Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an absolutely perfect archaeological adventure

As you crisscross the map, you’ll also come across a seemingly endless series of optional side quests, secrets, and “field research” that you track in a dynamically updated journal. While each of these optional fetch quests attempts to justify a plot, the ones I tried ended up being far less compelling than the main plot, which seems to have taken up most of the writers’ attention.

As you explore, a small icon in the corner of the screen also alerts you to photo opportunities that can unlock important information or context for puzzles. I really enjoyed these quick excuses to appreciate the game’s well-designed architecture and environments, even if they made Indy feel more like a random tourist than a badass archaeologist hero.

Quick, hide!

Unfortunately, your ability to freely explore is limited The Great CircleThe environment is often obstructed by large groups of roving Nazi and/or Fascist soldiers. Sometimes you can disguise yourself to walk among them unseen, but even then certain enemies can pick you out from the crowd, which I only realized after I’d been plucked from the darkness more than a few times already.

Unless you’re disguised, you’ll spend a lot of time kneeling and sneaking silently just outside the soldiers’ line of sight, or patiently waiting for them to move so you can take a new safe route. If you stay unseen, you can also take out enemies silently from behind. This includes knocking unexpected enemy sentries off ledges – a hilarious move that never gets old.

If your stealth skills fail in the middle of a large group of enemies, your best and easiest option is to immediately run away and hide. Most of the time, the enemies are incredibly incompetent in their inevitable pursuit; If you dodge around a few corners and hide in a dark alley, they’ll usually quickly lose sight of you. While I appreciated that detection didn’t mean an instant death sentence, the ease with which I could outwit these soldiers made sneaking much more relaxing.