What a pleasure to once again find the most famous archaeologist of all time in the person of Indiana Jones. Best of all, Harrison Ford, modeled in his prime and dubbed in French by Richard Darbois, goes on a worldwide adventure fighting Nazis. All the lights seem to be green for a great adventure, but even so, everyone still has to be able to get on board. Let’s take a look at this together.

Type	Adventure/Action
Publisher	Bethesda Softworks
Developer	Machine Games
Release date	December 9, 2024
Rating	18 years and over

For once, it isn’t Indy who goes looking for adventure, but adventure that arrives overnight at the University Museum with a giant who’s come to steal an artifact. Fights, twists, joyful capers and whip-snapping ensue. It’s just one more day in Indy’s life.

The game alternates between first-person exploration and combat phases to shift to a third-person point-of-view for platforming.

As usual, we’ll go over points touching on accessibility in this article, but you can also watch our live test on YouTube!

What if I have a physical disability? 8 / 10

What I really appreciate is that it’s the players who set the pace for their own adventures, allowing them to rest, if need be, during lengthy investigations or spectacular acrobatics.

As a result, I was able to play for long periods without feeling any finger fatigue, despite some poor choices when it came to certain maneuvers, such as simply opening a door. This certainly deepens the sense of immersion, but you still have to grab the door, press X, and finally push the L stick to the right to simply open a door. It’s a lot of fuss for not much. An “all-in-one-click” option would have been appreciated.

A great point is that key remapping can be completely customized, even for directions! What’s especially good is that everything can be reset simply by pressing X. Apart from heavy attacks during unarmed combat, there aren’t any compulsory key holds. The level of detail regarding this point is rather astonishing. I didn’t encounter any key smashing — battles are short enough that you don’t have to spam keys.

Stick sensitivity can be set separately for exploration and aiming. For those with involuntary movements, dead zones can be set for both sticks and triggers. Auto-aim is available for the rare gunfights that occur.

During exploration phases, weapons, resources and key items abound. Picking them up doesn’t require precise aiming.

Thus, good tools are provided to effectively customize controls and fully enjoy Indiana’s adventures.

What if I’m visually impaired? 7 / 10

To help color-blind players, three color filters can be adjusted for brightness, contrast, strength and intensity.

Similarly, a high-contrast effect can be applied to important objects or simply to emphasize their contours. A specific color can be assigned to each interactive element from among nine available colors in total.

However, viewing the result directly in the Options Menu is impossible. You have to return to the game to check the effect of your settings.

There are plenty of sound cues to emphasize when Indy opens his inventory or journal, eats a piece of fruit, or moves too close to a guard. However, there aren’t any sound cues to indicate how close interactive objects are, and they’re key objects in the adventure. There also aren’t any sound cues when Indy runs into a bench, for example.

As far as subtitles are concerned, we’ve got the whole package. Size, background, speaker name and sound effects are all customizable. For subtitles, the effect is displayed directly on the right-hand side of the screen. However, they mustn’t be too dark, otherwise you can’t make out the background at all.

Note that the interface’s size and color can be adjusted, but a background cannot be applied to these elements.

In combat, however, a simple, fleeting red arrow indicates a hit, but there isn’t any tool to signal that Indy is surrounded by enemies, or that a strike is about to be delivered.

What if I have hearing loss? 8 / 10

On the visual side, subtitle options are high-quality. Note that there’s a specific subtitle range under the accessibility options. Deaf and hard-of-hearing closed captioning allows you to display additional environmental information.

Nevertheless, aids available in combat seem too few when so many enemies surround Indy. It’s impossible to know whether an enemy is going to attack from behind, for example.

While out-of-combat, enemies will have a question mark over their heads if they suspect anything, and an exclamation point when they’re on the alert. It’s simple and down-to-earth, but it’s clear when you’ve screwed up your infiltration mission.

All sound source volumes can be adjusted individually. This allows you to concentrate on dialogue during cut-scenes by specifically lowering musical accompaniment.

What if I have a cognitive disability? 7 / 10

Between puzzles, exploration and combat, there’s a lot to do… which can be quite intimidating. Indy’s journal can be viewed at any time, but it’s stuffed with information covering every corner of the screen.

Fortunately, puzzle and combat difficulties can be adjusted individually, and it’s actually fairly finely adjustable, so you can tailor the adventure to your needs and desires.

Quest indicators can thus be kept constantly on-screen to avoid getting lost.

To improve Indy’s skills, you’ll need to acquire skill books. Mind, their effects are shown in text form only.

Indy’s journal, however, is a jolly mess, especially when you’ve unlocked a whole host of side missions and treasure hunts. Between the map, journal, books and reports from other levels, it all takes some getting used to.  

A Game Manual is available in the Main Menu for more general information. Displaying only written information becomes off-putting pretty quickly if you want to consult it to know more about whip-fighting, for example.

Indiana Jones is available entirely in French, [sic.] including interface, text and voices. [Translator’s note: It’s also available in English.] 

What we think

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle provides effective tools to allow the majority of people with physical, hearing and visual disabilities can thwart the Nazis’ plans.

However, on a cognitive level, obstacles to play can quickly arise. For example, explanations and quest objectives are only available in written form. The game’s very nature can also be problematic because you can’t play it in a straight line, but you have to go back and forth collecting clues and solving puzzles.

It boils down to an original adventure game, cleverly blending investigation and infiltration, puzzles and combat. All of this is carried out with a legendary character, played by an actor who embodies him perfectly and accompanied by a cast of endearing supporting characters.