Indiana Jones and The Great Circle: The Order of Giants DLC Review (PS5) – Standing On Mighty Shoulders

It feels like it was just yesterday that I was whipping Nazis into unconsciousness and uncovering the great secrets of the world in Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. The base game delivered thrills galore and ended in a satisfying conclusion that rounded out the entire story. Naturally, this begs the question of where The Order of Giants DLC would fit into such a complete package.

Seamlessly, and without missing a lung-busting leap, it would appear. The Order of Giants acts as a complimentary add-on that tells its own minor story within a self-contained plot of historical real estate. No huge story exposition or reworking of character’s arcs needed, it’s just Indy, his trusty whip and revolver, and a Father who’s in rather a bind.

Just Follow Orders, Indy

When you boot up Indiana Jones and The Great Circle again, you’ll be invited back to the Vatican to meet with Father Rucci. In a spot of hot water with the local fascists, he implores our wise-cracking hero to seek out yet another relic of history that holds the key to some other-worldly power or other. Without question, Indy throws himself into the fray, acquiring the locked down documents and being beckoned to none other, than Rome itself.

Enticed? Yeah, MachineGames know what they’re doing, and The Order of Giants shows off their confidence. For this mini adventure, the history is all about the crusades and the infiltration of one giant, nicknamed the “Nameless Crusader”, to acquire a divine seal. For me personally, this is hugely engrossing, as I’ve always had a love for the crusader period of history and the conflicts that enveloped it.

It’s a fun side story that allows Indy to gallop off once more, but doesn’t require roping in any previous characters either. The history and world-building are once again excellent, as expected, with a couple of rather obvious twists and turns thrown in to keep the pace up. While not up to the same exciting high points of the main game, owing to its far shorter runtime, The Order of Giants has an enjoyable central premise to follow.

Why Is It Always (Sewer) Rats?

My biggest gripe about the DLC isn’t so much the straightforward, limited focus storytelling. Instead, it’s the premise of heading into more of Rome, only to briefly see the Castel D’Angelo and spend the rest of the time in a sewer system. Granted, there are a couple of excellent tombs to explore and navigate, but the idea of Indy traversing more of Rome’s streets and seeing more landmarks feels like a big missed opportunity here. I understand why, but that doesn’t remove the sting.

Gameplay wise, The Order of Giants maintains the formula that worked so well for the base game. You’ll traverse Indy through small open hub maps, before descending into dungeons and tombs for more focused puzzles and combat scenarios. The open sections are much more condensed compared to the huge sprawling map of Giza for instance, but that makes sense and works here.

The puzzles in the DLC are superb and were the real highlight for me. I won’t spoil them, but they prove MachineGames have the secret sauce when it comes to designing thought-provoking brain teasers, without them descending into contrived annoyance. There’s not much to say on the combat and tomb exploration front, as the former is ridiculously easy (owing to having a fully upgraded Indy), and the latter playing as you would expect from the base game. Both are still great, but there’s nothing especially new here to write home about.

Not Quite A Giant

The Order of Giants is coming in at £17.99, which is a fairly hefty chunk of change in DLC terms. With a handful of new areas to explore, over 100 new documents and pictures to uncover, a set of half a dozen new artifacts to find and a decent storyline to follow, that’s a pretty fair return. It took me roughly 3-4 hours to complete all of the content it offers, including the three new mysteries it adds.

I should mention those mysteries, as they’re not nearly as in-depth as you’ll find in The Great Circle. All three are good-yet-basic puzzles that don’t involve any form of quest chaining or back-and-forth to locations, they’re simply logic dilemmas to solve in the direct room. Again, they’re not bad by any means, but they’re at the lower end of quality when compared to the rest of the game’s offering.

As such, The Order of Giants is, simply put, more Indiana Jones and The Great Circle. I know that sounds obvious, because it is. However, that statement should hopefully provide you with a litmus test for whether it’ll be for you. If you were hoping this would evolve the formula somewhat – it won’t. For me, I just wanted more time in this stellar recreation of Indiana Jones, and I got that exact wish fulfilment. I just wish there was more actual Rome involved.

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle: The Order of Giants is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series S|X and PC via Steam.

Developer: MachineGames
Publisher: Bethesda / Xbox Game Studios

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the DLC. For our full review policy, please go here.

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