Indiana Jones and The Great Circle’s latest deep dive shows just how useful a whip can be, and that our titular hero looks pretty snazzy as a vicar

MachineGames has kindly offered up a deep dive into the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and it’s looking good!

Been feeling like you need a good long look at Indiana Jones and the Great Circle before you consider picking it up next month? Well it’s your lucky day, as there’s 15 whole minutes of gameplay to check out, and to be honest, it seems like we might be on to a pretty solid winner with the Wolfenstein developer’s latest. Kicking things off is a classic Indy moment of stealing an artefact from a temple (archeologists, am I right?) before having to make his escape, which is as good a way to start as any. Much like how Indiana has to put the pieces together in the films, you’ll also be having to look for clues and figure out how to progress throughout the game too.

You’ll find more than just clues, though, as there’s little puzzles scattered throughout the game and its various locales, which in turn lets you uncover all kinds of secrets (and occasionally more, uh, clues). The deep dive puts plenty of emphasis on just how useful Indy’s whip is too, as of course there’s plenty of opportunities to swing across gaps with it, but you’ll also find it’s pretty hand when you want to break a bottle from a distance to distract a guard. You can also create makeshift poles to swing from by throwing spears and the like at particular spots which is pretty neat! And of course as seen previously it’s plenty useful in combat too.

One of my favourite gameplay details is that you have a camera that you can use to take pictures of important locations or objects, and they’ll give you more clues for the puzzles you need to solve, but the feature also lets you ask for hints if you get stuck on particular puzzles. It’s just a cute touch! Indy will also end up wearing a range of disguises throughout his adventure, and I have to say, he cleans up pretty good as a vicar.

Combat looks solid as well, impressive considering it’s first-person melee which isn’t’ an easy thing to get right – you won’t just be punching blindly, you have to put some thought into it, which feels in the spirit of the movies. In fact, overall it feels like the game is emulating the films quite well, which is exactly what you want from something like this.

The full deep dive goes into a few more details, so check it out above if you’re keen for more.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is out December 9 on Xbox Series X/S and PC, and will be out on PS5 early 2025.