Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2017
Inner Chains
Developer Telepaths Tree
An FPS horror game set in a surreal, dark and deadly biomechanical world never seen before. Humankind is just a small part of a hostile universe. Want to survive? Discover its secrets. From the Steam store page
195 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 3, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
46
Mixed
89 positive · 103 negative
95% range 39–53%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 89 | 103 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
3 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
290 of 609 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
A visually stunning but mechanically flawed game that divides players.
Many players praise the game's art style, heavily inspired by H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński, calling it a "BEKSIŃSKI MOOD PIECE" and noting the "graphics and atmosphere are nothing short of phenomenal." However, the same players often criticize the gameplay, describing it as "clunky, slow, repetitive and short" with "bad combat, ai, voice acting, gameplay, and level design." [7][8][10][26]
Some players feel the game is more of an interactive art piece than a traditional game, with one saying it's "like an interactive H.R. Giger painting" and another calling it barely a game, more something of an interactive art piece. Others are more critical, calling it "absolutely rubbish" and "horrible," with complaints about performance issues and a lack of story. [10][8][21][28]
Praised Art style and atmosphere
Criticised Gameplay and combat · Performance and bugs · Lack of story
Summary drafted by an AI model from the 36 reactions it cites ([n] links open each post), then checked by code: every paragraph cites real posts and every quote is verbatim. Written Oct 8, 2026. Method
Reactions
60 of 195 · most liked firstFollowing in H.R. Giger's footsteps This is the first, immediately noticeable thing when it comes to playing Inner Chains. The entire world it presents to the player with its biomechanical creatures very much reminds us of Alien as the Nostromo crew landed and were getting close to the Derelict in the distance. This is a dark world with a strange clan that easily labels people heretics and eventually burns them at a stake. We play some sort of a slave who commits a mistake on his pilgrimage…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Inner Chains has one of the most epic intros a game could have in my estimation. That alone made this game something I wanted to try out, so when a copy came across the ethereal surface of my existential desk, I was very excited to check Inner Chains out. It is worth noting that Inner Chains definitely saw a troubled release, and it was obvious this was a first time developer. Still, Telepaths Tree kept their resolve, engaged the community despite a fair amount of vitriol from gamers and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Slow and boring chase is the right call for this game. The horror is not horror at all, if ever was, lets call it fairy-tale and this is unfortunately driven by suspense rather than jump scares or action, but the overall pace is slow, methodical and can lead to boredom rather than fear. Should I talk about guns/combat and limited amo? Or rather talk about my visitation of a tooth fairy? Repetitive killers, repetitive squads and locations, with no logical connection to the game whatsoever. Even…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The world and visuals are a striking nightmare, but the gameplay keeps snapping me out of it. It looks great, but it never feels quite as good to play as it looks.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm compelled to write this review by the "Mixed" overall rating. It's baffling for me how low the ratings are for this title, on Steam and even on Metacritic, where the 40/100 score is an average of the so-called "critic" reviews. Inner Chains is a slow paced FPS focused on exploration: the gunplay is limited, the levels huge and astonishingly detailed, the enemies carefully placed. The game unravels through four chapters (plus a fifth, introductory, chapter), each played in the course of a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Let’s get this out of the way straight away: *Inner Chains* is absolutely rubbish. On the plus side, the only thing going for it is Hans Giger’s haunting aesthetic, which is brilliantly executed and manages to keep your interest in the game just about alive. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2385852206 The story isn’t even worth mentioning; what little lore there is is scattered throughout the game in the form of texts that need to be translated using various letters…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't recommend this game. The visuals are nice but there's no story. It's long and tedious and just not that fun. That teaser on the store page really got me. The game is nothing like that. That's the best part you're going to see.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very disappointed in this game. While the level art looks great and has cool atmosphere, pretty much everything else about the game is just not fun. - The enemies have a weirdly large health pool. 10 Shots or so to the head to kill them? Silly. - All the guns have some sort of cooldown period on them for some bizarre reason. But the enemies don't seem to have the cooldown. So you have to swap your gun every 5 seconds or so to a gun that isn't cooling down. Just terrible design for a shooter.