Questioning the legitimacy of online chatter that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a GOTY game

DryvBy

Member
I absolutely love Indiana Jones and always have. Anyone that was remotely born in the 70s/80s probably has some attachment to the series. I was not one that hated on the reveal of Great Circle just because Microsoft made it. After finally getting it on PS5 and playing it on the Pro, I will say I'm not very impressed and I don't know what made some people online claim it was the GOTY last year. It's better than a lot of Indiana Jones games for sure, it looks good, but the gameplay is really mediocre if not just plain awful sometimes. Even with that said, I'll still finish it.

The first person aspect I didn't think I'd care about since I love first person games, but the moving from 1st to 3rd feels stupid and looks kind of bad. It's more confusing that they have a cinematic camera option, but then force the game in first person. I'm even more in the camp this game should have been an Uncharted/Tomb Raider clone. There's some benefits to the first person, such as looking at the details of objects but outside of that, there's not a single benefit I've seen for having this in first person. It's more of a disadvantage since the game is a stealth fist fighting game. There's also breakable weapons, which is fine for glass bottles, but when you hit someone in the head with an iron skillet, it's a bit much for it to break after a few hits.

The way the combat is just feels really bad. The loop is sneak around the braindead AI or go fist fight them. The sneaking gets boring quickly and it's mostly useless since you can just run up on someone and parry attack everyone for a nice few hit combo kill. I'm not sure if anyone who loves this game played Wolfenstein II, but it has this same feeling combat in it when you melee someone. It doesn't even feel good to knock someone out.

The story I'm going to give praise, but that's not why we're playing video games. That's just part of the package. But I do love the story and I feel it's better than a lot of the past 20 years of Indy stuff out there from that angle. And I find the voice acting to be top notch. But again -- that's not GOTY just to have good graphics and a story.

So for those who found it to be GOTY last year, is this the only game you played or something?

What gameplay aspect wowed you so much that you felt this was a GOTY game?
 
Other than the visuals, no single element stands out head and shoulders above the competition, but it all comes together into a very compelling package. I view it as a modern take on the old point and click adventure. It's an extremely well-made adventure that I enjoyed more than anything else last year. So for me, it was GOTY.
 
I think its just a very good game. I loved the imersion sim light aspect. Just walking around and feeling like I was investigating and exploring on an adventure. Excellent gameplay loop, Great story, characters, score, graphics and fun silly combat.

I'm wondering if I said it was my game of the year. I can't remember what I played last year lol
 
Harrison Ford GIF



It's a hell of a game and don't be surprised if you see it in contention for awards from PS centric outlets this year.
 
I didn't played the game but i saw a lot of gameplay and the combat and stealth looked dreadful, also no idea how people compared this game to dishonored, i just don't see it, the game looks like an immersive sims for kids at best.

It seems like this is not a gameplay\combat centric game but more of a fun indian jones romp that is better than the last 2 dogshit movies with good explorations and puzzles and a great atmosphere.

A 7-7,5\10 that can turn into an 8-- if you are a super indy fanboy, nowhere near 8,5- 9-10 territory in a real score scale where 7 is good and not shit.
 
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They were all green rats. Every game from MS is GOTY, some said the same about Redfall.
Lol ya, its the xbox fans only... Sony fanboys believe ALL their games are the second coming of christ, come on man. They both suck, nothin remotely interesting or good besides a few games this gen
 
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So you thought the graphics were great, and the story, and the atmosphere, and the voice acting. You absolutely love Indiana Jones. But you don't like the gameplay.

Now imagine if you did like the gameplay like many obviously do. That's a solid package right there, and GOTY material. It's not such a crazy leap.

Best game I've played in a long time, by the way.
 
I mean to me the combat was what happened when you failed, it was a recoverable failure state. I enjoyed the game, investigating tombs, solving puzzles meeting funny side characters.

I platinumed the game in the end and it's one my favourites this year for sure, combat is only a single part of a game, it's why oblivion scores so high despite it, because it's just one element, the others count for an awful lot, this game really nails so much.

This is not Halo Infinite it's a legitimatly excellent game and that's coming from someone who has been banned twice for calling out how shit that game actually is.

Cant wait for the DLC. This is exactly the sort of redundant take down that Stella Blade went through last year "oh its just competent, it's hardly GOTY because x is poor" was still an amazing game far above most this decade.
 
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Lol yame it on xbox fans only... Sony fanboys believe ALL their games are the second coming of christ, come on man. They both suck, nothin remotely interesting or good besides a few games this gen
What a load of bullshit. Sony fans take the piss out of Concord and the new Bungie one. Took the piss out of the launch game, forgot what it was, with the cars. If a game looks shit, I would say so.

