Indiana Jones and The Great Circle pits Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr. against his greatest foes, the fascist Nazi regime of the 1930s and ‘40s, once again. And in classic MachineGames fashion, it feels incredible to bash their heads in using, well, just about anything I can find. I’m not surprised by MachineGames’ handling of combat against Nazis – they’ve been in the business of letting players kill Nazis since helming the modern Wolfenstein games. As far as I’m concerned, they nearly perfected a more immersive-sim take on taking down Nazis in The Great Circle. One thing that did surprise me, though, was a side quest about an explorer named Annika.
This “field work” mission, which is the game’s stand-in for a side quest, is one you can pick up near the end of Indy’s journey. As such, here’s your official spoiler warning to not continue if you haven’t yet beaten the game.
Spoilers For Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Below
After making your way to Sukhothai, Thailand, you’ll eventually receive a field work mission called “A Study In Fear.” After local leader Pailin asks you for help finding a mysterious stone in Wat Mahathat, you arrive at the site to find Nazis have blown up the architecture to find an entrance to an underground temple. Once you make your way in, you find another archaeologist named Annika needing help to advance further into the site. As the temple requires the hands of more than just one person, Indy and Annika team up.
It doesn’t take long for the two to begin chatting, and we learn that Annika is actually working for Voss, the game’s main Nazi antagonist. From that point forward, Indy digs into this with Annika, questioning if she knows Voss is a Nazi, if she understands what that means in the wider world of archaeology, and if she even knows Voss’ grander plan in The Great Circle (which I won’t spoil here). She plays somewhat coy, acting as if she isn’t aware of Voss and his fascist allegiance’s intentions. Indy, not ready to take her out the way he does any other Nazi he runs into as Annika is needed for both of them to escape the temple, tries to explain to her what her working alliance with Voss means.
MachineGames stops short of saying having dinner with a Nazi makes you a Nazi, or I guess to put it into game terms, choosing to be an archaeologist for a Nazi makes you a Nazi. But, as the two converse more, with Indy trying to understand why she’s working with Voss, pointing out how Nazis don’t understand the practice of archaeology, we learn Annika was a former student of Indy and asked him to write her a reference for an opportunity. Her reference became one of many that Indy couldn’t complete (he might’ve been busy in the Temple of Doom), and Annika doesn’t forget this, taking it as a personal attack.
Annika’s sour grapes brings her into the fold of the Nazis, because I guess if a professor you like doesn’t give you the reference you want, the next step is to embrace fascism. At another point in my life, I likely would’ve laughed at this leap of logic. But in 2025, it’s not unbelievable – it’s reality. In any sector, be it games, movies, politics, or elsewhere, there are many examples of people who don’t get what they want, or are canceled (see: face consequences for their actions), and quickly become grifters. They feel pushed out of one space (again, being held accountable), and instead of owning it, apologizing, and taking steps to be a better person, they quickly switch to the once-opposition and somehow make a quick buck. This act is grifting, and it’s precisely what Annika does.
She doesn’t get what she wants from Indy and jumps ship to join his hated enemies. Sure, Annika does get what she wants from this fascist regime – the chance to be an archaeologist professionally – but she’s doing it for literal Nazis. She hints at this throughout this mission, but eventually drops the act after the duo find what they’re looking for. Instead of helping Indy escape, she tricks him, letting him know that she’s very aware of what Voss is and what his plans are, and that she has no problem being a part of it before kicking Indy into a pit to his presumed death.
Fortunately, Indy escapes, but not before discovering that Annika got cocky and careless, and lost an arm in the process (found crushed by a door and separated from her body). Indy remarks casually that she got what she deserved, and it’s a great moment. At no point does Indy justify Annika’s actions or sympathize – he pushes back immediately, calling her out for what she is because there’s no sympathazing or humanizing a Nazi. She’s far too greedy and vengeful to listen to any of Indy’s warnings, giving up morals and humanity in the name of revenge. It’s 1937, so she isn’t quite able to start a podcast or YouTube channel like her ilk might in 2025, but she is embraced by the Nazis all the same.
There’s a lot I love about how MachineGames handled this narrative vignette with Annika. I love that immediately, Indy is like “wait, what, why on Earth would you work for them? That is wild and unforgivable. Stop this.” I also love that MachineGames shows no compassion or humanity for Annika, eventually revealing she knows her true role and she’s morally okay with it. And finally, the developer makes certain that Annika gets what she deserves in the form of a smashed arm, which will make her future archaeological adventures more difficult. It’s not quite the shovel upside the head or the hammer to the skull Indy delivers to the countless other Nazis in The Great Circle, but it’s satisfying all the same.
I appreciate MachineGames using a side quest to dive even deeper into the way Nazis work, their careless regard for history and humanity in the chase for power, and their punishment for doing this. In a game filled with opportunities to immediately silence Nazis before they can get a word in (the typically proper way to deal with them), it’s also nice to let one say all the stupid stuff we expect to come out of their mouths before putting them in their place. That’s the message of Annika’s story: the grift will eventually bite you in the ass. While The Great Circle is a bit more detached in how that happens here – in this instance, nature handed Annika her comeuppance – it’s still satisfying to watch a developer fully explore this cycle.