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bad combat, ai, voice acting, gameplay, and level design. Just like Scorn it has nice visuals and that's about it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I backed this title on Kickstarter. I was so hyped. I really wanted to like and enjoy this game. And then... What to say? I can't. I just can't recommend it. This game has nothing to offer except atmosphere, graphics and music. It's more like walking simulator than action game. Story does not exist at all. It's my biggest disappointed of all time. I'm really sad that polish studio did this since I always support my native developers. I hope to see another game from them but they really need…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I generally like to start my reviews off by giving a snippet of the plot, but that's hard to do in this case. I'll be quite transparent and say that I had no idea what was going on at all, at any time, in terms of story. My best guess is that you play as some fallen soul who has to battle through purgatory and kill some evil queen. There's more information laid out on the store page description than what's ever included in the game, so it's best to just leave it at "you're on an alien planet,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Opening my eyes, I clearly understood - SHE is calling me! Like many others, I slowly walked to the temple to be stabbed in the name of GOD! No one wanted to repeat the fate of the past generation - whose greed, godlessness and commitment to technology - destroyed the entire planet, reducing it to the state of coal. On which we now live.. But the Goddess promised to bring Us out of the Darkness! And lead us to the Light, through Chaos! The crowd of living meat was endless. We walked in a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Inner Chains So, if you dare shooting that weird game, everything is here: anticowl.github.io/2025/06/10/I... Many many thanks to @pino44io.bsky.social for the banner shot! #virtualphotography #innerchains #freecamera #vpguide
unlabelledView post →it was really great, has some bugs here & there but nothing important, what i just found out is utterly unacceptable ! at the end of part 3, a big part of the level is missing, invisible and unfinished dont waste your money & precious time on this one, not worth it. Devs shame on you & steam selling this in poor unfinished state.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is horrible, it's a slow walking simulator with mindless enemies and terrible performance. After playing for 2 hours in 2 goes I reached the last chapter. Dunno if I'm gonna force myself to finish it. I managed to grab it for 3EUR and it's the maximum the game is worth. Don't even think about buying it for 10 or 20 eur.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Inner Chains has bad voice acting, terrible AI, pathetic combat, abysmal level design, frustrating gameplay and is just torturous to play. Spend your money elsewhere, move along. NOT recommended
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →did i enjoy it? YES! will you enjoy it? depends! if you like nice graphics and the overall h. r. giger style (it's amazing!) you are in for a bloody good ride. quite literally actually. or at least for the most part that is as this game has numerous definitive weaknesses. see below for more info. if you don't care much about all that eye candy and you prefer smooth gameplay, a deep story and an overall polished experience it's most likely you will be really disappointed. so don't bother,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This games only really redeeming feature that I can see is the presentation and art-style which might convince you to get it because, credit where credit is due the game is VERY good looking visually. But the game itself once you get into it is just all wrong. First of all the movement speed is GLACIAL, like I'm not expecting an old school FPS or arena shooter or anything like that but this ♥♥♥♥ is ridiculous you move SO SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW, and this only makes the already boring combat even more…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's not as bad as you may think by looking at the reviews. Yes, the performance can be ♥♥♥♥♥♥, yes it's short, yes it has almost no story and yes there are only 3 weapons in the game. But the art style is great, graphics are also beautiful (most of the time) and I could enjoy the gameplay (if the framerate wasn't at about 15 fps though, yes this happens). There are only 4 levels and in the first one the game is pretty much a walking simulator. But the levels are pretty long and a have a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33401179/]Follow my curator page for more recommendations! I'm giving this a partial recommendation, almost exclusively because of the artstyle which is heavily inspired by H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński. The rest of the game is unfortunately not very good, but the scenery was so nice to look at that I played through the whole thing just to see more of it. If you like the style and are a fan of the two artists I mentioned (and/or games like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I can't deny that Inner Chains looks amazing; there's this hellish flesh and stone sort of look to the environment, like if Giger designed monasteries, and considering that they were aiming for that sort of aesthetic they absolutely nailed the look and feel of a bizarre and bleak surreality. But everything else is awful, from movement to combat to