enjoyable

After about ten minutes of running around the Vatican brandishing a biscotti like it was my own holy grail and ultimately angering a fair few fascists in the process (which in turn lead to me heroically fleeing the scene in order to find some kind of weapon – in this case, a crutch – to fight them off) I finally rediscovered my Indiana Jones and the Great Circle sea legs. Several months after finishing the main game, I was now ready to go back for a second helping thanks to its newly-released Order of Giants DLC.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants

The Order of Giants kicks off when Indy opens the ‘A Mystery Begins’ Fieldwork quest and locates Father Ricci in the Great Circle’s Vatican area. The priest, along with his rather endearing parrot companion Pio, speaks of a “Nameless Crusader” believed to be a “giant” of a man who never removed his helmet. This legendary chap appears to have some connection with a secret chamber beneath the Vatican’s Casina and with Indy never being one to shy away from unravelling a good story rooted in history, he agrees to investigate for the duo (because, yes, the parrot is absolutely a team member, and I will not hear otherwise).

Looking further into this nameless and larger-than-life crusader takes Indy under the streets of Rome, as he uncovers a mystery which expands upon the lore of the Great Circle’s Nephilim order. Along with simply discovering more of the order’s story, though, Indy also takes on a number of puzzles and platforming-based excursions in the process. Oh, and of course there are also some skirmishes with yet more fascists as well as a smattering of red-robed cultists. Ooh.

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Before I go too much further, let me say this right off the mark. Order of Giants doesn’t really add much new beyond story and some extra collectables. It feels more like a condensed, Vatican-flavoured microcosm of the full Great Circle game, but with an infusion of Sukhothai’s boat exploration. This DLC really should be considered a general extension to the Great Circle’s core mechanics, rather than something that will suddenly revolutionise what developer MachineGames has done previously. There are two new adventure books, for example (at least that I found), but rather than adding new skills, these books are more about buffs. Of course these are a nice boon – especially I imagine if you have not yet completed the main game – but as said, they don’t hold anything revolutionary that will mix up your Order of Giants experience.

Image credit: Bethesda

Ok, back to it. Now while I really did enjoy the story being told in Order of Giants, in terms of gameplay progress I found it a tad predictable. The platforming sections only really relied on a few small mechanics such as whipping to ledges and pulling on chains to make your way through a predetermined route. Meanwhile, the puzzles themselves were more straightforward than I would have expected from an expansion released several months after the main game, with the likes of directing water through a specific channel, or pulling levers in the order they appeared on nearby images. They lacked a certain amount of creativity.

Then at one moment, probably about halfway through the DLC, I thought I was going to be presented with a mini boss battle. One bit in particular gave me flashbacks to one of my favourite fights against the Great Circle’s blind giant, which was so tense it had me holding my breath (along with Indy). While I wasn’t expecting a carbon copy of that exact moment, I just did not get that same sense of thrill in Order of Giants. Instead, I was soon interrupted by a cutscene that quite literally cut things short. The rest of the DLC then followed a similar formula until the final confrontation (which I will not spoil here, but in terms of story and cinematics, I will say this final showdown did make me gasp with an ‘oh daaaang!’).

Image credit: Bethesda/Eurogamer

Setting aside that disappointment with the action, the storytelling here is still a treat, and is really Order of Giants’ greatest strength. There were several moments during the DLC where I found myself genuinely laughing at the situation Indy had put himself in, with more than just an appreciative titter. I mean, who else could find themself stuck under a car like that and at that exact moment? As an extra optional chapter to the Great Circle’s main game, it was all certainly an enjoyable narrative experience.

I just wish there had been more gameplay variety, and more to explore above ground in Rome itself. Visually, the majority of the Order of Giants grabbed hold of a 50 shades of grey colour card and ran with it, save for some splashes of the labyrinthine underground’s murky greens and browns. Little beams of sunlight from the city above would periodically penetrate through Indy’s subdued surroundings, but when this happened I found myself looking up with a desire to see the fresh blue sky, rather than looking for clues or similar in the immediate and now more illuminated area. I spent a lot of my time during the Order of Giants feeling rather claustrophobic due to being underground and in relative darkness for such an extended period of time.

Speaking of the largely underground setting limitations, while I had so much fun picking up all sorts of makeshift weapons during my playthrough of the Great Circle, there wasn’t the same variety to be found beneath the streets of Rome. Other than a few scepter-like melee items, I mostly made my way through the DLC’s combat sections using just Indy’s whip and fists. This was fine, and at the end of the day an effective enough method, but it didn’t give me the same giddy, silly joy as whopping a baddy over the head with a fly swat. At one point during the Order of Giants, I actually used my gun. I don’t think I ever did that during my playthrough of the main game, because I was having so much fun launching mandolins and mops at my enemies at every opportunity.

Image credit: Bethesda/Eurogamer

As for how long the Order of Giants took me to complete, I would say I was playing for around four and a bit hours in total. I know I didn’t uncover every new artefact there was to find, but I did uncover the majority. In short, the DLC is short. It is certainly not as long as I was expecting, and felt more like an extended and quite straightforward sidequest rather than a full fat standalone expansion with new mechanics and ideas.

It all boils down to this: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants is more of Indy doing Indy things. For me as a huge Indiana Jones fan – both of the Great Circle and the franchise more generally – I had a perfectly enjoyable time back with Indy, and appreciated where the story took me. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say Order of Giants is unmissable. Alas, it just didn’t really add anything to my overall experience of the main game – and given that the Great Circle was overflowing with creativity, characters, grand set pieces and so much more, that just feels like a little bit of a shame.

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