Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Is The Real Successor To The Last Crusade

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is celebrating its one-year anniversary today, December 9, 2025. Below, we examine how it carried the torch of the classic films to create the best new piece of Indy fiction in decades.

Indiana Jones is one of the most revered blockbuster stories of the 1980s. Spielberg and Lucas’ work on the original trilogy stands alongside Jaws and Star Wars as timeless classics that are worth revisiting regularly. The more recent entries–the Crystal Skull and the Dial of Destiny–do little to live up to the standard that the first three set. But the game Indiana Jones and The Great Circle brings everything about that original trilogy back, like a careful archaeological dig. It’s the true successor to one of the original blockbuster trilogies.

As we hit The Great Circle’s first anniversary, it is clearer than ever that MachineGames accomplished something the film series has struggled to for the last 20 years. The Great Circle feels like the real successor to The Last Crusade, not because it imitates it beat for beat, but because it understands the core ingredients that make an Indiana Jones story timeless. It is a globe-spanning mystery built on discovery and the thrill of pushing deeper into the unknown. It captures the charm of a character who is smart, stubborn, curious, and always one quip away from a bruised rib.

The Great Circles’ narrative begins with classic Indy energy. There is an artifact, a lead, and a hint that the past is far more complicated than any textbook suggests. But what stands out is the tone. MachineGames focuses less on spectacle and more on the physicality of exploring dusty ruins, studying clues, and approaching history. Rather than overwhelming the player with nonstop action, the game treats archaeology as an adventure in itself. Every carved mural and hidden chamber carries a sense of meaning. Every step feels like it matters as you explore beautiful sandboxes within places like Italy and Egypt.

That approach immediately recalls The Last Crusade. One of the reasons that film resonated so strongly was its belief that the past could speak to the present. The Holy Grail was not just a treasure, but also a test of humility and understanding. The Great Circle taps into that same idea. Its central mystery is intertwined with ancient belief systems, cultural legacies, and the gaps between historical interpretation and the supernatural.

MachineGames leans into that tension. Indy knows his history, but realizes there is far more he doesn’t know–especially when giants show up out of nowhere and knock him around. The game lets him be wrong and momentarily outmatched by the worlds he explores. That humility makes the discoveries feel more genuine. Instead of watching a larger-than-life hero breeze through challenges, the player sees a man carefully piecing together clues and reevaluating his assumptions as the mystery grows stranger. It brings back the sense that the world still has secrets worth chasing.

The game’s puzzles reinforce this theme. Turning ancient mechanisms, studying inscriptions, and matching clues across continents creates a slow, satisfying rhythm. The Great Circle understands that idea and expands it across the entire journey. Solving puzzles becomes a way of understanding the cultures and beliefs that shaped the mystery, not just a way of unlocking the next hallway.

Character work is another place where The Great Circle succeeds. Indiana Jones stories thrive on personal stakes and complicated relationships. MachineGames builds a cast that challenges Indy in ways both emotional and intellectual. Allies are not always reliable. Enemies are not always predictable. The game gives space for Indy to react, worry, and rethink his choices. The tension is not purely about the treasure but about what chasing that treasure means for the world around him.

This is one of the areas where later films sometimes drifted. They often leaned toward larger spectacle, broader stakes, or downright silly moments. An image of Shia LaBeouf swinging with monkeys is not the image you want moviegoers remembering after leaving the theater. The Great Circle brings those intimate pressures back. Indy’s journey is tied to his belief that history can still reveal truths worth risking everything for. The mystery challenges him not just physically, but morally.

Action scenes in The Great Circle also feel more connected to the old films. Combat is scrappy and improvisational. Indy does not move like a superhero, but like a tired professor who has learned to survive through grit, instinct, and whatever object is within reach. The whip feels like a tool rather than a gimmick. Fights are messy, loud, and shaped by the environment. Even in the biggest moments, the action feels rooted in physical spaces instead of glossy abstraction.

Most importantly, the game revives the sense of adventure that comes from simply not knowing what lies ahead. Later films sometimes struggled with pacing or leaned heavily on modern blockbuster formulas. The Great Circle trusts silence, mystery, and slow discovery. It makes ruins feel ancient and dangerous. It lets riddles feel like riddles. It lets Indy pause, think, and listen. Those quiet moments make the dramatic, loud ones matter more.

The result is a story that feels in conversation with The Last Crusade rather than competing with it. It respects the character and the mythology without slipping into imitation. It treats faith, history, and myth as forces that shape people, not props. It gives Indy room to be fallible. It understands that the thrill of Indiana Jones is not just the treasure he seeks, but the journey he takes to understand why that treasure mattered to the people who created it.

As the game’s first anniversary hits today, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle stands as one of the most confident and authentic takes on the character in decades. MachineGames did not reinvent him–the studio simply remembered who he was and what made his world so exciting. It remembered that the best Indy stories are about stepping into the shadows of the past and finding something worth believing in.