UI to level design (layout, not look), and while the game's visuals may be enough to attract your interest, the plodding pace and tedious combat…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I don't give this a recommended rating, but at the same time it isn't a bad game. There are, however, several things that bring it down IMO. First of all - I'd usually start a review with a summary of the plot, but in this case I don't understand what the heck it's about, so describing it is tricky. And, of course, not understanding it (even having finished it) makes it none too rewarding at the end. The game is an FPS of sorts, in that you do have ranged weapons and melee combat, but it is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Inner Chains had an intriguing premise, but after a few hours, I found myself struggling to stay engaged. The game’s biomechanical world is visually stunning, with surreal landscapes that feel like stepping into a twisted nightmare. The art direction is undeniably impressive, creating an eerie and oppressive atmosphere that initially pulled me in. However, once the novelty of the setting wore off, the gameplay started to feel uninspired. The combat lacked impact, with weapons that didn’t…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →WARNING: The save system sucks! Who thought this was a good idea? You have to complete each chapter on a single run because the game doesn't save your progress mid-chapter if you quit. After all the patches it received I was actually having some fun with it, the visual design is fantastic and I was really hooked. But then I died and I got sent way back, which pissed me off, so I closed the game. When I fired it up again, I realized I didn't even start at that checkpoint anymore, I started at…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →There's one thing you first need to acknowledge in order to enjoy this title: this is barely a game, more something of an interactive art piece that lets you to wander through a dystopian, surreal world. And as such, it fully deserves recommendation. If you're looking for a good, dynamic fpp shooter though, move on. First of all, the graphics and atmosphere are nothing short of phenomenal. Clearly inspired by the art of Beksinski and (to lesser extent) Giger, almost every inch of each location…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →BEKSIŃSKI MOOD PIECE Yeah, Inner Chains has racked itself up some “love” on several “Worst Games of 2017” hit lists, and a good deal of the critcism I read is accurate and relatively fair. But there is something about this ambitious indie that makes me want to stop and say it should be more than just target practice. So, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to be (kinda) nice (for a change). The first nice phrase I want to bring up is “mood piece.” Inner Chains is a “mood piece” if it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Insufferable camera sway when the character is not moving is a crime. Whoever made it, please stop making games. And that's it, it's enough for me to not recommend the game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ although the world design is good and I really wanted to play the game. But the nauseating camera is an instant nope the ef out.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Best Played in VR with UEVR (6DoF, Room Scale and Motion controller Support) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pI-rTNhwT1Y
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a little bent with this one because it's honestly a well-made and fun game, it's just kinda repetitive. I mean, the graphics, cut-scenes, environments, and atmosphere are all stunning. The soundtrack is passable and the game-play is engaging and unique enough to not be too cookie cutter. The world is actually kinda interesting, and I think the fact that you as a player aren't special, you're just another prisoner who happened to get lucky is pretty cool. Also, the fact that your wrist and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First things first: Is Inner Chains a good game? Hell no. It is clunky, slow, repetitive and short. So why should you play this? - Because it's like an interactive H.R. Giger painting. The art design is absolutely awesome and the overall atmosphere is great. I would have enjoyed this a lot more as a walking simulator without any fights, to be honest, but the atmosphere alone is worth playing this. The asking price is way too steep for what's being delivered, but for a fiver this could be one…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Just don't, save yourself some money. If you must buy it (for whatever reason), pick it up in a sale.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Horribly optimized.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →*IMPORTANT* I really wanted to give this game a positive review and I will, if the problems I'm having are fixed. Until the here's what I think about Inner Chains: I stumbled upon this game by accident and it seemed right up my alley. It was. I'm not huge fan of survival horror games, but I enjoy games with horror atmosphere, and this game is the bomb considering its fantastic art style and graphics. Even though it's a horror game, It's the most beautiful game I have ever played. The fact that…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has so many bugs.. the textures are not loading .. the devs not even care when i send about my issues.. despite so many negative reviews, for some reason i wanted to try this game.. but went on wasting my time and money on this game..