I'm not saying it's a bad game or anything, haven't played it and it's rated pretty well in reviews and WoM. It really could be peoples GOTY. But when you have the same group saying any old shit like Redfall is as well? I sense a pattern.
 
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You are looking for different things than other people.

Thats doubly true for something leaning to be an IM- Sim.

I can list out ways in which game was great. You could not be impressed by them. Just like good story alone doesn't make a game worth playing for me. For a lot of people that is make or break thing.
 
I can't trust any of the hype around games these days. It doesn't help that I'm not in the target market.

I never trusted licensed games in the past as a rule of thumb.
 
I stupidly purchased it digitally on PSN after reading some impressions here. It's not a bad game by any means but it certainly isn't game of the year worthy from the few hours I've played. I kind of wished I'd waited and bought it physically as I can't see myself playing it again once I've finished it.
 
Damn, for an IP that people say no one cares about, it really pushed some buttons for some people. Indy threads every day of the week
 
What a load of bullshit. Sony fans take the piss out of Concord and the new Bungie one. Took the piss out of the launch game, forgot what it was, with the cars. If a game looks shit, I would say so.

I'm not saying it's a bad game or anything, haven't played it and it's rated pretty well in reviews and WoM. It really could be peoples GOTY. But when you have the same group saying any old shit like Redfall is as well? I sense a pattern.

I'm sorry dude, but this is bullshit. Literally everything Sony release is a "masterpiece" to Sony fans.

Yes, concord was such a colossul failure but you have people saying games like Horizon and ghost of tsushima are masterpieces. Theres Nothing like the hype Sony fans give Sony first party games.
 
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I'm sorry dude, but this is bullshit. Literally everything Sony release is a "masterpiece" to Sony fans.

Yes, concord was such a colossul failure but you have people saying games like Horizon and ghost of tsushima are masterpieces. Nothing like the hype Sony fans give Sony first party games.
Ghost of Tsushima is awesome.

Would you call Redfall GOTY?
 
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That french game is going to be GOTY. Which is neither from Playstation of from MS studios.

Astro-Bot director is also french BTW. Both games highly inspired by the best of japanese games.
 
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I'm sorry dude, but this is bullshit. Literally everything Sony release is a "masterpiece" to Sony fans.

Yes, concord was such a colossul failure but you have people saying games like Horizon and ghost of tsushima are masterpieces. Theres Nothing like the hype Sony fans give Sony first party games.
Sony fans criticize Playstation 1st party all the time though.
 
You may say ghost of tsushima is a masterpiece. Lol

I didn't even play redfall more than 20 minutes. It was pretty terrible.
Then you aren't one of the rats I was talking about. I know Riky and... was it vaibhavpisal vaibhavpisal ? They thought it was GOTY along with a few others.
I'm not saying Ghost is a masterpiece, there's always room for improvement. I just enjoyed it a lot (and more than TLoU2 that year) enough to plat it.
And again, not saying this can't be peoples GOTY genuinely, it's apparently a really good game. I just don't trust "reviews" from some people.
 
Harsh truth :
You remember when the narrative was "LOL, every Sony game is a boring cinematic walk and talk and brick throwing simulator®" and was used as as the usual war fuel ?
Well, apparently, after Death stranding, Hellblade 2 and now Indiana Jones got released on GP/Xbox, now, everybody in the green team loves this type of "boring cinematic walk and talk simulators", I mean, shit is so transparent since there's also a post history function on this board as to see and remember who is who 😉
Besides, the bar has been so low for MS games these past (almost) 5 years that anything above mediocre is gonna seem like amazing or "GOTY".

Regarding Indy, I mean, it's a machinegames title - even the Wolfenstein reboots, while OK to good as a general package, they weren't exactly "stellar" when it came to the actual gameplay (bad aiming sensitivity/lack of feedback when shooting AND getting shot at/A.I.that was either braindead or had telepathic wall hack powers etc etc).

I'm sure it's not a "bad" game (just like the Wolfensteins weren't), but, just like the those, I'm not gonna go in expecting anything mind-blowing or "GOTY".

This, is gonna be the perfect 20-25 Eurodollars game in a couple of months for me.
 
It's a very good game, I'm actually finishing playing through it since I didn't had the chance to finish it back when I bought it and I can totally see why people would put it in their GOTY category if their favourite genres are action and puzzles.
I love the exploration and the puzzles and I love the 1st person camera, I agree that the 3rd person one is a bit unnecessary but the game being in 1st person is a plus for me so as you see opinions regarding gameplay can be quite subjective.

