Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Gets a New Trailer and a Review Embargo
Bethesda doesn’t look like it has much faith in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The upcoming video game with a title only slightly better than that of the latest (atrocious) Indiana Jones movie will be released for Xbox Series X|S, Game Pass, and Steam a week from today, December 9, 2024, while it won’t come to PlayStation 5 until the spring of 2025. However, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be available to Early Access purchasers of the Premium Edition three days early, on December 6. Today, Bethesda and Lucasfilm released a new trailer for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle that gives a better idea of the plot, which you can see below:
From the looks of things, it’s your standard Indiana Jones story: Indy is searching for a rare artifact rumored to have mystical powers; he has to get it before some bad guys use it to take over the world; he teams up with a beautiful woman; he solves puzzles using his knowledge of archeology; he fights enemies with guns, his whip, and his fists, etc. (Presumably, the main villain will be destroyed by his own hubris when he arrogantly tries to use the artifact for nefarious purposes.) The most striking thing about the trailer is how little it focuses on gameplay; normally, the trailer the studio puts out this close to a game’s release is more about what gamers can expect when they play the game rather than the cinematics, which earlier trailers typically highlight. That suggests to me that the gameplay in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t very good, which makes sense because what little they show in the trailer feels stiff and lethargic rather than fun and energetic. Look how slow it looks when Indy uses his whip to trip up that bad guy on what appears to be a guard outpost at 1:45. Sure, it’s enticing to play as Indiana Jones, especially after that lousy movie makes you want to see Indy in an enjoyable adventure again, but I get the feeling this ain’t it.
That’s what makes Bethesda’s approach to reviews for the game a bit worrying. James Lara of the website MP1st says that he was given a review copy of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle but that there is a review embargo for the game that does not lift until 7:00 PM Eastern on December 5, which is one day (and late in the day) before Early Access launches. However, there’s some confusion over this, as Lara says that Early Access begins on December 5 at the same time the review embargo lifts. Whatever the case, Bethesda is cutting it very close, and that makes it seem like they’re expecting bad reviews and don’t want them to dissuade people from buying the game. According to a video from Yellowflash that I’ll embed below (and which first alerted me to this story), the Bethesda Softworks YouTube channel disabled likes and dislikes for the new Indiana Jones and the Great Circle trailer, although they still allow comments. (Lucasfilm allows likes and dislikes on its hosting of the trailer, which is the one I embedded above.) And its pre-order and wishlist Steam numbers are not spectacular, as Yellowflash points out. It certainly looks like Bethesda is worried about this game, and considering how many high-profile video game releases have flopped recently, the Indiana Jones brand name isn’t enough cover for what may be some slipshod gameplay. In a week, we’ll know whether Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the terrific game everyone’s favorite adventurer deserves, but all signs point to a letdown.
Let us know what you think of the trailer and review embargo for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle in the comments!
***
If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
Get Your Geeks + Gamers merch here!
