Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

[hr][/hr] [h3] [strike] Awful [/strike] > [strike] Bad [/strike] > [strike] OK [/strike] > [strike] Good [/strike] > [b] Great [/b] > [strike] Awesome [/strike] [/h3] [hr][/hr] [i]I am amazed by how perfectly this game recreated the feeling of Indiana Jones in a video game format. It's the style, the animations, the voice acting, and Indiana's overall presentation that really made me feel like this is a genuine addition to the Indiana Jones universe. The authenticity really amazed me. The beautiful graphics and world design, alongside the soundtrack, made me feel like I was playing the movies. This was handled perfectly by MachineGames. Hats off to you. That being said, what about the gameplay? Surprisingly, it's very serviceable. It works well for this game and never really gets in the way, but there is this little feeling at the back of your mind that something isn't quite right sometimes. I don't really know how to describe it any better than that. Is it bad? No. It absolutely works, but there is just... something. The story is very solid. I liked it a lot, but there was one big problem I had with it - the pacing and focus. There is so much you can do in the world that it often takes you away from the main story and breaks the flow. I like having additional activities in the world, as they encourage exploration and give you the "thrill of discovery", but unfortunately, most of the side content isn't that interesting. I eventually got burned out trying to find all the collectible items before finishing the main story (you can do that after). So much so that, I had to take a break and play some other game for a while and come back later. I understand that most of this content is optional, but there is one exception - the Ancient Relics. If you don't collect them all, you won't be able to unlock the special ending cutscene that explains one of the game's mysteries (you can still unlock it later - after the main story, but need to finish the collection of course). So you're kind of forced into completing at least this one side quest, and it's the second most tedious one after collecting all the notes. It's especially frustrating because if you missed some relics in a dungeon, you have to backtrack through already explored locations just to pick them up. I really didn't like that. The side content was easily the weakest part of the game, but I'd still say it's significantly better than the side content in most other games. So my feelings aren't really negative, more like neutral. All in all, the game was really great, and I enjoyed my time with it.[/i] [hr][/hr]