Indiana Jones and the Great Circle becomes a benchmark for PC, and in the best way.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a game that surprises with its visual quality, surpassing expectations for a PC release. Although it has some minor difficulties and is a title that demands a lot from hardware, the combination of the work done by MachineGames and the id Tech 7 engine hides many of the common imperfections found in recent PC productions. Overall, the experience is quite smooth, and it seems that, on this occasion, the limitations stem more from the workload on current hardware than from a lack of optimization. Best of all, even those without a high-end graphics card can enjoy the game, provided they are willing to make some specific adjustments.

The game runs on a modified version of id Tech 7, which has been successfully used in previous MachineGames titles, such as Doom Eternal. Unlike other engines like Unreal Engine, id Tech 7 stands out for its smooth performance, avoiding the stuttering issues common in other productions. In this case, the minor inconveniences that arise are easy to overlook. During transitions and in auto-save scenes, a slight increase in frame time may be noticeable, but these details are barely perceptible.

One of the keys to the solid performance of the game lies in the architecture of id Tech 7, which employs a non-main-thread system, allowing it to better leverage multiple CPU cores. This design minimizes the chances of stuttering by preventing a single thread from taking on excessive load while crossing loading zones. Additionally, the engine exclusively uses Vulkan on PC, which has proven to be more performance-efficient compared to DirectX 12 in many games.

Despite its excellent performance, there’s one aspect that deserves attention: the cutscenes are locked at 60 frames per second, which can lead to some animations appearing to run at less than that rate, potentially causing distraction. This issue does not ruin the overall experience, but it would be desirable for it to be addressed in future updates.

One of the considerations is the support for graphics cards with 8GB of VRAM. At launch, it was found that the game faces significant difficulties on systems using this type of hardware. The intensity of these problems varies depending on the level you are at in the game, and although the developer has released a patch that improves performance in larger areas, the issue has not been completely resolved. For those using these cards, texture and shadow settings can be adjusted to enhance performance without incurring significant visual losses.

The implementation of ray tracing is notable, as it requires a GPU with dedicated hardware for this feature, such as Nvidia’s RTX 20 series or AMD’s RX 6000 series. The game uses ray-traced global illumination, enhancing its aesthetics without the option to turn it off. While the visual quality is impressive, the impact of ray tracing options can vary, being less obvious in some scenes.

It is important to highlight that although Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a great showcase for Nvidia's DLSS 3 technology, it lacks support for AMD and Intel's scaling solutions, which limits its accessibility to a broader audience. This exclusivity can be problematic for those not possessing Nvidia hardware.

Overall, the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a testament to the effort put forth by MachineGames and the potential of the id Tech 7 engine. Future updates are expected to improve some of the performance and compatibility issues, thereby providing a more complete experience for all players.