If players want it to be, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle can quickly become far more about slow-burn exploration and collectible-hunting between Fieldwork, Discoveries, and Mysteries than a flurry of haymakers in a cinematic thrill ride. There’s a sumptuousness to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s side content that is easy to sink teeth into, and having such beautifully rendered and real-world settings to explore simultaneously roots it to Indiana Jones’ indelible historical richness. That said, anyone seeking out every last collectible for a completion percentage should be made aware of what lies in store for them.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle features Adventure Books, notes, artifacts, radio frequencies, steles, medicine bottles, and ancient relics to collect, and that’s all while players come across new Fieldwork, Discoveries, and Mysteries, sometimes by merely picking up whatever’s interactable in the environment. Relics in particular can be a nuisance to locate whether players have purchased brochures to reveal where they are on each map or not, and how worthwhile it is to painstakingly search for them all is debatable.
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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s Side Quests Contribute to the Bulk of Story Content
Role-playing as Indiana Jones, MachineGames puts clever side quests in players’ paths and makes side content incentivizing based purely on how enticing it can be to explore each map. Players can easily get swept up in Fieldwork, Discoveries, and Mysteries that are more long-winded or elaborate than they may have presumed, with some even leading to significant cutscenes, character development, and story beats players wouldn’t experience otherwise.
Because players can purchase pamphlets revealing where every point of interest or collectible is on any map, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle guides players with a gentle hand and never nudges them forcefully, which is commendable as it allows players to explore if and when they wish to.
Players can also revisit previous locations whenever they’d like to, and that’s a huge boon as it doesn’t stress a time constraint on players who may wish to come back, perhaps once they’ve found more Adventure Books or ascertained each story-related item that players will need on their journey, such as the camera, lighter, and rebreather. However, players digging themselves into a rabbit hole for numbered collectibles is when exploration and backtracking can become tiresome, especially considering what’s waiting for them when they finally obtain every ancient relic in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s Ancient Relics are for True Completionists
Ancient relics are a nuisance as they’re undoubtedly the most bothersome collectibles to pursue in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Not only are relics difficult to find even when Indy’s nose is buried in his waypoint-littered journal maps but they’re also spread out on maps in such a way that players should ideally be mindful of where one might be as they progress through the story.
Indeed, story progression will lead to many relics and, unless players already purchased the required brochures and meticulously checked their map to see if one was nearby, players must return to these deep, labyrinthine tombs to reclaim them later on. Players can come across ancient relic puzzle doors in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle that have them slot their acquired relics into holes and have adjacent pegs jut out, with all pegs jutting out unsealing the door and offering a single relic as an odd and seemingly disproportionate reward.
A seconds-long secret ending cutscene is locked behind this collectible hunt and a massive door with four slabs that players need to once more slot relics into to have each peg jut out. Of course, any and all extracurricular archaeology work players accomplish as Indy is fully of their own volition. That said, the reward for such determination in clearing maps of all associable collectibles is largely the inherent satisfaction players may earn for doing so, rather than any massively substantial or celebratory display for their efforts on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s part.
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