All in all if this was a more barren year this game could perhaps be one of my goty contenders as well, but I love RPGs and GTAs way too much so either KCD2 or GTA VI will take the crown I suspect.
 
I'm sorry dude, but this is bullshit. Literally everything Sony release is a "masterpiece" to Sony fans.

Yes, concord was such a colossul failure but you have people saying games like Horizon and ghost of tsushima are masterpieces. Theres Nothing like the hype Sony fans give Sony first party games.

Just about every damn first party game is going to be called a "masterpiece" by someone. We've got folks calling Hellblade 2 a masterpiece as well. What's hiliarious is that you obviously only see this shit when it is "Sony fans".
 
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Then you aren't one of the rats I was talking about. I know Riky and... was it vaibhavpisal vaibhavpisal ? They thought it was GOTY along with a few others.
I'm not saying Ghost is a masterpiece, there's always room for improvement. I just enjoyed it a lot (and more than TLoU2 that year) enough to plat it.
And again, not saying this can't be peoples GOTY genuinely, it's apparently a really good game. I just don't trust "reviews" from some people.
Wut, when did I say Redfall was GOTY? Lol.

I did played it after fully patched up with 3 friends on highest difficulty. We enjoyed it. Thats all.

It is made by Arkane, it has art style and atmosphere. Something they did pretty well in Prey as well. Not an outlandish claim.
 
Just about every damn first game is going to be called a "masterpiece" by someone. We've got folks calling Hellblade 2 a masterpiece as well. What's hiliarious is that you obviously only see this shit when it is "Sony fans".
I heard it gets better the second time you watch it.
Funny GIF by Steve Harvey TV
 
I'm sorry dude, but this is bullshit. Literally everything Sony release is a "masterpiece" to Sony fans.

Yes, concord was such a colossul failure but you have people saying games like Horizon and ghost of tsushima are masterpieces. Theres Nothing like the hype Sony fans give Sony first party games.

You read people talking about ragnarock, forbidden west or panderman 2 on gaf you would think these games had 5\10 metacritic, come the fuck on.

You can pick ANY topic about these 3 games in the post launch after the honeymoon period ended and like 80% of the opinions are gonna be negative, and people always say that gaf is a very sony centric forum.

The only 4 sony games we had this gen where almost everyone was positive were helldivers 2, returnal, astrobot and demons remake, and those are not even made by the big sony first parties.

Even any topic about tsushima or days gone are a 50 and 50 of people that absolutely loved it and people who thought they were another dull ass open world checklist.
 
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I'm always interested to learn what makes a person question the authenticity of online discourse. I'm glad to know that, for at least one person, it was an Indiana Jones video game.

"Man, that new Indiana Jones video game is game of the year!"

Woman Plane GIF by Justin
 
Wut, when did I say Redfall was GOTY? Lol.

I did played it after fully patched up with 3 friends on highest difficulty. We enjoyed it. Thats all.

It is made by Arkane, it has art style and atmosphere. Something they did pretty well in Prey as well. Not an outlandish claim.
 
I absolutely love Indiana Jones and always have. Anyone that was remotely born in the 70s/80s probably has some attachment to the series. I was not one that hated on the reveal of Great Circle just because Microsoft made it. After finally getting it on PS5 and playing it on the Pro, I will say I'm not very impressed and I don't know what made some people online claim it was the GOTY last year. It's better than a lot of Indiana Jones games for sure, it looks good, but the gameplay is really mediocre if not just plain awful sometimes. Even with that said, I'll still finish it.

The first person aspect I didn't think I'd care about since I love first person games, but the moving from 1st to 3rd feels stupid and looks kind of bad. It's more confusing that they have a cinematic camera option, but then force the game in first person. I'm even more in the camp this game should have been an Uncharted/Tomb Raider clone. There's some benefits to the first person, such as looking at the details of objects but outside of that, there's not a single benefit I've seen for having this in first person. It's more of a disadvantage since the game is a stealth fist fighting game. There's also breakable weapons, which is fine for glass bottles, but when you hit someone in the head with an iron skillet, it's a bit much for it to break after a few hits.

The way the combat is just feels really bad. The loop is sneak around the braindead AI or go fist fight them. The sneaking gets boring quickly and it's mostly useless since you can just run up on someone and parry attack everyone for a nice few hit combo kill. I'm not sure if anyone who loves this game played Wolfenstein II, but it has this same feeling combat in it when you melee someone. It doesn't even feel good to knock someone out.

