Verdict
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is an impressive Nintendo Switch 2 port, with glorious visuals in docked mode and solid handheld performance. I’ve got a couple of quibbles with the gameplay itself, especially in the early stealth-oriented missions, and there are a few rough moments in transitions between cutscenes and gameplay. However, I’d still recommend this version to anyone looking for a quest that lives up to the legacy of this iconic franchise.
It's time to whistle the iconic theme tune, crack your whip, and risk it all to grab your hat with seconds to spare, because Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is about to launch for the Nintendo Switch 2. I've been lucky enough to spend the last couple of weeks traveling across the world with Dr. Jones, collecting artifacts and laying the smackdown on treasure-hunting Nazis. Now it's time to deliver the verdict on this much-anticipated port.
Given that this game has been available on other consoles and PC for a while now, I'm not going to concentrate on the gameplay too much in this review. Everyone at the time said it was great, and, well, I agree with them. It's one of the best action games I've played, for the most part. The combat sections feel authentic to the film, with an emphasis on melee bouts and light gunplay, the puzzle sections test the brain nicely, and exploration is rewarding. If you'd asked me what I wanted from an Indiana Jones game before I'd played the Great Circle, I'd be asking for all those things.
What I wouldn't be asking for, though, is an overemphasis on stealth gameplay, especially in the early sections of the game. I don't mind a bit of sneaking around, but during the first post-tutorial quest, with Indy traipsing around the Vatican, it's especially prevalent, and it made completing some of the side missions before hightailing out of there feel like a bit of a chore.
Sometimes you're just going about your business, and before you know it, a Nazi captain spots you, and you're sprinting in the opposite direction from where you were headed while looking for cover. Fortunately, it's less of a problem in the mid- to late game, as you can power up Indy's combat abilities as you go, but it takes longer than I'd like to get to that point.
I've got a couple of other frustrations, such as the cumbersome inventory management and a few investigation-oriented sections that feel a bit formulaic. Still, it was never pervasive enough to stop me from having a good time, with some classic Indy one-liners and riveting action sequences making up for the occasionally tedious sections in the middle of each quest. What I'm saying is, this is more Temple of Doom - great but with weak points - rather than it is downright Crystal Skull levels of why-am-I-doing-this-to-myself.
Now, onto what you're really here for: how does the Nintendo Switch 2 handle Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? Here's the summary: it's impressive, with a couple of caveats. Like Resident Evil: Requiem, it's proof that, unlike with the original Switch, it's not just Nintendo that has the secret sauce when it comes to bringing games to the hybrid form factor without massive sacrifices or game-altering compromises.
As you'd expect, the game shines especially bright when you're playing in docked mode on a monitor. If you'd told me this time last year that this is what HDR Switch 2 gameplay would look like, I'd have struggled to believe you. Still, here we are, and this game looks absolutely gorgeous, no matter whether you're taking in the sights of the Vatican on a sunny day or following alongside a quiet jungle stream. It's not quite as glittering in handheld mode, I'll admit, but it's still pretty remarkable when you consider how demanding this game is - as evidenced by the infamously iffy Steam Deck visuals.
Whichever way you play, load times are pretty rapid, which might be one of this port's biggest selling points, as the environments you're loading into are almost always massive semi-open world-type areas. On the other hand, it's a bit of a battery killer in handheld mode, offering under two hours of gameplay from 100% to flat, but most triple-A games I've played on Switch 2 face the same issue, and if you ask me, that's more Nintendo's problem than it is anyone else's.
While performance is pretty solid throughout, there are a couple of sticking points. The most obvious, in my experience, is in the transitional moments between gameplay and cutscenes. They're just not as fluid as I'd like. While I rarely noticed any frame rate dips or stuttering during action-packed gameplay sequences, they were more common when the game flits between the action and cutscenes, and this wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the cinematic nature of the game - as it is with most of the best movie games. It's most obvious in the tutorial mission, which bounces back and forth between action and cutscenes frequently, but it's an issue that still rears its head throughout the rest of the game.
Outside of those transitional moments, there's not much to complain about. The frame rates are consistent, dipping only slightly in wide-open areas packed with NPCs, and while there's a bit of pop-in in places, it never feels egregious. You're getting a relatively consistent 30fps, which, yes, isn't 60, but I'm not one of those gamers who go about crying over frame rates - ultimately, the game feels good to play and looks even better, and that's all I really want.
It's worth touching on motion and mouse controls, both of which you can enable in the settings menu. I'll admit, these are a bit wasted on me, as I'm an old-school button-pressing man, but they're worth toying around with. The mouse controls can come in handy in some of the puzzle-solving sections, but I felt like the motion controls were a bit unwieldy, even after fiddling with the sensitivity.
All in all, I'm pretty impressed with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2. Would I recommend it over other versions, though? Well, it depends on how you want to play. If you're picking this up to play in docked mode, it's great, but there are no real benefits over other consoles, and from what I've seen, you can probably pick it up cheaper for your Xbox or PlayStation.
However, if, like me, you prefer to go handheld at any given opportunity, then it's really worth it. Sure, the performance isn't perfect, but it's better than a lot of other ports I've played on Switch 2 and what I've seen of Steam Deck gameplay. Like with most triple-A games on handhelds, including the best Switch games of the previous generations, there's a bit of a trade-off in terms of performance. Still, I'll take that every day of the week if it means that I can keep on questing with Indy wherever I might find myself.