One Year Ago, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Reminded Us How Hilarious The Series Is

by

Today, December 9th, 2025, marks the one-year anniversary of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. We’re taking a look back at how the game successfully captured the excitement and humor of the classic Indiana Jones films.

An Indiana Jones video game has a lot to live up to. The franchise is well-established, having been around since 1981 in movies, TV, and more. Fans expect certain things, like swinging from whips, solving puzzles in interesting places, and, of course, fighting bad guys.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle delivers everything you’d expect from an Indiana Jones adventure, but the developers at MachineGames have truly exceeded expectations for a video game based on the franchise. After the success of games like Uncharted, it would have been easy for the studio to simply copy that formula – essentially making Indiana Jones a fedora-wearing version of Nathan Drake – but they went above and beyond.

The Great Circle offers expansive, open worlds to discover, packed with items to collect, optional quests, and, above all, the freedom to live out your own adventurous fantasies. It’s a truly impressive game, delivering a story that feels like a classic Indiana Jones film, brought to life by a remarkably convincing performance from Troy Baker, and featuring exciting action and clever puzzles.

/videos/indiana-jones-and-the-great-circle-machinegames-anniversary-update-trailer/2300-6466436/

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is surprisingly hilarious. While the series isn’t usually known for its comedy, the movies directed by Steven Spielberg are full of visual gags and slapstick. The game successfully captures that same comedic style, which is something previous Indiana Jones games didn’t really try to do.

Love him or hate him, Spielberg is a master of visual storytelling. His films, including the Indiana Jones series, are known for their energetic and dynamic camerawork. While he employs common techniques like long shots and smooth camera movements, he uniquely combines them with careful staging and action choreography to create scenes that feel incredibly lively and full of motion.

The films are full of humor that mixes silly actions – such as throwing a burning kebab at an enemy – with surprisingly violent reactions, often kicking off a chaotic chain of events. Spielberg expertly times these gags, frequently showing both the setup and the punchline within the same shot, as seen in a funny moment from The Last Crusade where Sallah tries to conceal Brody. Even the less-successful Kingdom of the Crystal Skull showcases Spielberg’s knack for comedy, featuring an early scene where a series of events designed by Indy quickly escalates into a large fight.

The game masterfully blends controlled action with unpredictable moments, and this is especially clear in its cutscenes. One particularly memorable scene features Indiana Jones and his ally, Gina, battling the villain Voss and his assistant, Gantz. Within two minutes, the fight devolves into a slapstick comedy: Indy accidentally hits someone off-camera, Voss lets out a dramatic yell before attacking Gina, and Gina promptly knocks herself unconscious with a bookshelf. The whole thing is delightfully absurd and guaranteed to make you laugh.

The story cutscenes are just a small part of the experience. The game truly shines in its open world, where you’re free to do almost anything. For example, you might stumble upon Nazis tinkering with a generator in an ancient Egyptian tomb, giving you the chance to zap them with a lever – even though the game never tells you to! You can also pick up nearly any object and use it as a weapon, letting you overcome challenges in hilariously unexpected ways – moments you’ll definitely want to record.

Whether it’s with a frying pan, a shovel, or even a fly swatter, the game lets you improvise and react to situations on the fly. I’d describe Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as a game where you grab whatever’s nearby and use it – a bit like Hitman. You can play with careful planning or just act on instinct, and then let the game’s systems create surprising consequences and drive the action forward.

The humor in this game often comes from unexpected events and things going hilariously wrong. I quickly lost count of how many times my careful attempts to sneak past enemies turned into frantic chases, leaving me surrounded. Because it’s a video game, these chaotic moments felt especially exciting, with the game’s physics and enemy behavior adding to the unpredictability. In a way, the game’s wild and funny situations capture the same spirit of adventure and unpredictable trouble that Indiana Jones is famous for in his movies.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t simply about playing as Indiana Jones—it lets you feel like you’re directing one of his adventures. It’s not about reliving his story, but about actively creating your own Indiana Jones-style action sequences. While playing, you’re essentially the one designing the stunts, framing the shots, and bringing the action to life.

Finishing Great Circle reminded me how much I love the Indiana Jones adventures. The last movie left the series feeling old and dusty, like something from a museum. But Great Circle was a fantastic revival – it made a familiar concept feel new and exciting again after many years.

When we were figuring out how to make a good Indiana Jones game, the team and I realized it wasn’t about just copying a movie. It’s about letting you feel like you’re starring in your own Indy adventure, creating those iconic scenes yourself. And playing Indiana Jones and the Great Circle really drove home how important humor is – a great Indy movie, and a great game, just isn’t complete without it!

Read More

2025-12-09 17:40