Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - Switch 2 Review

I recently reviewed Resident Evil: Requiem and celebrated the fact that we, as plucky little Nintendo players, are now dining at the top table when it comes to AAA games, and you can’t get more AAA than Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Originally released on Windows and Xbox Series X/S back in late 2024 (and ported to PlayStation 5 six months later), we now welcome it to the Nintendo Switch 2. One benefit of having to wait a while for a game to be ported is that when the porting eventually happens, you get it at the same time as any DLC that has been released subsequently to the original game, and here is no different. This review covers both the base game and the DLC The Order of Giants. So grab your fedora and shake off those tarantulas; let's go, Indy!

The Good

I mean, where to start? In simple terms Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person adventure game, but that doesn’t even scratch the surface. You of course play as everyone’s favourite hero Indy, and if, like me, you’re a fan of the film franchise, then you’ll be weak at the knees at how faithful it is both in terms of the representation of Indy himself and also his adventures. The prologue right at the start is an almost beat-to-beat faithful reconstruction of the famous boulder scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Yes, Satipo is still a treacherous scallywag, and yes, the set piece is as memorable as it was 40 odd years ago. Thereafter, the story opens up into original territory, and yet no moment of the game would feel out of place in a Spielberg production. More set pieces, more drama, more scallywags; I had a blast. It even took me a few hours of gameplay to remember that Indy isn’t voiced by Harrison Ford himself. Well, they couldn’t get one of the greatest actors of all time, so instead they got one of the greatest voice actors of all time (Troy Baker) to do it instead, and there’s really no way of telling the difference.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is structured in an interwoven pattern of linear areas followed by more sandbox-type areas and vice versa. The linear levels are progressed in a traditional Tomb Raider sense, i.e., you generally head in one direction but the level opens up every now and then because you need to solve a puzzle to escape a cavernous area (for example) before moving forward. The sandbox areas reminded me very much of the latest Hitman games; Indy meets Hitman. Just take my money already. By exploring, you discover notes and trinkets, all of which contribute to either the main quest or the side quest and there is SO much to do. The main quest is half of it; in the first sandbox area you come across (Vatican City), there’s enough extra content to make a standalone game. You sneak around, climb drainpipes, steal money, help out cats… You also get a camera to use and I spent about two hours just walking around taking pictures of things (there is a gameplay reason for doing so), and I had a great time just doing that. The Order of Giants DLC itself is basically another massive side quest in itself, and it begins (like many other story elements) in Vatican City as well.

Of course Indy makes use of his whip and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is probably the best, greatest Indiana Jones game in how it's utilised; it doesn’t feel shoehorned in at all. Indy can use the whip in combat – with a flick of a button you can disarm a baddie – or he can use it in a traversal sense. There’s a stamina bar which limits its use, but I found this fairly generous (at least on normal difficulty), so I was happily going around flailing this thing everywhere, and I never got bored of it.

TL;DR

• Basically another Indiana Jones movie, but playable and immersive
• Superb level design 
• Generous Indy whip action!

The Bad

Well, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle nails pretty much everything. However, I mentioned Resident Evil: Requiem further up and I have to say that Indy sadly doesn’t perform quite as well as that. Requiem played flawlessly on the Nintendo Switch 2 but Indiana Jones and the Great Circle does stutter occasionally and some of the textures flicker a little bit. I haven’t played it on other consoles but it’s a bit disappointing because, presumably, there has been enough time to port it over.

The stealth element in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is fun, but I did find it way easier every time to just abandon it, especially because there isn’t really an incentive to take the stealthy approach. Often I’d find myself beginning with good (quiet) intentions but then would just get spotted, crack the whip and/or melee the guards to oblivion, run away, hide behind a box or something, and wait for it all to die down, then rinse and repeat. Again, I played on normal difficulty, but the AI challenge of the baddies (or lack thereof) meant that giving everyone a knuckle sandwich was often the best and least boring way.

TL;DR

• Game was stuttery at times
• Stealth felt slightly redundant

Final Score: 9/10

I’d go as far to say that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of the greatest movie-based games I’ve laid eyes on, certainly in recent years. If you forget the IP for a moment, then it’s still an enthralling and immersive adventure game whichever way you look at it: epic set pieces, gorgeously detailed levels and some of the most fun I’ve had in a game for a while. There are rumours of a sequel but nothing confirmed at the time of writing; please, MachineGames, do the decent thing!

Thank you for checking out our Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Switch review, thank you to Bethesda (via Powerup PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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