The term “slapstick” comes from a physical instrument: the Italian batacchio, a bat with two wooden slats that, when struck, collide with each other, producing a comically loud slapping sound without causing harm to the person it is associated with. In the Wolfenstein games, developer MachineGames relied on gore to sell its violent scenes – let’s call it slurpstick. Still over the top, the Nazis in the series exploded in a shower of blood as bullets ripped through the scene. There are still Nazis in Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, but the ESRB Teen rating means they don’t spill a drop of the red stuff.

Instead, “Indiana Jones and The Great Circle” is full of sticks with which to beat Nazis: brooms, shovels, hammers and rakes; Pots, pans and ladles. Almost every prop becomes a weapon in Indy’s hands. With a rake, Indy could wedge it between her legs and pull it back to squeeze her nether regions. He could tap them on the shoulder with a hammer before giving them an upward slash with his claw.

The way they fall gives it away.

After so many blows, fascists often end up unconscious on their feet, stiff as a corpse before they fall, the clatter of the pan they’ve just hit over the head still ringing in their ears. MachineGames could have left it at that, but you can also interrupt this pre-made animation and send it into a ragdoll with another hit. It never stops being funny.

I once stunned a Nazi on his feet and hit him in the side of the head with a bell, sending his skull crashing onto a wooden chair, which shattered into pieces as his body relaxed into the rubble like an octopus on an ice skate spread out park.

To set expectations: This is not a shooting game. It’s a striking game. There are guns, just like there were guns in Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay – another game from the founders of MachineGames. Indiana Jones has more DNA with Riddick than Wolfenstein, with its open hub areas, third-person camera cuts to climbing, tough close-quarters combat, and optional quest givers. There are many things you can do with a Nazi in The Great Circle, but shooting them is easily the most boring.

Not only is ammo limited, but alerting a facility is a quick way to die. It’s better to sneak around or fight in close combat, because this is where combat shines. Whenever you have a weapon in your hand, you feel like you’re playing this game wrong. It speaks volumes that the usual reload button – X on the Xbox controller – flips the weapon in your hands, allowing you to use it as a melee weapon or throw it at an enemy. The developers want you to forget old habits.

MachineGames has crafted a satisfying and entertaining first-person melee combat system where every blow you land feels impactful, while firearms feel weak and ineffective – a conscious decision by the developer to make you want to play the game halfway to experience it. You should get into the Indy mindset using your clout and your wits. Snatch the weapon out of an enemy’s hand and use it against them. Pull her backwards off a chair with your whip wrapped around her neck. I haven’t even mentioned the dedicated push button yet…

I didn’t even fire a gun for the first ten hours. You could play 99% of the game without ever doing it. Silent infiltrations are more satisfying and always a safer choice.

The studio has done some of its best level design work here, giving you near-immersive sim level options for approaching enemy camps from various paths. There are gaps in fences, scalable guard towers, open windows, crawl spaces and more. The fantasy is best realized when you crouch and watch and take surreptitious photos while the fascists below ironically complain that their boots hurt. If you explore enough, you can even unlock disguises to run through enemy territory without restrictions. And when you’re not avoiding Nazi patrols, you’re solving puzzles in forgotten tombs.

It always makes me laugh when, at the start of Game Awards season, we lump random games into the “action/adventure” category because they’re hard to define. If they have a third-person camera, they usually qualify. Well, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is here to remind us all what an adventure game is.

Every country I visited on this massive 40+ hour journey felt like a real adventure. It’s packed with clever puzzles, surprising secrets and a repetitive level design where locations are often more than they appear at first glance as you progress through them, opening up shortcuts back to previous areas. Each tomb you explore holds unique dangers and secrets, and they are all visually different. It’s a journey. You never know what’s next, but you’re always excited to see what’s coming.

God, it’s a beautiful game too. A masterpiece. I would compare the incredibly complex visuals – gilded, patterned surfaces, reflective red marble, scorched sand, hieroglyphics, volcanic rock formations and more – to the Sistine Chapel, but that’s just one of the places you can visit in the game, perfectly recreated.

The attention to detail doesn’t just apply to texture. The Great Circle feels like a celebration of culture. In every country you visit, people speak their language, serve their food, tell their stories, play their games and go about their work. You will be transported to these places, learning about their customs, architecture and history while experiencing a great matinée adventure story. And on the way you can hit fascists with inanimate objects. Bonus.

Each member of the cast brings their best to the table. Directed by the great Tom Keegan (performance director for the Wolfenstein games), Troy Baker delivers everything with his pitch-perfect impression of a young Harrison Ford – from the whip cracks to the vocal cracks – somehow managing to be some of his best character acting. And he’s often overshadowed by Marios Gavrilis, who plays Emmerich Voss, a rival Nazi archaeologist who is a truly terrifying pantomime villain. MachineGames knows how to make a terrible Nazi, and these are some of the worst (in a good way).

As much as I wanted Wolfenstein 3, MachineGames made it happen. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is the first true triple-A adventure game in ages and one of the best games of 2024. Anyone going in expecting it to be Wolfenstein in everything but the name might be disappointed, but deal with it Set the pace and you’ll be invited on a whirlwind world tour that only video games can provide. Actually you should cancel this. This is a fashion experience that only MachineGames can deliver – an unforgettable adventure that far surpasses the recent films on which it is based.

Score: 10/10

Tested version: PC