Indiana Jones from the Game Indiana Jones & The Great Circle with imagery from other Indiana Jones games

With Indiana Jones & The Great Circle showing up and already sweeping award nominations, it is bucking a gaming trend among the franchise that until now felt fairly impossible. There have been a number of Indiana Jones video games, ranging from arcade games, to a graphic adventure game, to the well-beloved LEGO games. However, not all of them have stood the test of time, and for a long time, a critically well-received action game with a solid story seemed impossible.

The best Indiana Jones games have had some ups and downs. Prior to Indiana Jones & The Great Circle, The Fate Of Atlantis seemed to scratch the itch for a good game that told a compelling story that fit into the universe and felt like a successor to the movie franchise. However, while this was done as a point-and-click adventure, it seemed like all the action games failed to hit the mark.

Indy Action Games Never Matched Fate Of Atlantis

Many Tried But None Of Them Quite Hit The Mark In The Same Way

Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (1992) Indiana Jones talking to an NPC next to an Aztec temple. Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (1) Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (1992) Indiana Jones talking to an NPC next to an Aztec temple. Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis (1)

There were plenty of video games in Indy’s early-days, including the Indiana Jones & The Raiders of the Lost Ark Atari 2600 1982 tie-in. This was very much a product of its time and with little to no story beyond what came from the movie. It was followed by a series of similar retro games, arcade games, and a few more tie-in games.

Of these, the tie-in game for Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom was probably the closest to an Action game, although there was a tie-in for The Last Crusade actually called Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade: The Action Game but was not very good. In fact, it was outclassed by the other tie-in games for the same movie that it was depicting, which was unfortunate for the game in question. The Action Games in the franchise seemingly didn’t have much luck, even with some of the earliest attempts.

Around the same time, and as a few other Indiana Jones games failed to hit the mark, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis was released. Even now, it still comes second in many rankings of the franchise’s games and was only recently bumped down. It came out at the peak of LucasArts’ point-and-click adventure games in 1992, and it was an early hit. Many would think that the legendary city of Atlantis could be an epic spot for an Indy adventure – and they were right.

The game had the advantage of film writers Hal Barwood and Noah Falstein collaborating to write the story of the game, and they came up with three different endings that would differ based on what path players took. The game even got a separate Action game version, but it never took off the same way the Adventure game did, as the original is still considered one of the best of its kind.

However, shortly afterward, a different archaeologist rose to prominence in video game history, namely Lara Croft. She stole a large part of the spotlight, and when Indy got his own Action game in a similar vein, in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, it didn’t quite hit the mark, as it suffered from having too much in common with the Tomb Raider games. Similarly, the next Action game, The Emperor’s Tomb, had great gaming mechanics and a heavy amount of environmental detail, but the story side of the game did not land as well as The Fate of Atlantis did.

After that, Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series joined Lara Croft to steal the spotlight away from Indy, and the planned sequel for The Emperor’s Tomb was never released. Instead, LucasArts let a separate third-party studio make a sequel, and it released to mostly poor reviews. It also fell flat, and beyond the Lego games, not much else was due to come out for Indy. It seemed that Action games were doomed to fall short in the story department, not just of The Fate of Atlantis, but also from the likes of Lara and Drake.

Indiana Jones & The Great Circle Delivers Across The Board

An Action Game That Broke The Curse

Indiana Jones talking to the the enemy in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game. Indiana Jones fighting a guard with a whip in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game. Environment in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game with a guard walking Female protagonist holding an artifact surrounded by other artifacts in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game Concet art of the desert environment from the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game Indiana Jones talking to the the enemy in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game. Indiana Jones fighting a guard with a whip in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game. Environment in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game with a guard walking Female protagonist holding an artifact surrounded by other artifacts in the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game Concet art of the desert environment from the Indiana Jones and the Great Circle game

That is until Indiana Jones & The Great Circle was released. Developed by the same team that made the modern Wolfenstein games, this game has been lapping up award nominations left, right, and center. While it will not be eligible for The Game Awards until later this year, others, such as The D.I.C.E. Awards, have given it multiple nominations. It was quite well received, both critically and by fans, and it got a lot of things right.

That is, in part, due to the technological advancements in gaming. But compared to other other Indy titles that released between 1992 and 2024, it deserves some credit for more than just that. There were plenty of games that had more than enough chances to get the story and the action right, as both Lara and Nathan proved in the intervening years. This is one of the first times that Indy has managed to get both sides of the proverbial coin right, and that is not just down to gaming technology.

Indiana Jones & The Great Circle is currently standing respectably with 2024’s other hits like Shadow of the Erdtree, Astro Bot, and Black Myth: Wukong. Of the other games nominated for Game of the Year, only Indy is a finalist for Outstanding Achievement in Story from the D.I.C.E. Awards. It hits on all levels, from the technology used to bring Indy to life, to the story, to the mechanics, and most notably to the feeling that it has earned its place in the franchise as an installment of Indy’s adventures.

What The Future Of Indy Games Could Look Like

More Possibilities Than Ever Before

Indiana Jones pulling back his whip in front of sun lit city.

With all luck, the development team is working on a sequel for Indiana Jones & The Great Circle even now. What it will look like is pure speculation, but the team has done a good job so far and hopefully will continue doing so. It would be fun to see Indy go back to Atlantis, but perhaps it’s best to leave that to the 1992 hit, as they shouldn’t mess with what isn’t broken.

However, there are many more possibilities. As the Wolfenstein games showed, the developers aren’t afraid to play with alternative timelines, particularly concerning WWII, and that could be a potential avenue for Indy to navigate but far from the only one. As his video game rivals have proved, there are many different roads to follow, and having a very successful Action game has widened those roads even more. The future of the franchise is quite bright thanks to the well-developed Indiana Jones & The Great Circle setting the stage and breaking the curse.