Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2022
Winter Ember
Developer Sky Machine Studios
Winter Ember is an immersive stealth action game that casts you into the role of Arthur Artorias, the faceless man. Step into the shadows and uncover a mysterious plot that saw your family torn from the history books. On the first night of winter, you unsheath your blade and seek vengeance. From the Steam store page
49 reactions from 2 sources (Steam reviews, Mastodon) · newest Mar 22, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
70
Fresh
33 positive · 14 negative
95% range 56–81%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 33 | 14 | 0 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 0 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
2 newer reactions are still waiting for a label.
Steam's own rating
Mixed
73 of 114 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
49 of 49 · most liked firstNow that I've beaten the game on hardest difficulty, I figured I'd update my review with a little more details even if the "Not recommended" rating hasn't changed. My playthrough took roughly 11 hours, which included completing a large portion of the side quests as well as doing decent amount of exploration/looting. Winter Ember is not a bad game, but it is hampered by lack of polish, some bad design decisions and a gameplay loop that starts to feel repetitive in the latter half of the game.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Before you read further, know that Winter Ember is overpriced for what it offers. I love this game, even though I know I shouldn't. I've finished this game twice on Normal, once on Hard, and once on Faceless Man. Winter Ember is a stealth game clearly inspired by Thief and Dishonored, and the sense I get is that it's more a passion project than something refined and precision-made. This game has problems. Most of these problems aren't horrible on their own, but when combined together, they…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Make no mistake, this is a Batman Origin story, due to copywrite infringement they can't come out and say it. You start the game going home to your mansion with 2 hot chicks because you're 19th century Bruce Wayne and you always roll with 2 chicks at any given time because you're a billionaire playboy. So you give these ladies a night they'll never forget, and then wake up and throw your cowl on to do some Batman stuff. You know, sneaking around, coming right up behind a guard, and just as…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm really interested in the story. There are some aspects of game play that could have been implemented better, sometimes movement or actions can feel limited but I'll deal with it. So far I'm liking what I played. The overall controls feel solid, the graphics and style is nice to look at. I'm liking the sound design but it would be nice if you could hear an enemies footsteps even if they aren't insight, I already had some really close calls because I didn't know they were there but they were…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Notice how long the people played who left negative reviews. Yikes... I've put 6 hours into the game thus far and can say it's a SOLID game. It feels good. Runs well and plays great. The story so far is amazing. It's taken some ideas from some big titles, but this game is good. TL;DR The game is good. Don't listen to negative reviewers with 0.1 hours played. Play it for yourself. Steam has a 2-hour return policy.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game could be better IF its cover mechanics were smoother. In the present state, you have to be in a specific distance of the object to take cover, and this can and will expose you many times for your enemies. I felt that playing with keyboard and mouse are less responsive than playing with the joystick. I needed to click 3 times with my mouse to attack an enemy after defending. The isometric camera could have less zoom, it would improve the exploration a lot. Other mechanic that is…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Needs more polish to be worth $25. There are much worse games than this... far, far worse. It's just that I would have liked to see this game kept in the oven for just a smidgen longer. I will gladly re-purchase this game if a lot of the jankiness gets buffed out, but at half the cost of a AAA game, it's not quite there yet. Looks great and the game mechanics are there with a high potential of being a wonderful Thief-like game, but the feel of it and actually controlling everything feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I have enjoyed my time so far with Winter Ember. (13 hrs at the moment) Is the game perfect? No. Is it a fun stealth based game with a descent story? Yes. It can be a bit janky at times, but overall I haven't had many issues during my playtime. I have had only one time were I got stuck in limbo and had to restart, but lost only minimal progress. I'm not going to say that this is a must buy for fans of stealth based games, but I think it definitely deserves to be played if you are thinking…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If someone ask, would I recommended this game, I would say "YES" but this game not for everyone. As a fun of stealth games and Taffer, In game industry stealth games wasn't popularly as many AAA titles. I guess only Thief The Dark Project and Thief 2 Metal Age was popular and still not many people playing them, and if you ask somebody for Thief, mostly people know only Thief from 2014 which is really bad and I cant recommended. Well what about Winter Ember? Was waiting for this game since 2020…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game has gletches and bugs. for example when trying to stealth kill for some reason the character just stops. another example, when claiming a box I get stuck for some reason. a third example, I get obstructed when I go up the stairs and