Indiana Jones & The Great Circle’s Coolest Side Quest Is Basically Its Own Horror Game

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has already proven itself capable of delivering an authentic Indiana Jones adventure, but The Great Circle's side quests take the adventuring experience to the next level. As players progress through the globe-trotting journey, there's not much reason to return and see previously explored locations, aside from completionists trying to find every artifact or finish each mission. Luckily, The Great Circle finds a fantastic way to revisit an old map while providing a unique experience in one of its most memorable side quests by far.

The main story in The Great Circle is just as compelling as players would expect from a AAA Indiana Jones adventure, but the side quests are where developer MachineGames' talents shine the brightest. Some of the most memorable cutscenes of The Great Circle are even hidden in side-quests, with A Nun In Trouble being a great example of how The Great Circle emulates the humor and action of the film franchise. While replicating the success of the classic Indiana Jones films is already a challenge, The Great Circle even surpasses the originals in some areas, especially during some of the stranger side quests.

Lost In The Past Is A Huge Shift In The Great Circle

Taking Indy On A Journey Of Self Reflection

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After embarking on what seems to be a simple fieldwork quest to discover a lost artifact, players will find themselves on a deep dive into the psyche of the titular adventurer. Having been seemingly drugged or affected by a supernatural force, Indy quickly loses consciousness, only to wake back up in a hallucination of Marshall College. Right off the bat, the familiar location has a vastly different atmosphere than before, with the spooky sound effects and lighting only adding to the experience as players navigate the haunting halls of the school.

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While Lost In The Past starts as a simple environmental change, it quickly shows its true colors as something that wouldn't be possible in reality. Upon walking through the halls, Indy will find a looping hallway around each corner, with notable characters he's come across throughout the story scattered repeatedly. The prompts on closed-off doors read "locked by the past" or "locked by the future" rather than "locked from the other side" or another standard lock message, playing into its more game-like mechanics while adding new meaning to the quest.

As Indy progresses through the distorted college, the space and scenery of each area become even more warped. They're slowly filled with assets from other locations and adventures seen throughout the game, with NPCs and the environment becoming all the more hostile and even dangerous at times.

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Despite Lost In The Past seeming like a basic horror premise at first, the side quest isn't particularly interested in scares, instead focusing on structuring the level in a drastically different way from anywhere else seen in The Great Circle. Playing this side quest will also make the ending of the game even more impactful, as it acts as a great reflection of Indiana's character throughout The Great Circle's story.

Playing With Space Is A Horror Game Tradition

Mixing Genres To Incredible Effect

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While Lost In The Past is more creative and ominous than frightening, it takes clear inspiration from horror classics of the past by turning The Great Circle's gameplay loop upside down, both literally and metaphorically. Playing into the dream-like quality of the game, The Great Circle emulates the looping hallways and twisting space of both Silent Hill's P.T. and Layers of Fear, which elevates the haunting atmosphere without overpowering the experience.

Given P.T.'s massive popularity and influence on the horror genre as a whole, it's a shock that more games don't try to emulate these horror mechanics, but it makes for a pleasant surprise when experienced in The Great Circle. Scary moments have always been a part of the Indiana Jones series, and while it's mostly in the form of villains getting the agonizing fate they deserve, haunting moments like this fit just as well into the tone of the series.

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The best way the horror game aspects take hold is through psychologically tormenting Indy, with his past coming back to warn him of his mistakes rather than haunting him. Being faced with the consequences of his actions over the years, Indiana gets glimpses of the most emotional moments throughout the story in the glass windows, letting players relive some of Indiana's best and worst memories from The Great Circle. It's a valuable and unique experience that adds depth to the character, and it's definitely worth finishing before the main story.

Indiana Jones & The Great Circle Avoids Wasting Areas

Making The Most Out Of Valuable Assets

Given the sheer development time and cost that goes into every level of a triple-A game like The Great Circle, there are only so many new areas developers can afford to add. Reusing locations like Marshall College while adding an incredible twist is a fantastic way to remix old content while still making it feel like an intentionally brand-new experience, instead of a simple asset flip that other games might attempt.

This use of other assets throughout the game also fits perfectly into the dream-like sequence, making it feel as though all of Indy's memories are starting to meld together as he gets closer to the truth of his character.

The dreamlike hallucination is something wholly original to The Great Circle.

While the Indiana Jones franchise has never shied away from the more paranormal elements, the dreamlike hallucination is something wholly original to The Great Circle and the gaming format. Rather than simply rehashing the movies and adding in disjointed gameplay between sections, The Great Circle aims to use the format of the genre to elevate the overall experience instead of adapting it as is, offering fans the experience of stepping into the movies themselves.

With hopes of a potential sequel to The Great Circle looking better than ever given its massive success for Bethesda, including more quests like The Great Circle's Lost In The Past is a surefire way to keep players engaged while cutting down development costs. While it will be a hard task to overcome the reality warping effects of the Lost In The Past sidequest, Machinegames has more than enough experience under their belt to make the successor to Indiana JOnes and the Great Circle just as good, if not better.