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I paid a very, very minimal price for this on Green Man Gaming. I got my money's worth already in just one hour of gaming. The presentation is extremely nice. The music sets the mood. Combat is not great but I think I understand what is going on with it. I would highly recommend everyone head to Green Man Gaming right now and get this. If you want a DRM free version head to GOG and pay double. Still worth it. The only negative I see so far is after I died in the second level because I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →great looking game but the game play itself is cheeks, its extremely annoying how slow you are forced to walk through the game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Give the devs a job for art but not for game design pls
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I remember buying this game at release and I refunded it because I thought at the time the gameplay was tiresome. Fast forward 5 years and it's on sale for £1.79 - cheaper than a loaf of bread, so I decided to give it another chance. Did I misjudge it the first time? No, I didn't. I tried hard to enjoy it the second time around because the graphics did entice me in. The intro is probably the best part of the game in my opinion. There's some real stunning colossal structures in the distance…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game looks great. The environment design is amazing, directly inspired by the paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński, especially the first chapter. It looked really promising. But soon you realise the rest of the game is much worse. It's an FPS and a bad one. Weapons feel weak and ineffective, enemies are bullet sponges and it's not satisfying to shoot them. You move slowly, there's no dodging or covers; whenever you see an enemy you just point a gun at it and hope for the best. The combat is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately this is not a game I can recommend to anybody, maybe only to those people that love H. R. Giger aesthetics so much, they'd willingly subject themselves to a boring, short and uninvolved romp through a very interesting hellscape. What breaks this game is not only how janky the entire gameplay is, it is actually that they decided to have this type of gameplay at all. It TRIES to be a shooter, but the repetetive level design, enemies, low selection of weapons and the fact that none…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I honestly have no freaking idea why this game isn't more highly rated. The best I can come up with is because it's an indie game from a small Polish team that didn't have the money to spam the internet with PR and marketing shilling for such absolute pure trash like Fallout 4. To the people complaining about things like combat and melee: git gud ♥♥♥♥. No I'm being serious here. Did it never occur to you guys to blast someone with the lightning gun to stun them in between punching them? I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to recommend this I really do. This is why steam needs a middle option. Game looks and feels amazing (aside from the sexist lack of females or lack of children). It seems you are some prisoner? in some dystopian... place. Just from the start it has solid atmosphere but damn the micro stutter/choppy framerate now and again just kills any momentum the game starts to bring and kicks your ass out of any immersion. Game is not long and is very simple and easy to play and figure out. Bracelet…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Interesting Concept, bad Production. This is another one of those kickstarter games that sells itself on its visuals and fails to deliver on gameplay. Pros: -Visuals are interesting Cons: -Bad Gameplay -Horrible Ending -Horrible narrative 5/10. Dont buy if you want either an interesting narrative or good combat
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is like a long hill. If you can get up the steep side you can enjoy your ride down. Though it may be short its not bad. There are a few laggy bits but its not bad. This game is worth a playthrough or 2 but not for $20. If the game goes on sale for about $5 or so its more than worth it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I will start with the fact that this is a 2017 video game which feels and plays like an early 2000's game. The movements feel extremely awkward, the head bobbing is too much, thankfully there is a way to turn that off, no unlimited sprint and the sprint times are too short, the character "gets tired" too fast (THAT SHOULD BE FIXED). the start is EXTREMELY slow, items are placed awkwardly. some of the health and ammo stations are inaccessible. I cannot recommend this game at all and I feel like…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game itself is quite good. I like the design, especially how it's inspired by Giger. It's a mix of a walking simulator and an action game. Overall, I enjoyed it, though it's certainly not worth 20. I got it discounted for a fair price. But for the love of the Lady, why did they choose this narrator? He dragged the atmosphere down.