there is nothing in front of me. I felt that the game needed more work. It felt Unfinished. I liked the arrows I think it was really fun. I liked the story and loved anime cut scenes. if there is an anime for this game I would watch it. however I did…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall I'd say I'd recommend this, though it definitely needs some patching. I personally haven't run into many bugs; I've only gotten stuck in the map geometry once in the tutorial. I enjoy the dark feel of the city, and it's nice to have a proper thief hub map to go through once more. Looting is basic but fun, I always enjoy the dopamine rush of looting a house of valuables to sell later (kind of weird it's in $ though, if it's gold shouldn't it just be Gold or Coins?) The arrow crafting…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love this game. It is very immersive with good combat and stealth mechanics. Reminds me of the thief saga in ways. The levels are fairly large and there are no markers here which propels you to actually explore and figure out the levels by themselves which adds to the challenge. It feels so good to sneak around , cover, peek and then take out an enemy by killing them or knocking them down- the game gives you choices here and there. The looting is also great fun and is rewarding.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So what's Winter Ember? -It's a stealth, action RPG where you control a single character named Arthur on his quest for revenge. Basically you'll be traversing through large maps collecting loot, fighting enemies, and completing main and side quests. Stealth gameplay includes sneaking around, locking picking, backstabbing, pick-pocketing, hiding bodies. The action portion consist of melee sword/dagger fighting, launching crafted arrows, blocking, parrying, dodging and rolling around. Exploration…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've never felt compelled to write a review before, but I love this game and I definitely don't think it deserves all the negative reviews it has received. With that said, it does have some issues. I personally didn't encounter anything terrible; the most frustrating predicament for me was when Arthur got stuck a few times, requiring me to reload so I lost a little progress. Occasionally I was able to get him to roll out of it, so I only had to reload like maybe 4 or 5 times in the 24 hours…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The movement, combat, and overall gameplay is lackluster. This is a $4.99 game and not a $25 game.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'd normally wait until I was a bit further into the game before reviewing, but at time of posting the reviews are overly negatively skewed, for what is an enjoyable stealth & loot game. Very enjoyable stealth game so far, some nice reminders of Thief. Bleed mechanic can be cool at times (can leave a path for guards to follow akin to footsteps in the snow on MGS), although can also happen a bit frequently at others. Graphics are pretty good, world is nicely designed. Some of the tutorial bits…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →For those who love stealth genre we all must acknowledge the very fact that only few are still developing this type of games which are hard to design but easy to make mistakes. For this reason I'll leave a positive review and hope devs would further polish Winter Ember to make it better, though many aspects written in other negative reviews do make it uneasy to play at current state.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The look and feel of this game was very nice...but...it kind of stops there....unfortunately the tutorial is severely lacking especially in terms of the crafting system. Honestly, if they could simplify the crafting system or, in the very least spell out how to craft something (arrows in particular, which apparently you have to craft 3 different sections to make one), then this game may be good. At this stage in the game though....I can't recommend it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Welp, this is a mess. The story is a somewhat straightforward revenge-plot, and not very well told. The game looks good, but is also so busy visually that it's sometimes easy to miss things, or enemies, before they're thwacking you in the face with a sword. There's a needlessly complex crafting and inventory system. There's a certain degree of jank to... pretty much everything. Despite all this, the stealth-gameplay is decent enough, and the levels are huge. I did finish the game, so I guess I…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you are a real stealth fan, then you will understand the beauty of this game. And Initially, I advise you to start the game at the maximum level of difficulty, this is how the price of an error will be correct. Stealth - Everything you know about stealth is here. Also added a few features. Plus, you have a very large arsenal of different arrows for different situations, which allows you to be very flexible in your approach to solving problems. The progression system is amazing. You are the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →With a lot of reluctance I guess I can give this game a thumbs-up, but for the catastrophic failure they call "you can rebind keys" I should really give it a thumbs-down. You can workaround the issues with keyboards offering hardware-level rebinding (or if you don't have one, you can probably fix this nonsense with AHK), but seriously - what the actual ♥♥♥♥ ? You can find the details in the forum. Anyway, certain technicalities aside, the game is I guess an ok. Reminds me of Seven (though of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I liked it. Pretty good story. Cool art style. I appreciate you can kind of play how you want cause I suck at stealth. Really interesting aesthetic. for 25$, there's actually quite a bit of content such as exploration, side quests, etc...
