I'm Obsessed With What's Happening In The Background Of Indiana Jones & The Great Circle

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle puts action in the forefront, but despite how many thrilling moments take center stage, I'm obsessed with everything that's happening behind them. Considering the legendary franchise name that it bears, delivering cinematic excitement is one of The Great Circle's main prerogatives, and major set pieces and showdowns all drum up the requisite level of excitement. Being truly cinematic requires a lot more than just explosive highlights, however, and the way that the game keeps a second fiddle playing might be the more important ingredient in its winning recipe.

Warning: The following article includes spoilers for Indiana Jones and the Great CircleFrom the moment it was announced, I was always on board for The Great Circle, but the steady rollout of trailers across the course of the last year was what really sold me. Although the reveal that the game was in first-person was lightly bemusing, that didn't seem like an issue of huge concern, and I could see some merit in distinguishing the game from Uncharted. What really excited me, though, was a seemingly trivial moment when Indiana sketched out the great circle in red lipstick that set the stage for everything the game does best.

Background Details Are A Core Part Of Indiana Jones

Conversations Are Never Dull For A Reason

Raiders of the Lost Ark has plenty of exceptional qualities, but one of its most significant is how breathless it feels. Although it doesn't feature anything close to nonstop action, Raiders never feels like it takes its foot off the gas, and a lot of that has to do with how the smaller scenes are executed. When Indy has a conversation with someone, he doesn't just sit across the table from them and exchange lines in a sequence of static shots.

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Instead, there's always something extra in the way even the most mundane scenes are staged, an undercurrent of minor action that keeps things ticking along. It's a concept that comes into play almost immediately, and something as trivial as Marcus Brody picking through the artifacts on Indy's desk can add a lot to a conversation. In its best moments, this philosophy provides a genuine thrill, and watching Indy unknowingly pace around with a poisoned date with it adds fantastic tension to a scene that's walking through necessary plot information.

The lipstick excited me so much because it felt like an indication that The Great Circle understood this concept. There was always a risk that I was letting my hopes get too high, andassuming that all of Dial of Destiny would have the creativity that one boat scene did in this regard would have been a huge mistake. After playing the game, though, I think I was closer to underrating its potential to manage secondary action than overrating it. Great Circle gets what makes Spielberg a master of mundane scenes, and it pulls off the same feat with style.

Indiana Jones & The Great Circle Stages Great Scenes

Multi-Layered Cutscenes Add A Lot

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In the end, the lipstick was more important than I could have possibly realized, but there are other fantastic examples that are worth discussing first. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a funny game, and some of its most charming moments happen in the background. As one important conversation proceeds without Indy's involvement, his silhouette occupies itself with an attempt to feed a snake behind a curtained backdrop. Some humorous bits aren't literal background elements but play out as asides, like a memorable scene in a confessional that only happens because Indy is dragged aside while in a hurry.

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At other times, the blocking of a scene is used for emotional effect, like one scene that places Gina in the background between Indy and the shipping magnate Nawal as they discuss her missing sister. In the tradition of the poisoned date scene in Raiders, Great Circle also manages some strong tension-building in the background. A hotel in Siam manages a beautiful back-and-forth, running Gina's attempts to check in parallel to a phone call for Indy, with a personal crisis ultimately absorbing the hero so intently that he doesn't notice a potential threat approaching.

The Great Circle Gives Background Details Thematic Payoffs

Lipstick That Isn't Just Lipstick

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The ultimate feat, however, is incorporating this sensibility into a long-running thematic gambit, and that's ultimately what the lipstick scene that I like so much is building toward. Without a pen or marker at hand, Indy requests the use of Gina's lipstick as a drawing implement, which could work perfectly well as a standalone way to add a bit of interest to the scene. As part of a bigger picture, however, it's one of many assertions of Gina's utility as a female companion and the general value of building relationships.

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The Great Circle features a lot of back-and-forth between Indy and the villain, Emmerich Voss, and one thing in particular that Voss chides him about is what the Nazi sees as Indy's weakness for women. To Voss, having any kind of attachment to a woman is something that can only drag Indy down, and he's equally dismissive of Gina's own attachment to her sister. He attempts to exploit both of these connections when he ensnares the duo toward the end of The Great Circle.

The game also makes references to Indy's attachment to Marion, although she never directly appears in the story.

The Great Circle isn't interested in anything as boring as having Indy explain to Voss why he's wrong, ultimately refuting the claim in a way that I think is much more fun. The big payoff to moments like the lipstick scene comes when Indy and Gina are tied up in the climactic set piece with no clear avenue for escape. Voss has overlooked one thing — a hairpin that Gina's sister gave her — and a seemingly trivial detail that stands for both Gina's feminity and the value of her sister's love proves to be an element of his undoing.

On a basic level, an Indiana Jones game barely even needs themes to work in some capacity, and an endless succession of games with trite cutscenes has thoroughly proven that background details aren't to be expected in the industry. If The Great Circle delivered nothing more than fun action scenes, it might still be a very good time. But I couldn't love Indiana Jones and the Great Circle anywhere near as much as I do if it wasn't so interested in replicating what made the films great, and its unwillingness to waste the background matters more than I could say.