Bethesda’s smash hit Indiana Jones and the Great Circle gets a DLC expansion with The Order of Giants.
This new adventure expands on the Italian section of the original game with Indy exploring the catacombs beneath Rome. Initially searching for a legendary Crusader helmet once owned by the Nephilim giant, Gibborim, the famous archaeologist stumbles upon a mysterious cult operating under the city, hellbent on unleashing a force that should be long dead.
Revisiting Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for the DLC reminded me of an issue I found with the game only after I’d finished reviewing it. Deadlines don’t always afford you the luxury of collecting every trinket and bauble that games tend to scatter about for completionists. Whilst I did divert from the main missions a few times, for the most part, I left the optional tasks alone.
The problem with Indiana Jones is that many of those optional tasks by rights should be an integral part of the game. They are more than feather hunts, often requiring some devilish puzzle-solving. But the game gives players zero incentive to complete these tasks as you play through the story.
The Order of the Giants feels like another of those unfinished side quests, albeit with a bit more meat and its own title card. I like the idea of the further adventures of Indiana Jones being released this way. And I hope that the game gets some more DLC like this.
The way the DLC seamlessly integrates into the main game, available after the Vatican level, and scales with the player’s ability level, suggests that it could just as easily have been shipped with the game. But it does offer four or five hours of extra gameplay, complete with cutscenes, puzzle rooms and a new boss.
One of the things that made this more enjoyable was that I’d taken the time after finishing the main game to collect some of the books that allowed me to increase Indy’s abilities. Even though the enemies scaled up to match, having a bit more stamina and an extended health bar allowed me the breathing space to act more like an action hero that I perhaps did in the original adventure.
Indy will still need to use his fist and whip to get out of trouble, but this chapter is mostly about exploration and puzzle-solving. Two of the puzzles involve solving networks. Both interesting, but one needs a bit of real-time adjustment to get a burning ball through a track to activate the statues in order. The puzzles aren’t hard but do sometimes get a little too clever for their own good, leading to frustration.
The new areas are mainly underground, with Indy navigating his way by boat through Rome’s famous sewer, the Cloaca Maxima, accessed via a traversable section of the Tiber River, after exploring a subterranean tunnel system.
The expansion suffers in the same way as the original game, in that it’s easy to overlook the optional elements, many of which offer sizable chunks of gameplay. These nuggets are, unfortunately, diluted with other, more run-of-the-mill collectables that perhaps don’t merit retracing your steps to attain. There really should be a better way of alerting players to nearby side-quests than having to continuously flick through the journal.
On PC, the expansion benefits from the graphical enhancements that have been patched in since the original release. Running the game with an RTX 4090, the visuals take on an almost photo-real look, especially the interiors. Marbled floors shine, reflecting the subtle colours of the surrounding room. Subterranean walls glisten with moisture as walls are illuminated by the crackling fire of a burning torch. The visuals are exceptional. The new locations in the expansion seem to capitalise on the game’s advanced graphics.
Again, Troy Baker does an outstanding job of bringing Indiana Jones to life. Only occasionally did his uncanny portrayal of Harrison Ford’s Indy miss its mark. For the most part, the DLC perfectly captures the essence of Indiana Jones.
The Order of Giants DLC is an excellent addition to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It provides players with all the thrills and spills that you’d expect from a new chapter in the further adventures of Indiana Jones. Hopefully, this is the first of many DLC expansions.