firearms as you go. Some moments of platforming and exploration also are featured, and will likely be used to break up the combat and set-piece moments.

Puzzles are another big component of the game. We see glimpses of Indy exploring ancient ruins and interacting with various contraptions in order to progress.

Several hands-on impression pieces have been released outlining what the game’s opening actually feels like to play. The tutorial takes place in Marshall College where you fail to fend off some intruders and are then forced to do some detective work and puzzle solving to discover what exactly was stolen.

Stealth is also highlighted as a mechanic but doesn’t appear to be forced. You have the ability to grab and throw items as distractions or use them to perform stealth takedowns. Getting caught won’t end your mission, and the game appears to be quite forgiving about letting you return to stealth rather than putting you on alert for the rest of the mission. Alternate routes were highlighted even in the more linear missions, but not to a major degree.

The Giza section is one of the game’s more open areas where players are free to explore and engage with different tasks. There are still plenty of enemy patrols and camps to pay attention to, but players will have more freedom in how to approach or avoid them. You won’t be given a map, though, and need to collect them in the environment and physically reference them rather than rely on any UI elements to navigate. This is also where disguises showed up. By dressing up as the enemy, players can freely enter Nazi camps without drawing attention.

Open areas will have side objectives as well, including finding wanted posters and tracking down to a tomb. Other optional puzzles and discoveries are found more organically as you explore or overhear NPCs in the environment talking.

In both styles of level, gunplay seems to be a very rare occurrence. Stealth, hand-to-hand combat, and using the environment to dispatch foes are the focus over shooting your pistol.

Preorder

You can preorder Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Xbox or PC for now, and we assume PlayStation 5 once that version has a release date. For now, there’s the Standard and Premium editions to pick from.

Standard Edition: $70