Indiana Jones and the Great Circle was one of the great surprises of last year (or this year if you only have a PS5). It was a great romp that found its own distinctive take on the archaeological, mythological adventuring games that the films helped inspire, and playing in first person with a few moments of third person worked far better than I and many others might have expected. And now it’s time for a little bit more of that with The Order of Giants.
While it appears on the main menu, selecting this brings up an explanation card to state that The Order of Giants has simply been brought into the existing story with the appearance of Father Ricci off to the side of the Vatican City map. Speaking to him, he ropes you into his investigation of the legend of the Nameless Warrior, a very tall, giant warrior that took part in the Siege of Antioch, with a relic of his having been hidden away by one of those old Popes. Alas, the Blackshirts have stomped in and are blocking his return to the treasury, so it’s time for Indy to get a bit sneaky. Or not.
Stepping into this situation is a little bit different, depending on how far you’ve got through the main story. With the game already completed, and having thoroughly explored all of its areas, I could simply disguise myself as a Blackshirt and wander through to get to where I wanted, basically unchecked. Similarly, there’s little new here in terms of gameplay mechanics, no new gadget to use, and no real requirement to have the tools earned in Gizeh or Sukhothai from the main story, just because of when and where you’re able to access this side quest.
That placement, I feel, also comes to affect the story itself. I’ve no idea whether or not Locus was planned to appear in this story prior to Tony Todd’s passing, but since he was the one real tie to the secretive Nephilim Order, and we’re now investigating more tales of giants from history, it’s a tad odd that this tale is completely standalone.
But the mystery does deepen in a satisfying fashion as we reunite with Ricci and deduce that we need to go spelunking through the Cloaca Maxima, the giant sewer network that runs under Rome, in order to find the latest puzzling MacGuffin. Thankfully we can use a boat to get around and avoid getting into the putrid water too often – I hope Indy’s got some travel insurance for his inevitable hospital stay after this – and as we find new branches to explore and open up new areas, there’s both encounters with a red-robed Cult of Mithras and some nice brain-teasing puzzles.
I really enjoyed the puzzle rooms here, as they just go one or two steps beyond the obvious to give satisfying conclusions. Taking pictures of a Latin inscription and then reading the translations in Indy’s journal to interpret their clues, but then having to relate these back to a blend of visual and written marks on a map was a nice one. So too was a Pipemania style puzzle, helping to navigate a ball through a maze while having to move connectors in real time. They’re not puzzles that will have you stumped for more than a few minutes, but they are enjoyable.
It all builds up to a big boss battle and, similar to the boss fights in the main game, I did find this a bit wearing. While the pugilism and fighting in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is often about getting in a hefty clonk to your opponent’s head, the grandest moments drag this out a bit too far for my tastes. In this instance, it got to the point for me where I felt I was probably doing the right thing to deal damage, but simply couldn’t tell in the moment – a quick hop across to YouTube confirmed that I was, and it proved I really was just a couple more hits away from completing the story.
While I do wish that The Order of Giants was more substantially linked to the main game or felt like it was pushing on with some new ideas, it also fits perfectly as another little episode in Indy’s Saturday matinee capers. It’s a shorter episode that you could almost view as a standalone adventure, and that’s great in its own way. If there were more expansions like this, I’d be all aboard, but I still hope for something a bit broader and more adventurous in the future.
