Mini Review: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants (PS5)

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: The Order of Giants delivers a compact burst of classic Indy thrills. Beneath Vatican City’s labyrinthine passages, the whip-cracking professor teams up with a cleric and his chatty macaw to chase down an age-old enigma involving colossal guardians.

This three-hour add-on never strays far from the formula that made the main adventure so stellar: crawl through timeworn grottos, trade a few punches, and twist your brain around a couple of riddles. Vintage Dr. Jones fare, through and through.

Most of the scenery is tight, dim corridors broken by a single subterranean waterway. MachineGames still knows how to bottle atmosphere; after combing every alcove of the Holy See in the core release, it’s a treat to duck around an adjacent corner you couldn’t visit before. Just don’t anticipate the layered complexity or grand sprawl of the earlier locales—this is mostly flavorful backdrop.

The standout moments are the conundrums. A handful will genuinely stump you, and the lavish detail lets you pore over weather-worn glyphs etched into sarcophagi. Deliciously cerebral stuff.

Story wise, the opener feels throwaway—an almost off-hand side quest only loosely tethered to the campaign. Stick around, though; by the finale the expansion walks the tightrope between grounded archaeological intrigue and full-blown mythic mayhem.

We tackled the chapter on PS5 Pro, and the ride was buttery for the vast majority of the runtime. Ray-traced reflections shimmer convincingly while the action locks to a rock-solid 60 fps.

Curiously, minor visual quirks popped up—seams between stonework occasionally flashed bright white, and one cinematic suffered a strobing illumination bug. A pity, because 95 percent of the package mirrors the flawless polish of the original.

The Order of Giants won’t swing detractors into believers. If the base romp didn’t win you over, this brief return trip won’t either. Veterans hunting for bold innovations should likewise temper expectations; the scale that dazzled us in the full game simply isn’t on the itinerary.

Still, anyone itching for another evening with the wise-cracking relic-hunter will get exactly that: a playful narrative, eye-catching presentation, and a suite of top-tier brain-teasers.