Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s story DLC, Order of the Giants, has gotten an official release date of September 4 via a new “launch trailer” on YouTube. Is it really a “launch” trailer if we’re still over a week away from launch? And is the full title then “Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and the Order of the Giants?” Much to consider.
The DLC will see Indy return to Rome to investigate the ancient legend of a jumbo-sized medieval crusader interred under the city, with his quest taking him from the streets above to the catacombs and below. Biblical giants, or Nephilim, played a big role in the Great Circle’s story, and I’m still confused how the DLC will fit in with that plot.
Does it branch off the section in the Vatican at the beginning of the game, or will it take place after the main quest, or otherwise as a fully standalone thing you select from the main menu? I also don’t know how much excitement for Nephilim-related ancient conspiracies and revelations I still have after the resolution of the base game’s story.
On the flip side, the Vatican chapter of The Great Circle was my favorite part of one of my favorite games of last year, so maybe I should just shut my big yap and enjoy some more swashbuckling hijinks in the Blackshirt-occupied Eternal City. The trailers have focused on underground tomb raiding for the most part, but if there’s another dense, Deus Ex-style urban sandbox in this DLC, I’ll be a very happy man.
The Order of the Giants has a hefty $35 price tag, which I’m taking as a promise of quality and scope—hope springs eternal, and I’m an optimist at heart. The DLC can weirdly only be bought with the game’s $100 “premium edition,” or as the $35 “upgrade” to that edition from the $70 base game. So theoretically shelling out for the big boy version up front is the “better” deal if you don’t have Indy and the Big Circle in your library already, even if it feels very bad.
September is shaping up to be stacked for releases, with both Order of the Giants and Hollow Knight: Silksong dropping on the fourth alone. I love The Great Circle and Machine Games, but smart money’s on the scrappy bug game guys from Australia being the ones who blow the doors down sales-wise.
