With controller in hand, this is a classic adventure game – MachineGames has brought its considerable experience with first-person action games but pushed it much further. At Marshall College, you get a truly elaborate tutorial – Indy unsuccessfully tries to prevent a break-in (he teaches you the basics of combat), finds out which exhibit was stolen from the museum (he teaches you the basics of puzzle solving), and begs You to follow the clues to find out who broke in and who they might be working for (and gives you some easy tips for getting through).
Following these clues to Vatican City, we are then shown how the game will approach its more linear sequences – Indy must break into the walls of the Vatican and get past the fascist forces that have mysteriously invaded. It’s introduced as an exercise in stealth levels that are chock-full of items you can pick up and throw to distract the guards, from bottles to…violins. But you also learn that anything that is thrown can also be a weapon.
For someone who is unsure about stealth at the best of times, this is welcome news. One of the purest pleasures of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is how seamlessly it switches gears, and this section teaches that beautifully. One moment I’m confusing guards with clattering objects, the next I’m standing on the castle battlements choosing my own path to my destination (even these easier sections offer multiple paths to success), and then I’m riding down a zip line, alerted three guards, shot two, realized I was out of bullets, and then it hit me again that when I run out of ammo, I can use my revolver as a melee weapon (by the way, I wish I had understood this during the wooden spoon incident).
