MachineGames has been cooking on this one for quite some time. A game that brings together two parties with their love of exploration and beating up fascists, one with the legacy that’s celebrated by many, and the other that has helped other series with creating a new fresh take that’s loved by many.
When the developers from Sweden took on the chance on creating a new Indiana Jones game back in 2021, many felt that it might have been a daunting task considering how Wolfenstein: Youngblood was received but when your parent company goes and gives you something that aligns with what you’ve been doing all this while, you can’t really say no, can you?
And so, at the time of writing, we’re about to see if Indiana Jones and The Golden Circle has the right amount of sauce to be one within this year’s lineup of incredible action-adventure titles, and I am pleased to say that they have as well.
Presentation
When you first boot up Indy Jones, you’ll be greeted with a short reel and a tutorial prologue that fans of this series might be familiar with from the first movie, which ends with Indy running from a comically large bolder before the main plot of the game kicking off. It’s a neat touch that adds more to the charm of the game.
And it’s quite a good first impression as the lush jungle does showcase the graphics of what’s in store for the rest of the game, with a solid 60fps frame rate on the Xbox Series S without any hint of screen-tearing from what I’ve seen on my own monitor.
This could look even better with the higher resolution pack that Series Xs would be getting (at the expense of a higher download size) but it looks to be a solid version even on the smallest console.
The UI design is quite simplistic and that’s good for a game that’s about exploring the depths as it doesn’t distract you from what you should be seeing, even during the many puzzle segments that players would encounter. Like even hints are contextualized within the game’s mechanics, like Indy using a camera to spot the markings to solve a puzzle and so forth.
The voice acting does well with making the cutscenes feel like it’s part of a scene within the movies, with one Troy Baker being the ever-quick-thinking Archaeologist Dr. Henry Jones Jr, and making his hardest to sound similar to Harrison Ford at times. But fans of the voice actor who have heard him switching voices multiple times (especially in shows like Critical Role) would notice his mannerisms quite quickly and I think that’s funny to hear some Troy-ism in his Indy voice.
Gameplay
The Golden Circle is a mostly first-person affair with some third-person camera shifts for those swings and climbing segments, which does remind me of the Treyarch 007 game from way back when with the same camera shift perspective for certain actions. But this isn’t a shooter game per se like Indy does have his iconic revolver if you want to recreate that one scene with the swordsman, but it’s more of a melee focus game with the emphasis on breaking the noses of fascists in more direct ways.
In fact, the game does well in the interactivity part just like the previous works of MachineGames, and like in your time snooping around the locales such as the Vatican, you can find stuff off the beaten path that can help you level up your Indiana as he Jones his way to find the treasure, be it looking at drawers or using his whip to get into higher places, amongst other stuff.
Indy himself does feel weighty and sluggish as a middle-aged professor of archeology would, which helps with the momentum of the punches that you’ll be dishing out, or even the attacks that you’ll be doing using items that around scattered around the area, which circles backs to how it’s quite interactive with you being able to beat them up. Like one of the achievements is literally hitting your enemies with a fly swatter, so even they know making that fun is important.
But I still feel the detection point during stealth segments does feel a bit finicky even on Normal but since the tried and true method of “Stealth is Optional” rings true in this one (and technically Indy Jones doesn’t really do stealth in the movie as well), it doesn’t really matter that much. However, it makes for funny interaction when you do your whip action and they notice a Priest doing a sick move.
Content![]()
As a globe-trotting action-adventure game that takes place in multiple parts of the world, Indiana Jones And The Golden Circle does have the meat for a pretty lengthy game, with secrets and side-quests that can be done in the places you visit. It’s amazing how most of it does feel intentionally created to make sure players are aware of the surroundings that they could have missed during the first go-around of an area.
For example, in the Vatican portion of the game, you can meet a Nun who’s waiting for an item that Indy could go fetch within one of the restricted areas. Which in return, also unlocks a new passageway that can make traversing around for the latter part of this restricted area more quicker. It’s a neat traversal thing that they have reworked from the likes of Wolfenstein Youngblood but are now more fleshed out.
And it’s things like this that make just doing the side stuff like the Mysteries more fun because you don’t really know what to expect, like one thing might see you looking for stuff in the sewers and the next might be somewhere in the Giza, it’s the stuff that you can spend hours getting lost and still enjoy how the story flows.
It’s those sorts of games where you wouldn’t mind going through it with a fine comb, so to speak, length not counting as you do stuff that you might have seen in the movies. So content-wise, it’s alright.
Personal Enjoyment![]()
I don’t really have any attachments to this series, frankly.
Like I actually love the cartoon-esque absurdity that was Kingdom of The Crystal Skull so my taste in movies is exactly 1-to-1 with my taste in video games, and I can see that The Golden Circle is MachineGames doing their best in recreating the charm of the first two movies, which they excel rather well and also do capture the humor of that era, which you can see each time a character drops a vase or the ever rare Weilheim Scream being played.
So playing this one has me enjoying just messing around the place like I would do in Uncharted or Tomb Raider games, and it was quite engaging to spend hours in a location, finishing puzzles, meeting the folks that’ll help Indy out on his travels. It’s not going to set the world on fire with its gameplay, but hey sometimes you need these sorts of games to end the year.
Verdict![]()
Indiana Jones And The Golden Circle is a fantastic action-adventure title that fans of the Indy scene or even fans of MachineGames should give a good ‘ol try. It will have you spend time with its crafted levels and mysteries. Plus, who doesn’t love getting to beat up Fascists without any repercussions?
It’ll benefit from being in the Xbox Game Pass subscription, for sure but I feel it’s a solid enough effort from the Swedish dev team to see them getting pretty good numbers on launch on both Xbox and even PlayStation when that takes off.
But for now, we just keep on punching up.
Played on Xbox Series S, Review copy provided by the publisher. The game is also available on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Indiana Jones And The Golden Circle
A fantastic action-adventure title that fans of the Indy scene or even fans of MachineGames should give a good ‘ol try.
- Presentation 8.5
- Gameplay 8.5
- Content 8
- Personal Enjoyment 7