Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Genre: First-Person Action-RPG / Stealth

Players: 1

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Review:

Indiana Jones and The Great Circle, released in 2024 on PC and Xbox Series X|S, ported to PlayStation 5 in 2025, and ported to Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026, is a game starring Lucasfilm’s legendary whip-cracking archeologist adventurer in an original story set between the events of the films Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In this game, Indy awakens after a night of drinking to find his museum being ransacked by a giant man who knocks out the hero and absconds with one of its relics. Suspicious about his unusual assailant and the oddly-specific theft, Indy departs on an Earth-spanning journey to get to the bottom of what’s going on.

I should take a moment to note that this game’s story is magnificent, and I would argue it’s better than the last two Indy movies, with an intriguing central mystery that opens into an even greater and more fascinating mystery the more you learn what’s really going on and how great its scope is. I hesitate to spoil the details here, but let’s just say that without repeating the story beats of Raiders and Last Crusade, this game’s creators have managed to craft a story that evokes that same sort of magnificent wonder with great characters that build on and flesh out the Indy universe.

Before getting to the gameplay, let’s talk about the presentation, and there’s some very good news here, and some not-so-great news. On the one hand, overall Indiana Jones and The Great Circle looks magnificent on Nintendo Switch 2. The game’s world is absolutely gorgeous, stunningly-detailed with outstanding lighting, mostly incredibly good character models, and a cinematic flair that makes this game one of the best adaptations of a film universe ever seen in a videogame.

However, on Nintendo Switch 2 the cracks do show quite a bit. You’ll marvel at the gorgeously lush environments of the game’s opening, a recreation of the first scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark… only to immediately notice tons of pop-in and shadow pop-in. Shadows are actually inconsistent throughout the game – sometimes they look extremely impressive, and other times they’ll look ugly and chunky in ways that break the game’s immersion. You’ll be impressed by this game’s lively and detailed depiction of 1937’s Mussolini-occupied Vatican City, only to have your eye catch on the terrible framerates of people walking a city block away. On top of this, while many character models are phenomenal, some are outright ugly. There are framerate drops and occasional issues with clipping as well. it’s really frustrating because overall this game is an absolute graphical marvel, but then you have frequent moments where you can see the cracks in the design that reveal the game’s ugly underbelly.

However, there are no such cracks in this game’s sound design. Everything that hits your ears while you’re playing Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is absolutely perfect, from the soundtrack where composer Gordy Haab perfectly builds on the soundscapes John Williams created for the franchise, sound effects that make every punch resonate with power and every whip crack sound epic, and absolutely phenomenal voice acting for every character, with a special note for Troy Baker’s absolutely spot-on recreation of Harrison Ford’s titular character, to an excellent brooding performance by the late great Tony Todd as the enigmatic giant man Locus. However, even the voices of Nazi mooks taunting you as they prepare to take you on in a fight is everything you could want from a game set in the Indiana Jones franchise.

Also, I should note that the transition to Nintendo Switch 2 hasn’t been all bad news. Indiana Jones and The Great Circle benefits from the addition of HD Rumble 2, optional gyroscopic motion controls, and optional Mouse Mode controls, all of which work wonderfully. Despite the issues this version of the game has, it’s clear this wasn’t a lazy port.

Turning our attention to the gameplay, developer Machine Games is best known for the Wolfenstein franchise, and as such they’re no stranger to videogames where you take out hordes of Nazis. They could have easily made this game little more than Wolfenstein with an Indy skin. They did not.

Instead what we have here is far more ambitious, with wide, open areas to explore that start to press up against the lower-boundary of what we might consider to be Open-World, where players explore the area around them for bits of information and historical artifacts that grant points to be spent on enhancing your abilities, money that can be spent in in-game shops (Indy chuckles to himself that there’s nothing wrong with stealing from fascists and Nazis, and I think he makes a very persuasive argument), as well as cataloguing points of interest, and solving archaeological mysteries, though of course players can opt to simply focus on the main plot line if they prefer.

I see the influences of numerous games here. The way Indy hides in plain sight and must evade more savvy enemies who can see through his disguise reminds me a lot of the Assassin’s Creed series. The way you scrounge for resources as you explore reminds me of the Bioshock franchise. The way you can often find multiple ways to sneak into areas reminds me of the Dishonored franchise. And the focus on primarily first-person melee combat reminds me of Condemned.

To be sure, there are guns in this game – it wouldn’t be Indy without the ability to pull out a gun and “just shoot the guy” when the situation calls for it. However, this is generally discouraged, as gunshots will alert any enemies in the area, and ammunition is usually fairly low. Mostly players will find themselves picking up melee weapons on-site and using them to bash enemies with, ideally from behind catching them by surprise. Every weapon has a different power and different number of uses before it’s broken, which kinda’ makes sense as a gameplay mechanic but not so much in real-life terms – I don’t care how many skulls you bash, I don’t think you’re going to be breaking that monkey wrench like that.

Complaints about realism aside, the melee combat in this game is really satisfying, both thanks to good game mechanics where players must take into account timing, the weapon their opponent has, and the potential to counter enemy attacks… but also thanks to the aforementioned sound design. As great as the stealth is in this game, it is often a perfectly valid approach to opt to simply brawl your way through enemies, and this game ensures that this too is wonderfully fun.

Of course, you won’t just be hiding in cities and taking out fascists and Nazis with your fists and improvised weapons, you’ll also be raiding tombs, buried ruins, and hidden burial sites, and this too can provide some satisfying fun with puzzles, some decent platforming challenges, and tantalizing secrets to uncover.

Here’s where I mention complaints, because I do have a few, and they go beyond the aforementioned technical issues on Nintendo Switch. Platforming can be somewhat iffy at times, and the game is frequently unclear about what is a platform that can be climbed upon and what’s just a piece of impassable scenery. And while the combat is generally good, there are some boss battles that drag it out in ways that are frustrating, making you wonder if you’re actually accomplishing anything with your strikes. Also, some of the underground ruins and tombs you’ll explore are labyrinthine in design and make it difficult to figure out where you need to be going.

However, even with these complaints, and even recognizing that the Nintendo Switch 2 version of Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is the most visually- and technically-compromised version of the game… this is still an absolutely brilliant game that truly delivers on the promise of what it would be like to be in the role of Indiana Jones, researching mysteries, solving puzzles, and taking out fascists and Nazis. In fact, even if you’re not an Indy fan, this is an outstanding game, with great exploration, excellent stealth, wonderful combat, and delightful puzzles, with a phenomenal story and an overall superb presentation despite the game’s shortcomings on Nintendo Switch 2. This is an absolute must-play game, and if Nintendo Switch 2 is your primary gaming platform of choice, it’s still an excellent way to play this game, despite the issues this version of the game has.

tl;dr – Indiana Jones and The Great Circle follows everyone’s favorite whip-cracking Nazi-bashing archaeologist in a new story set between Raiders and Last Crusade, with Indy following the trail of a giant man who ransacked Indy’s museum to steal one specific artifact. This game is an absolutely brilliant interpretation of the Indiana Jones formula in First-Person Action-RPG form, with wonderful exploration, great combat, thrilling stealth, delightful puzzles, and an outstanding presentation… though that presentation is somewhat compromised on Nintendo Switch 2. Regardless, this is still an absolutely must-play game, and even with this version’s shortcomings, the Nintendo Switch 2 is still a great place to play it.

Grade: A+

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