I Love: That time I dropped a torch to pick up some dynamite

While The Great Circle isn’t aiming to be some sort of real-world simulator with “spreading fire” or whatever thing no game has ever actually properly delivered, it does adhere to a few basic laws of physics. And, given how few games do, these moments can really take you by surprise.

A few of us at Kotaku have experienced that moment when you’re sneaking up on a Nazi, holding a glass bottle, and then spot something better to use for bonking them on the head. “Ooh, a hammer!” you think, and then press to grab that, forgetting that dropping a thing made of glass tends to have consequences. Then comes the smash on the ground, and the guard, hearing it, spins around and spots you—a doofus holding a hammer—right away.

I took this to another level when the thought was “Ooh, some dynamite,” and I was holding not a bottle but a fiery torch. As you might have guessed, when I dropped the open flame onto the sticks of explosives, the fuses immediately started fizzing, and I realized the situation I’d created for myself in one big rush. It was “Oh, this game is realistic like that!” combined with “Shit! I need to get away!” And this led to my incompetently fumbling the controls, tripping over a fallen pillar that was immediately behind me, and eventually gathering my wits enough to scramble into an opposite corner as the whole lot spectacularly blew up.

Sure, this is a tale about what a twit I am, but at the same time, it’s a wonderful demonstration of the emergent moments that this lovely game can offer.