Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

This first-person adventure game was developed by Swedish developers MachineGames, who were previously responsible for Wolfenstein: The New Order and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. It is, however, less a shooter and more a simple stealth and puzzle game that allows you to punch your way clumsily out of messing up.

Credit must be given for all the work that went towards making this seem like the Indiana Jones film we never had: Troy Baker’s impersonation of Harrison Ford and the quip-filled script strike exactly the right tone. The story also captures the B-movie blend of adventuring and mystery of the original trilogy, complete with a despicable Nazi villain and a final act veer towards the supernatural. Special praise also for composer Gordy Haab, whose original music is good it could almost be John Williams himself (read an interview with Mr Haab on his scoring here).

The actual gameplay is very straightforward–sneak up behind baddy, whack him on the head with whatever implement is at hand, and if you are noticed by other enemies then sprint off and hope they will lose track of you. Puzzles are heavily signposted. Fist fighting is fine but not particularly engaging. The game has a strange combination of elements that never fully cohered for me, but I did enjoy my time adventuring.

★★★☆☆ (But add an extra star if you are a big Indiana Jones fan.)