First announced in 2021, Bethesda and Xbox’s Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is shaping up to be the game Indy fans (myself included) have long wanted. Sure, Uncharted and modern Tomb Raider games served up plenty of pulpy video game adventures, but finally, the world is getting the big-budget, AAA Indiana Jones simulator we’ve long deserved.
To help you better prepare for Indy’s next globe-trotting journey, we’ve rounded up all the details and facts about The Great Circle in one convenient place. And you don’t even have to kill anyone or solve any ancient puzzles to access it. Anyway, here’s everything we know about Indiana Jones and The Great Circle.
What’s the game about?
According to Bethesda, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is a brand new adventure in the franchise that’s not based on any previous film, comic, book, or video game.
The Great Circle starts with Indy getting involved in a strange mystery after an artifact is stolen from the Marshall College museum. Jones heads to the Vatican to investigate and eventually discovers another puzzle: The Great Circle. What’s that? Well, according to the debut trailer for the game, if you draw a line through some of the oldest and most sacred temples and locations on the globe, you’ll get a perfect circle. What does that mean? No idea, but it likely has something to do with that artifact that was stolen. Oh and Nazis. Yeah, those guys are back and up to no good as is common in Indy adventures. (And real life, too.)
Players will get to explore multiple locations around the globe, such as the pyramids of Egypt, Vatican City, the temples of Sukhothai, and more. Along the way, Jones will meet up with an investigative journalist on her own search for the truth about the artifact and the circle.
Who’s making it?
While you’ll see Xbox and Bethesda mentioned a lot when people are talking about this game, the people actually making Great Circle are MachineGames, a subsidiary of Bethesda. They previously worked on the fantastic modern Wolfenstein games, including The New Order, Old Blood, and New Colosuss. Those games were first-person shooters set in an alternate universe where the Nazis won. Luckily, you get to kill a lot of them. So yeah, they seem like a perfect studio for an Indy game.
Bethesda’s Todd Howard, who helped create Starfield and the Elder Scrolls series, is an executive producer on the game, too.
Does it have a release date?
Sort of! At the moment, Xbox and Bethesda are promising a 2024 release date. That’s pretty vague. But looking at the company’s calendar of games, it’s likely that we won’t be playing this new Indy adventure until summer 2024 or later.
What platforms will it be released on?
The Great Circle is being published by Bethesda, which is owned by Xbox, so no shocker here, but this new Indy game won’t be available on PlayStation or Nintendo Switch. Instead, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle will be available on Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It will be available on Steam, too.
Is it coming to Game Pass?
Yup! Like all first-party Xbox games, which includes Bethesda-published titles now, this new Indy game will be released on day one on Xbox and PC Game Pass. But don’t worry, if you hate video game subscriptions or prefer using Steam, Bethesda is going to sell the game separately.
How much will The Creat Circle cost?
No price has been announced yet, but safe to assume at least $60 for the standard edition with a good chance this ends up being a $70 game.
Is Harrison Ford in it?
His face is in it. Does that count? But no, Ford does not voice Jones in this upcoming game. Instead, popular voice actor Troy Baker is donning the leather jacket and will provide the voice for Indy in The Great Circle.
He has his whip, right?
Yup! In fact, Bethesda and MachineGames seem super excited about the whip. In the January 18 developer direct from Xbox, the studio showed Indy using the whip to attack enemies, swing around areas, and distract baddies.
Is it first-person or third-person?
A bit of both? MachineGames says that it’s primarily a first-person adventure game with some shooting and melee combat, including the aforementioned whip. But during certain moments the game will pull back the camera to show Indy climbing or swinging. We also know that some cutscenes will use third-person, too.
How does it fit into the larger Indiana Jones timeline?
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is set in 1937, which places it between the first film—Raiders of the Lost Ark—and the third film in the franchise, The Last Crusade.
So, as of now at least, the official Indy timeline looks like this:
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Temple of Doom, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Great Circle, The Last Crusade, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Dial of Destiny.
Yes, there are books and games that I left out, but those barely count. And really, who cares that much about the lore of this franchise? I’m just here to watch Indy punch Nazis and do cool stuff with a whip.
Is Indy still sexy in it? Like, peak ‘80s era Ford sexy?
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