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really like this strange little game. It's got H.R. Giger-esque graphics. It's all about exploring, so far there hasn't been much combat, other than some "boxing" against a few characters. But I just love exploring this bizarre world. I like that there is really no instruction, it's up to you to figure out what to do. I can't wait to see what's next, but I'm stuck trying to figure out what I have to do to proceed, but that's all part of the fun. Watching the trailer for it, i can see that…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I bought this game on a whim during the Spring Sale last week, because It looked like It could be a decent Horror game and unfortunately, this Is one of those very few purchases, that even though It was cheap, I genuinely regret. Inner Chain's presentation of this abstract, kind of post apocalyptic world Is genuinely good at first glance, It's a very visually full experience, but one that's marred by a very vague, close to non existent story, bland gameplay and technical issues. All we…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm amazed at how this game has mixed reviews. Is it perfect? Definitely not, but there's a good experience to be had here. The game itself is very short, with only 4 chapters to play (roughly 3 hours). The premise and art style are really interesting, it feels like a precursor to Scorn, just with some fps action consistently mixed in and not just vaguely mixed in. My only real complaint about this game is the running. Holy ♥♥♥♥, why can you only run for 3 seconds at a time, and the speed of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Carrion corpse come chosen champion causes chaos, carnage and catastrophe to a corrupt cult.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels more like an environment artist demo reel than a game proper. The story is about evil guys turning the planet to ashes and enslaving humanity or something. But the pain and suffering they inflict transcend the monitor barrier and manage to lash at the player himself, making playing that game a misery in itself. The character walks extremely slowly, and runs barely any faster. All the puzzles are about pushing skullbuttons to toggle forcefield walls. - On the first level, my character has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well, considering Inner Chains is sold as a "First Person Shooter" I can't recommend this game. This is NOT a shooter. This may be a first person walking simulator with an unclear plot where you interact (poorly) with enemies (a few). Yes, it has great (!) visuals and concepts. Strzalkowski's works are really intriguing. That might make my review positive if we were talking about a walking simulator with a really interesting enviroment. But that's not the case. In this view I could pass over…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Atmospheric FPS / Walking Simulator in the best H.R. Giger biomechanical style. Gameplay is decent for the genre, graphics are great and creative. For fans of Giger worth a closer look. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o0OoUzBkbQ
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Thank you to the developer, Telepaths tree, and Publisher IMGN.PRO for providing a game that offered a unique world for me to escape, explore and enjoy. Inner Chains walks the line of game engine demo and differences of creative design within the developers. It feels the game got away from the devs who maybe Epic employees for all i know, or its simply a project they put together to add to their resume. Having said that i still enjoyed my time with the game though understandably it will always…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The concept art, background and scene design for this game is outstanding, there are hints of every nightmare - the Alien Derelict, Quay Brothers, Pieter Bruegel - it is a credible vision of what hell would be like if it existed. I really like the dystopian scenes that had industrial decay with a hint of alien artifacts. Mixing this with catholic religious architecture will definitely resonate with those of us who grew up in that religion. I didn't totally get the misogynistic tone though –…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Can't change resolution, game incredibly heavy, looks nice and promising but can't play like this. Will wait for some patch or will just let it get dust in my library I guess.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is just bad, dont even bother buying it. Its not worth it, 20€ for 4 hours of s.hit.ty "gameplay". Its one big joke
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hmm. A mixed kinda game. On the overall whole I enjoyed it, but this game could have used more improvements. Pros: * Very old school Quake 1/Chasm - The Dark Rift type feel to it with some H.R Giger thrown in. Very Quake 1 inspired in look. * Graphics are excellent. Great views of a destroyed world. Or is it hell? I dunno. * Great game mechanic of not understanding AT ALL the language on the walls, but as you go through the game you get letters which slllloooooowwwwwwllllyyyy makes sense of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game deserves every rotten thing Angry Video Game Nerd EVER said about a game. I am beyond angry with it. It does NOT play well with 32:9, you can't edit the engine.ini like you can with MOST UE4 games, it does NOT recognize when you change your screen res/ratio in NVidia Control Panel and/or Windows; It always sees the actual res/ratio and refuses to let you run it in anything other than that! There is a blood overlay that never goes away and isn't centered, and when you crouch everything…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Take the journey through a dark fantasy world, you are one of many and need to survive, given an artifact what allows you too become selected to live so as earning elementary based weapons. The story is simple: find your way through a well animated medieval world till reaching the queen, the build recalls games like Hexen and Quake with some flair of Scorn, sound and atmosphere are doing their part. Solve riddles and care of what is above you, as everywhere lurks the enemy, 2 and 4 legged. Your…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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