I suspect I might be in a minority here, but I can confidently say I didn’t use a single repair kit as I bumbled and faffed my way through MachineGames’ excellent Indiana Jones and the Great Circle late last year – mainly because I was so enamoured by the game’s ludicrous clobbering loop I couldn’t take two steps forward without hoovering up another handful of melee-focused bric-a-brac. So I very much appreciate that Indy’s latest update finally gives my never-diminishing stash of repair kits a purpose by letting me lob them at foes.
Besides that, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s Update 4 comes with a heap of tweaks and changes designed to further enhance its already excellent action, starting with two new Adventure Books that’ll provide Indy with some additional whip-focused benefits. Open Season, for instance, creates a temporary window after whipping enemies in which they’ll take increased damage from subsequent attacks. And with Sleight of Hand, Indy can pull an enemy’s weapon towards him after disarming them with the whip.
That brings us to Update 4’s dozen or so quality of life improvements. These include new one-liners for Indy during fights, meaning you’ll get a bit of extra vocal variety while punching Nazis and other miscreants. And Machine Games says Ray-traced Global Illumination has also been improved across all platforms “at no performance cost”.
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Elsewhere, there’s now a timer around Indy’s health showing how long you’ll need to wait until enemies call off a search, and a number of UI elements and effects – specifically the HUD’s centre dot and “stealth” vignette while crouching – can now be toggled on or off. Additionally, the journal has seen some improvements while in its somewhat fiddly “lowered” state; you can see more of it, for starters, and it’s now possible to switch between local and level maps.