Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a 2024 action-adventure game from developer MachineGames and publisher Bethesda Softworks. It tells an original story set in 1937, between the films *Raiders of the Lost Ark* and *Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade*. Players control archaeologist Indiana Jones as he tries to stop several groups from exploiting a mysterious force tied to the Great Circle—a collection of ancient sites across the globe that align to form a perfect circle on a map.

The game is mostly played from a first-person perspective, switching to third-person for cutscenes and certain actions like whip-swinging or climbing. Players can adjust the difficulty for combat and puzzle-solving separately. Level design borrows from immersive sims, offering multiple routes to objectives. Larger areas like Vatican City, the Giza pyramid complex, and Sukhothai function as open sandboxes for free exploration. Alongside the main story, players can take side quests, find collectibles such as relics and medicine bottles, and gather Adventure Books that grant permanent upgrades—unlocked using Adventure Points earned by photographing objects, opening safes, or collecting relics and notes. Puzzles are common, and taking repeated photos of one can reveal extra hints. Tools like a lighter and a rebreather become available over time.

Combat and stealth are both viable. Jones can crouch, hide behind cover, and stash bodies to avoid detection. Disguises grant access to restricted areas, though some enemies can see through them, and crimes or aggressive behavior will break the disguise. Objects like shovels and wrenches can be used as makeshift weapons or thrown to distract foes. Weapons break easily but can sometimes be repaired. Jones carries a revolver, but ammunition is limited. In melee, he can punch, push, block, parry, or dodge. The whip helps with traversal, puzzle-solving, and combat—targeting an enemy’s arms disarms them, while hitting their legs trips them. All actions consume stamina, which slowly recovers when resting. Eating bread or fruit boosts health or stamina, and bandages restore health.

The story begins in 1937 when a giant man named Locus breaks into Marshall College, steals a cat mummy, and knocks Jones unconscious. Spotting a symbol on Locus’s medallion that matches the Vatican Secret Archive, Jones heads to Vatican City for answers.