Indiana Jones and the Great Circleis shaping up to be one of 2025’s biggest games. This is largely thanks to its novel approach to first-person action and near-photorealistic visuals, which bring to life young Indy like no game before it. It looks like a truly tremendous effort from MachineGames, one that will be perfect for newcomers and hardcore fans alike.

Great Circlepreviewshave pointed to it being a thoroughly enjoyable action adventure and exciting new trailers have backed this up. New gameplay footage has showcased a number of ways thatIndiana Jones and the Great Circleis innovating, as well ashow it is addressing perhaps the most frustrating gaming trend of all time.

Indiana Jones slipping a photo of a cat into his diary in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Makes Hints Optional

Players Don’t Have To Deal With Constant Hints

Indiana Jones and the Great Circlehas a lot ofinnovative new mechanicsthat will make adventuring across its various regions all the more exciting. It showed this all off in a recent gameplay deep divetrailer, including one novel addition that fixes the frustrating trend of constantly giving players hints to solve puzzles. Indiana Jones is a renowned explorer, so it makes sense that he’d be up to solving the puzzles by using logic and intuition. As a result,Indiana Jones and the Great Circlewon’t just hand out hints constantly.

Instead,players can use their camera to take pictures of important objects, and, if they so desire, get a hint alongside that photograph. This is a much better alternative than Indy talking to himself about how to solve it like a lot of triple-A games have their protagonists do. Additionally, players can check their diaries to get clues about the surrounding area and where they may need to go next. It ensures that all the puzzle-solving can be done logically by the player as opposed to the main character randomly shouting out the solution.

Indiana Jones In front of the poster for Disneyland ride, next to artwork from the game for The Temple of the Forbidden Eye

Diegetic UI Is Perfect For Indiana Jones

It Feels In-Line With The Films

This form of diegetic UI is perfect for anIndiana Jonesgame as it ensures that it feels cinematic at all times. One of theGreat Circle’sbest featuresis that it makes players feel as if they’re adventuring through one of the films rather than playing a game. It’s a novel quality, one not often utilized by video games, but that fits perfectly here.Removing video game-style hints and replacing them with in-universe solutions makes the most senseand is a smart move from MachineGames.

Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Already Has An Easter Egg You Probably Missed

The newest trailer was jam-packed with new areas, story beats, and combat, but there was one Easter egg that slipped by most fans

Undoubtedly, this will come as great news to those who hate the constant hints from games found in games likeGod of War RagnarökandHorizon Zero Dawn. Hopefully, future games will learn fromIndiana Jones and the Great Cricle’sbook and think of more innovative ways of implementing puzzle hints. Of course, it’s not the very first game to do it this way, butIndiana Jones and the Great Circle’smore cinematic approach to it is far more compelling.

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