Indians Jones and the Great Circle had its full release yesterday, December 10th. It had an early access period, but I didn't think it was worth it to pay one hundred bucks to play the game a few days early especially when it's on Game Pass. Now that the game is fully released, and I've been able to spend a few hours with it, here are my first impressions of the game with no spoilers for the story.
Front and center are the graphics. The game, at almost all times, is visually impressive. The opening scene takes place in a jungle with dense, vibrant green foliage. The sound design of the jungle was great too, really making it seem alive. The graphics get a slight downgrade when you enter a cave, but still look good and the detail is absolutely still there. This trend continues throughout the rest of the game. The brighter areas usually look a little better than the darker areas, but the darker ones still look good.
The voice acting is also impressive. Troy Baker does a near perfect impression of Harrison Ford during my play through save for a few circumstantial exceptions that I can barely remember. The other side characters around Indy are also voiced expertly, but something about the audio mixing makes voices occasionally sound very far away. This is only outside of cutscenes. Whenever a character is more than a few feet from Indy, except enemies weirdly, the character sounds very far away. This hardly takes away from the overall experience, though as it is infrequent.
The movement and combat mechanics are a mix of mostly awesome and a little bit awkward playing. At first, I thought to myself that the game would be better if it were in third person, but my wife pointed out that the point of the game is to completely immerse the player in being Indiana Jones. She was definitely right, and the game does a good job of this. Occasionally, it’s just a little bit awkward and only serves to remind me that I’m in a video game. To move objects out of the way, you interact with them, then move the joystick in the direction they need to go, but it isn’t fluid. This movement only happens after you’ve moved the joystick all the way and continues to happen once you let go. I’m being a bit nitpicky, but this happens more often than you’d think. The other strange movement mechanic is climbing. For some reason, when you climb onto anything tall, the camera switches to third person. I’m not sure why, and it feels a bit weird when it happens.
Every other movement makes you feel like you are controlling an actual person; not an immortal video game character or a superhero but a regular tough guy. It’s actually quite refreshing to see this concept executed so well. To punch, you press the right or left trigger which corresponds with a hand. To block, you press the left bumper. To use the whip, you press the right bumper. To dodge, you press A and a direction. When I get into a brawl, it feels like I’m an actual person fighting other actual people and it truly is refreshing. The whip is a lot of fun to use too. It can be used to disarm an enemy or pull an enemy towards you. I also commend the use and importance of melee weapons in this game. At least where I’m at, you don’t have any melee weapons by default except one I’ll get into later. You find weapons around the map that are single use when performing a stealth takedown and sometimes multi-use in a fight depending on the weapon of which there is an abundance. Bottles, brooms, crutches, hammers, and Indy’s revolver all can be used as melee weapons. Speaking of the revolver, the game really doesn’t want you to use it unless absolutely necessary. You don’t get many bullets. You start off with seven and, in my playthrough, which wasn’t very long, I only found two bullets. The gunplay is fine, but the game definitely doesn’t want it to be a first resort.
My only complaint about the combat is that it feels a little bit slow. The process of blocking, dodging, grabbing, and punching could have been sped up quite a bit to make Indy feel a bit more like a fighter. Other than that, the combat is great.
The upgrade system is fairly different from other games as well. To unlock abilities and upgrades, you find books around the map that contain them. These abilities are simple things like an increase in damage or they can be more complex things like getting a last stand ability when hit. What’s more interesting is how you purchase these abilities. Simply finding the book isn’t enough; you must spend adventure points to unlock and equip the ability. Adventure points are found simply by exploring. It’s nice that exploring gives you an actual reward. It fits the vibe of an Indiana Jones game very well.
Overall, I’ve very much enjoyed my time with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I’m really looking forward to completing the game. I only wish I had more time to play it!
Have you been enjoying Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? Let me know!