Before Googling for a guide in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, give the in-game hint system a try: It's genuinely the best one I've ever seen in a game

In-game recreation of iconic Indiana Jones stealing the idol in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

(Image credit: MachineGames)

Look, intellectually I'm a great believer in surprise and being challenged, not trying to optimize the fun out of everything. But when the rubber hits the road, I'm looking up guides to help me with games. In Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, though, there's an in-game hint system that is genuinely more streamlined and easy than trying to find something through Google⁠.

The Great Circle's hint system can be accessed through Indy's in-game camera, a tool you unlock early on in the Vatican open world zone. In addition to providing hints, the camera is used for some quest objectives, as well as for bagging extra experience points by snapping shots of interesting scenes throughout the world.

For most of the game, I'm happy to report I was able to figure out Indy's brain teasers for myself. But there was one challenge late in the game where the hint system came in clutch. I just pointed the camera at the offending puzzle, snapped a shot, and a hint appeared in the upper left of the screen when looking through the camera. The hints are persistent too, remaining as a sort of log when looking through your camera until you solve the puzzle.

They also escalate in specificity and direction as you keep taking pictures of the same puzzle. It starts out with gentle prodding, suggestions as to which environment objects are relevant to solving the puzzle and early steps to point you in the right direction. But if you're just really stuck (and maybe in a time crunch to hit a review embargo) you can just keep taking pictures until the game basically goes "Look, numb nuts, here's how to solve this thing. What, do you want me to hold your hand or something?"

So if a puzzle in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is giving you grief, I would recommend taking a picture of it instead of running to Google⁠. It's genuinely quicker and more convenient, while not breaking your immersion in the game⁠—something the devs expressed as their intention for the hint system in a pre-release interview with us.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You can follow Ted on Bluesky.