Video game adaptations into cinema almost never work. There are a few recent exceptions, such as the excellent TV series based on The Last of Us—though, to be honest, it was still better as a game—and Arcane, inspired by League of Legends, or a not-bad Tomb Raider with Alicia Vikander. But that’s about it. The flipside is equally bleak: blockbuster adaptations into video games often result in dreadful titles or simple marketing exercises. The infamous E.T. game even took down Atari.
Lucasfilm was a rare exception, producing some of the best games for a long time. In addition to Star Wars titles (TIE Fighter, Knights of the Old Republic), there’s the genuine masterpiece of point-and-click gaming: Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. This 1992 game was so good that many hoped its script would inspire the long-awaited fourth Indiana Jones film. We all know how that turned out: not great.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the new game developed by Bethesda Softwords for Xbox and PC, is certainly not a masterpiece. It’s the kind of game you’d expect in a world where video games are increasingly inspired by cinema without being movies and where movies are increasingly video game-like. After all, aren’t Marvel films essentially video games in their structure? They’re closer to that than the deep psychological explorations of “superheroes with normal problems” found in the pages written by Stan Lee and his successors.
The Great Circle opens with a massive homage and weaves in narrative elements we know by heart from the films. The whip and hat might suffice, but when you see the airplane graphics from the movies, you know it’s Indiana Jones—or at least on the surface. This is where the problems begin: having the rights to dress your protagonist in a whip and hat isn’t enough if there’s little substance beyond that.
Video games rarely evoke empathy through a face, which is a fundamental element of cinema.
The biggest issue is that Indiana Jones is probably the most influential adventure saga of our time. It’s inspired at least two major successors in video games: Tomb Raider and later Uncharted, the latter a massive success on PlayStation that also became a movie. The myth of the adventurer archaeologist is nothing new in video games. It’s already generated unforgettable stories and breathtaking gameplay.
So what does Indiana Jones offer that’s unique? Harrison Ford’s face, to start with. But even that doesn’t do justice to the original in this game. Video games rarely evoke empathy through a face, which is a fundamental element of cinema. Under your control, the digital Indy of The Great Circle does all the standard things video games demand: crouching to sneak, brawling, solving puzzles, climbing rooftops (like Assassin’s Creed—though surely this happens in some Indiana Jones films too). But there’s no irony, no perfectly timed music, no emotions. Let’s face it: the story fits Disney’s recent standards, but in Lucas’s era, it wouldn’t have passed even as fan fiction.
Granted, there’s a bold choice to frame the world directly from the protagonist’s eyes, without constantly showing him. There are some good moments, the right dose of nostalgia, and a generally enjoyable story. The initial setting in Fascist Rome is a fascinating deviation from the Nazi overload in the films—less caricatured and more resonant with our times. From there, the journey moves eastward, first to Egypt and then to Thailand. It’s a beautiful trip, with significant effort in research and production, especially in the architecture and environmental reconstructions.
Back in the ’90s, we might have thought that one day video games and movies would become the same thing. The proof that they aren’t is right in front of us: a game fueled by nostalgia, which is likely the strongest reason anyone will want to play it.
We played Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Steam using a promo code provided by Bethesda.