Xbox fans, today is your day. This has been a long time coming, with many false dawns, but the green team finally has a win. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle opened to a critical score of 86 on OpenCritic, and Xbox gets to join the party. Granted, Indiana Jones was expecting Redfall, Starfield, Hellblade, or even Microsoft Flight Sim to be at the party when it showed up, but Xbox finally has finally joined this generation, and not a moment too soon.
I haven’t played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle yet. I didn’t review it, and I refuse to take part in the ‘buy now for early access scam‘. This is entirely a matter of principle. I still wouldn’t partake if it was called ‘pay more money to play the game a couple of days before everyone else’, but I would at least support it as an honest endeavour. Early access means something specific in gaming, and this is not that. But now, where was I? Oh yes, Xbox has finally got a win.
Indiana Jones Could Be A Huge Hit
There are caveats to this success, as there often are. TheGamer’s own Eric Switzer is an outlier on the lower end of The Great Circle’s scoring, awarding it a respectable 3.5/5. The crux of Eric’s argument is that the game is fantastic as a linear narrative experience, but is bogged down by open world filler and dated bloat. This critique appears consistent across much higher scoring reviews, suggesting most people agreed that the side content was at best unnecessary and at worst detrimental, but did not consider that a large enough factor to impact the game’s overall evaluation.
It remains to be seen how the public reacts to this split, and to the game overall, but I suspect they will embrace it with open arms. The affection the world has for Indiana Jones, and the starvation fans have suffered on the silver screen (plus the desperation for a win over at Xbox) will carry The Great Circle over any bumps.
If it is adored by the public, alongside scoring highly but with significant outliers and consistent critique of dated gameplay adding runtime to an experience that could have been stronger as a more refined adventure, then the parallels are obvious: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is Xbox’s Ghost of Tsushima.
We Need More Games Like Ghost Of Tsushima
Tsushima reviewed similarly, with an 84 on OpenCritic. It too was lauded for the fast-paced action, the adrenaline-rush simulation of a movie, the excitement around every turn. And, likewise, it came with the advice that most of the map marker sawdust could be safely ignored. As much as I adore boundary pushing games that do something fresh narratively or technically, we need these bread and butter games.
I would much rather an industry filled with single player slugfests with optional filler and this hellish pivot to live-service monetisation we’re living through. Ghost of Tsushima felt a little dated in 2020, as gorgeous as it looked, and wasn’t aided in that regard from its close proximity to The Last of Us Part 2. Indiana Jones seems similarly dated, especially as the most common comparison drawn is to Uncharted, a series whose last game came out in 2016.
Then we get to the question – do I care? The answer is ‘not really’. This is a game based on a movie from the ’80s that is set in the ’40s. Sure, a narratively ambitious, groundbreaking, never before seen style of video game would have been fantastic, but studios are constantly closing because they were forced to fly too close to the sun. If Indiana Jones is just a good old fashioned video game, that’s good enough for me.
My affection for Ghost of Tsushima grew over time. On my first playthrough, I found it disappointing, going through the motions as I forced myself to complete pointless tasks just to fill a checklist. I cleared every single objective and collectible in the game, but regretted it. On a more streamlined replay, with more idea of what to expect, I enjoyed it a lot more, and saw the saplings that now give me hope Ghost of Yotei can rise to greatness. I’m going into The Great Circle with my eyes open, and hope I can make my first run feel more like my second run of Tsushima. I just want to love my Xbox again.
- Released
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December 9, 2024
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MachineGames