The story I'm going to give praise, but that's not why we're playing video games. That's just part of the package. But I do love the story and I feel it's better than a lot of the past 20 years of Indy stuff out there from that angle. And I find the voice acting to be top notch. But again -- that's not GOTY just to have good graphics and a story.

So for those who found it to be GOTY last year, is this the only game you played or something?

What gameplay aspect wowed you so much that you felt this was a GOTY game?
The fact MachineGames made this has been keeping me from buying it. I know their Wolfenstein games are beloved but I always thought their gunplay and general combat was crap in the first and somehow worse in II. They're great at spectacle but gameplay? The AI looks absolutely dire in Indy and while I don't need it to be some crazy shit, the videos I watched just made combat look unsatisfying and dumb in general.
 
I think last year's GOTY nominates were on the weak side, so probably it could have fit. But honestly I don't think a single game from last year would have been nominated in a strong year, like 2023, from that year I think every nominee could have won 2024.
 
Its a great game and the thing is it just has to be better than everything else that year, even AC shadows is better than any 2024 game imo.

As for why i like it, its extremely immersive, great graphics, very similar to movies and mostly a tomb raider style game that finally delivers on actual tomb raiding. I dont think its a 10/10 game or that itd be goty in many other years like 2023 or even 2025 already, but as luck would have it its the only great AAA game from 2024 that isnt a remake/port.

Bar is so low in 2024 that ive bought more games in that year than any other in my life (granted some were old ports that ive liked more) and ive ended up voting for mobile pay 2 win game that most here would call trash as the best release.
 
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It's a fine game.

I personally got bored and never finished it.

Many better games last year though - Prince of Persia, Balatro, Metaphor, Rebirth, Helldivers, SotE, Silent Hill 2, Astro.
 
I think last year's GOTY nominates were on the weak side, so probably it could have fit. But honestly I don't think a single game from last year would have been nominated in a strong year, like 2023, from that year I think every nominee could have won 2024.
This. 2024 was a super weak year. I don't see why Indie couldn't have been a GOTY candidate.
 
Other than the visuals, no single element stands out head and shoulders above the competition, but it all comes together into a very compelling package. I view it as a modern take on the old point and click adventure. It's an extremely well-made adventure that I enjoyed more than anything else last year. So for me, it was GOTY.
Makes me want to play it even more.
 
Harrison Ford GIF



It's a hell of a game and don't be surprised if you see it in contention for awards from PS centric outlets this year.

What about it makes it a contender for GOTY? What gameplay element makes it worthy? The combat is horrible and that's a decent chunk of the game.
 
I dont have alot of love for xbox at all but as someone who is a sucker for immersive sim gameplay for me the game was amazing
 
There is a tendency to label every exclusive GOTY on these boards. This happens with every game including Nintendo games so i dont pay too much attention to it.

The game is simply boring and it should be an insult to all indy fans to make a boring indy game. The developers shouldve been blasted for making a first person immersive sim instead of an action adventure game. The whole thing is wrong and everyone responsible for this is literally retarded. Imagine if Insomniac took the spiderman license and made it a first person immersive sim. People would laugh and mock them until the publisher cancelled the game which is what shouldve happened here.

Arkhane is making Blade. Watch them turn it into a first person immersive sim too.
 
Different strokes for different folks, its the main thing that makes it unique and the main reason why its so good imo.
Thats fine. Make it a game based on a new IP and leave indy for people who like action adventure games.
 
You ain't lying.
Meh, i think it can work both ways, indy movies were never about constant fighting or climbing like the uncharted, they are not pure action movies with setpiece after setpiece.

How many dudes did indy directly fight in 3 movies? You probably fight 50x times that amount in the first map of the game.
 
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What about it makes it a contender for GOTY? What gameplay element makes it worthy? The combat is horrible and that's a decent chunk of the game.
Combat is not decent chunk of game.

Its exploration.

A stealth focused exploration game … how does that work.

By keeping AI less aggressive so it doesn't bother you much.

It's also one of the reasons my favourite level in game is Sukhotai. I enjoy complex levels. Exploring them, finding and solving all puzzles, side quests etc.
 
Damn, for an IP that people say no one cares about, it really pushed some buttons for some people. Indy threads every day of the week

people always cared about it, but hollywood killed it with the last two movies. so they laid it to rest, and stopped talking about it.
so a game reviving the things they loved about it is going to make them rabid.
 
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