Again, tiny detail, but it’s such a lovely one! The Great Circle makes the very reasonable assumption when you load it that you’re most likely going to want to continue playing where you last left off. So, it loads that already.
Doing this means the game’s main menu is the last checkpoint you reached, such that when you hit continue, but for a couple of moments, you quickly zoom from third-person to a first-person view from Indy’s eyes, and you’re just off! It’s so much more involving, removing all those “YOU’RE PLAYING A GAME!!!” messages that so like to break any elements of immersion.
Even better, that menu screen is alive! It’s packed with NPCs going through their animations, such that you might see Gina wander into shot, scratch her chin, then pootle off elsewhere, all while a group of workers hammer rocks amid patrolling Nazis. Yes, I’m describing what’s happening on the window behind the one I’m writing in—it’s the perfect example. And next time I play, it’ll be something completely different!
There are a wealth of other things to sing about in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and likely a good few others to gripe on, but we’re all already tired.
The most important thing to know is this just isn’t what anyone was expecting, which I think it’s fair to say was a first-person action game in an Indiana Jones skin. Instead, this truly feels like a vivid part of the Indiana Jones universe, and is a far more involving, intricate and interesting game than I’d ever hoped for. I’m delighted!
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