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good stealth game. the visuals are fantastic. the start is a little long, so just be patient. it gets really good after that.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Upfront, only played 4 hours of it before this review, take that for what you will. I couldn't really be bothered to play more. The game has some interesting ideas, but just poor execution. The mechanics aren't well polished (rolling in mid air, weird lag in striking with your sword, get good at parrying and the game is a joke from then on out barring severely being outnumbered). The isometric view doesn't really lend itself to stealth and seems to actually hamper it. The cover system seems…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not sure why it's getting all the hate, it's a nice stealth game from (I'm guessing) a small studio at a decent price. The art team especially have knocked it out of the park. Voice acting quality is a bit up and down but overall pretty decent and doesn't make me cringe. My only gameplay gripe is that afaik you can't hide bodies in the large chests/trunks. Other than that I'm enjoying it a lot so far. Would recommend giving it a chance if you like games such as Styx etc.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is crashing at 2nd horse part. At the part where it shows that the horse is located across from the bridge. Restarting the game doesn't fix the problem.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →That's a good game, excellent visual and level design, with satisfying stealthy game play. The music is very similar to Dishonored's, which is a big plus in my book. The game gives you freedom and treats you like an adult, no objective markers or quest arrows or similar fluff. In the tutorial level, one of your objectives will be to get to a rooftop. On my first play through I found 3 different ways to do that, and I'm sure there's more. After the tutorial level (where most reviewers quit),…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Winter Ember is an Australian INDIE game, people tend to forget that part. It is an isometric action RPG with heavy focus on stealth. Very similar to that other isometric stealth game "SEVEN (2017)". The game is quite simple but has an intricate and overdeveloped system that may scare off noob gamers. It offers quite a chunky amount of gameplay, many interesting side quests and huge maps. The anime cinematics and voice acting were a nice addition, cheap yes but just having them in an Indie…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →AWFUL Constant camera sway, enemies constantly respawning, crappy crafting system, lockpicking minigame that requires you to release before you need to due to input delay and finally buggy. Enemies moving away whilst you're still in the takedown animation, sliding off of boxes and ledges whilst not moving and (for me) getting glitched inside a room and being unable to exit. Don't bother. Play Dishonoured or Shadwen or Styx or even classic Thief. This doesn't work and isn't worth your time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Winter Ember As this game isn't really populair at the moment, people are missing out! If you're into action and stealth games, this one is for you. It even has a nice story and a good ending! For my first playthrough, i wanted a challenge, i went for Faceless diff right at the start and enjoyed every moment. This is the way a stealth game should be, needing to watch out around every corner. I do have to say the combat can be better, get Parry as fast as you can and every battle is suddenly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While I do really like the game to a certain degree. In the same regards, I really don't. When its limited mechanics work as intended they make the game very immersive. Also while the levels themselves are cool they also have interesting design choices, where you just loop back to the same point. Normally this is okay if its an occurrence here or there, or if its essential to the mission, but after a while it feels off. I refunded and decided to re-wish-list if for updates and future…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is very good now, has come a long way and got much polish and QOLs (save anywhere, anytime, etc.) Enjoyed it a lot. Sad that mostly early review impressions don't get updated but that's the way it goes. The 1st time a few credits roll *don't quit*: game goes on. Even when you finish the main story you get a free world roam for any sidequests you left and want to do, nice ! Note that, as with any Unreal Engine 4, you can install free Universal UE4 Unlocker v3.0.21, run it, select…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So far its a decent stealth game. While its nothing that original, its a fun little game about sneaking around like a top-down isometric thief. Now it has a little bit of jank and did have a bug where I found a key before it was a goal and it still says to get the key...so far it doesn't deserve the negative reviews. Im unsure how long it is and how it plays out to see if its worth the full price.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →one of the most boring games ive ever played in my life with horrible mechanics 4.79 seems too much for this trash
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So finally I gave this game a second chance after being bugged out 8 hours in the first playthrough. There are some unnecessary or unpolished things related to gameplay, some really annoying bugs here and there, but storywise it is pretty decent. The whole game did deserve some more love poured into it but I do recommend to give it a try.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Mini Thief...quite good, actually!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Potential to be a top down version of Thief but huge failure in the keyboard interactions.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Finally thief returns.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The gameplay mechanics are really bad. Movement is excessively slow and tedious. The stealth functions of the game leave a lot to be desired, and the combat is even worse. I'm not fond of top-down games, but was still intrigued by the story. The story seems like it might be very interesting, but the gameplay is just awful.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Good but flawed. A solid game that probably deserves a better review status than mixed. The world itself is beautifully crafted, the ambience & atmosphere is top notch. The game at least so far, doesn't offer the strongest story & characters. The arrow crafting system is a clever mechanic, and it's grown on me as I've played, however it does lack a certain degree of intuitiveness which can be hard to grasp at first. Hiding extra hot-bar slots in the skill tree just feels cheap and lazy.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's like Dishonored and Thief had a kid, which was followed by a drone.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad game for what I paid for it (On sale for $10) I closer zoom, first person, wound make parring easier Run into a few bugs (fan now slowing down near end) but a quick save and reload fixed that
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very good game, with a few bugs here and there.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →good game but save system is poor
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It is a game that should be bought and tried at a discount. It has an interesting narration with animation drawings in cutscenes. Control and movements are not very fluid, but they are not bad enough to hinder the game. It is gripping thanks to its story full of intrigue. There are no illogical or missing points in his story. It's explanation is also very clear. Those who enjoy stealth games and are looking for a gameplay experience enriched with some RPG elements should try this game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A chill isometric view stealth game, something I enjoy when I just want to relax before bed.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was fun playing it
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Winter Ember is an upcoming stealth sandbox action game created by Blowfish Studios. #WinterEmber https://gamesense.co/game/winter-ember/news/discuss/winter-ember-release-date-and-what-we-know-so-far/
unlabelledView post →30 #games were added to Game Sense yesterday #WinterEmber #gaming #videogames https://gamesense.co/games/all/?sort=age&asc=0&d=2021-09-08
unlabelledView post →
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