Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

So many of the choices and art direction of last year’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle are perfect. All of the brilliant puzzles that, once solved, leave you feeling like a pure genius. The sun-soaked ancient cities you explore that beg to be taken apart; a keen eye scrutinizing every single environmental detail for hidden secrets, and senses springing up, taking in all of the atmospheric history you walk past. 

Combat, too, doesn’t get left behind, with its often peak tension sneaking around Nazis, only to get spotted and bring out your whip, cracking through enemies like fodder. Not all of the exploration, puzzles, and combat hit all the right spots of the epitome of cinematic, action-adventure games today. But they do come pretty close in their synergy, delivering an unforgettable experience that keeps you jamming through to the end. 

And now, with The Order of Giants DLC, I expect, more or less, the same package. Shorter, but an extension of all of the perfection and exhilarating set pieces you enjoy in the base game. Still, at the price of $19.99, a critical decision has to be made on whether the DLC is truly worthwhile. That’s where our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants review comes in, leaving you with a clear picture of what exactly you can expect to enjoy (and dislike) from the game.

House Cleaning

First, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants may be a DLC package. And yet, anyone can play it, even without prior knowledge of the base game. That’s because the DLC tells a new, standalone story from the base game. There are, indeed, no backstories worth knowing beforehand, save for the light mention of the titular Nephilim Order of Giants in the base game. 

Now, we’re digging deeper into their history, their secret, ancient order that cuts paths with Indy’s adventures. You’ll be uncovering their legacy, a quite dark ordeal that will set deadly traps and dangers for you. The Cult of Mithras will be the new antagonistic thorn in your flesh. All the while, you’ll be hunting down lost artifacts connected to the Nephilim Order in the Indiana Jones fashion we know and love.

Many of your adventures in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants DLC take you through the ancient streets of Rome. Your hunt for the ancient secrets of the Nephilim Order will take you beneath the city, where tight corridors, twisted catacombs, and moody sewers await your exploration. 

While your journey kicks off at the Vatican, free to access early enough into the base game, you’ll soon descend into the sewers under the city, where many of your adventures will unravel. Your chat with the young priest, Father Rucci, will send you down a dangerous path, confronting cultists and religious fanatics.

Like the base game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants will charge you with exploring a fair number of new locations, solving clever puzzles, and fighting enemies, in a single-player, first-person action-adventure. And it’ll all be over in under six hours. The question is, are these hours worth it?

History Repeats Itself

Let’s start with the story. It’s, indeed, a serviceable tale that gets darker the deeper you delve into the ancient catacombs of Rome. Any fans of the Crusade era will enjoy this story, along with the introduction of the Nameless Crusader. He was a fierce warrior giant whose helmet is said to have great power. Now, you seek to find the lost helmet artifact, fighting through waves of cultists also wanting the helmet for themselves.

While generally linearly told and straightforward in the unraveling of events, you do uncover a fair share of twists and turns, some predictable, others genuinely surprising. The final moments, in particular, deliver a satisfying end, along with a superb boss fight.

Meanwhile, Indy continues to deliver impeccable performance, from the voice acting to the animations. Just as the base game hit the bullseye with its cinematic and exhilarating storytelling, so does the DLC continue in the same breath. And you do have a cute, feathery friend accompanying and helping you in some sections. 

World design doesn’t get left behind either, in its sheer wealth of history and intrigue. You explore atmospheric environments that truly feel like walking into ancient areas, piling on dust. But also dangerous places, looking to deter you from moving any further into unraveling its hidden secrets. 

Perhaps a little more fresh air would have been nice to bring the storytelling and exploration experience full circle. Having the setting in 1937 Rome, and only spending a few moments above ground, feels like a wasted opportunity. No one wants to spend hours wading chest-high in the sewers, and if this had been a full game, I’d have been hugely disappointed. 

Writing’s on the Wall

Next up are the puzzles, just as brilliant and clever as in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. You discover a new batch of brain teasers that get your mind jiggling with ideas. Many get your brain racing, at times taking a beat to explore your surroundings and any environmental details you might have missed with a fresh set of eyes. Yet, the puzzles are never impossible to solve, veering dangerously on the frustrating edge. And if they prove too cunning, you can always rely on the hints or toggle down the difficulty.

I love that some puzzles are tied to the story, giving you extra incentive to solve them. Some come with the reward of an exciting lost artifact. Others are simply fun to figure out, outsmarting the developers’ ingenuity. In any case, The Order of Giants has some cool puzzles that any fan of the sub-genre or Indy will enjoy. 

Puzzles certainly make up most of your journey, with fewer combat encounters. And that’s not entirely a bad thing, cracking your whip through traps and deadly zones. It merges well with the exploration of the fascinating tombs you loot and ancient secrets you discover. 

Yet, comparing the puzzles and mysteries to the base game, I can’t help but wish there were more. The base game certainly crafts more brilliant puzzles and has even more tantalizing secrets and mysteries to unravel. I’d say the puzzles and exploration are fun, especially if you enjoyed those in the base game. Just be cautious of expecting the same calibre of creativity and intrigue, if not something more, that will blow your mind. 

Bite the Whip

Perhaps even more so when it comes to the combat encounters, they certainly won’t be blowing your mind away. Rather, it serves as an extension of the fun whip-based mechanics and hand-to-hand combat of the base game. In truth, though, combat was never Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s strongest element. And so, it’s relatively easy to beat implementation on the DLC doesn’t come as a surprise. 

Ahead of enemies spotting you and cueing a combat sequence, you’ll be using stealth to crouch, hide behind cover, and perform melee takedowns. Disguises are primarily important in navigating danger zones, with some sections impossible to beat without donning a disguise. Meanwhile, you can hide dead bodies, distract enemies, and trap them, all adding more layers to cautious and tense exploration.

It certainly could be better to reach the heights of other exhilarating action-adventure. The melee takedowns are particularly underwhelming, and some enemies sure could use more creative attack patterns. 

In other news, it’s pretty grand that your character level carries over into the DLC. And so, if you’ve already beaten the base game, you should have your upgrades with you in the DLC. This balances the enemy difficulty, too, raising their brutality to match your stronger build. Worth mentioning also is how some upgrades and disguises are paramount to solving certain levels. In any case, anyone should quickly get acquainted with the tools and mechanics needed to cruise by The Order of Giants with ease.

Verdict

It comes as no surprise, then, that The Order of Giants is just as good as the base game. After all, DLCs seldom change much in the mechanics and core gameplay systems of the base game. And by virtue of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle being one of the best action-adventure games, you know you’re going to, at the very least, enjoy its DLC. 

The question is whether the content satisfies, providing enough exploration, combat, and puzzles to fulfill your craving for Indy’s adventures. And for the most part, The Order of Giants delivers. This truly is a fun undertaking, especially for anyone with any slight interest in treasure hunting, mystery, and puzzle-solving. 

It could definitely have been a longer DLC, with more clever puzzles and intense combat encounters to beat. The areas could have definitely included more of the actual streets of Rome to explore. These somewhat take away from a full recommendation of playing The Order of Giants; at the moment, it seems perfect for fans wanting more Indy adventures.