MachineGames’ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 on May 12, 2026, bringing the studio’s first-person take on the iconic archaeologist to Nintendo’s next-generation portable.
Developed by Swedish studio MachineGames and published by Bethesda, the title originally debuted in 2024 and attracted attention for shifting Indiana Jones gameplay into a near-first-person adventure format.
The Switch 2 release adapts that experience for the console’s handheld and docked modes, and includes platform-specific compromises and features worth noting for players and industry observers.
Narrative and gameplay overview
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle opens with a seemingly odd theft: a mummified cat is stolen from Indy’s offices at Marshall College.
That theft propels a globe-spanning investigation that puts Jones in conflict with fascist factions of the late 1930s, taking players to market squares, tombs, Vatican corridors, and flooded jungles.
MachineGames balances action, stealth, environmental puzzle solving, and exploration—which includes optional open-map hubs and collectible-driven side content—with a story that expands supporting characters beyond the scope a typical Indiana Jones film might allow.
The reviewer initially questioned whether a first-person perspective would suit such an established, cinematic character, but said that MachineGames’ execution changed that view and delivered a new favorite Indiana Jones story.
The review also noted that the game’s longer runtime—roughly 15–20 hours for the main story, with completionists doubling that—lets secondary characters breathe and gives the narrative more weight than a single film-length outing.
Mechanics, progression and presentation
Despite being presented largely in first person, the title emphasizes adventure and puzzle mechanics over shooter-style gameplay.
Indiana Jones can climb, use his whip to interact with the environment and enemies, and employ improvised weapons; a disguise system and stealth play a meaningful role.
Progression is tied to in-world Adventure Books and unlockable attributes, which are earned through exploration, photography, puzzle solving, and story advancement.
Switch 2 port: fidelity, performance and platform notes
The Nintendo Switch 2 version preserves several visual features from other platforms, including lighting and ray-tracing effects and broad physics interactions.
However, to fit the hardware profile, the port targets 720p in handheld and 1080p in docked mode.
The experience is capped at a 30 frames-per-second target; handheld performance generally hits that mark more consistently than docked, where reviewers observed frequent stuttering and frame drops—notably in dense hubs such as the Vatican.
Texture streaming and distant-detail reductions are also present, and a handful of technical issues (including an isolated softlock and a crash) were reported during review, though these were described as one-off occurrences.
The Switch 2 build includes platform-specific options such as mouse controls but retains the game’s core systems: stealth, environmental puzzles, whip-based traversal, and a variety of emergent combat scenarios.
Reviewers praised the audio design and period-authentic score cues for contributing to atmosphere while calling out the docked-mode performance as the largest compromise on this platform.
Conclusion
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2 is a substantial, fidelity-conscious port of MachineGames’ first-person adventure.
While the Switch 2 release sacrifices some visual detail and shows inconsistent frame pacing in docked mode, the underlying design, narrative depth, and platform-specific features make it a noteworthy addition to the franchise on handheld hardware.
The review copy was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this assessment.
Developed by Swedish studio MachineGames and published by Bethesda, the title originally debuted in 2024 and attracted attention for shifting Indiana Jones gameplay into a near-first-person adventure format.
The Switch 2 release adapts that experience for the console’s handheld and docked modes, and includes platform-specific compromises and features worth noting for players and industry observers.
Narrative and gameplay overview
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle opens with a seemingly odd theft: a mummified cat is stolen from Indy’s offices at Marshall College.
That theft propels a globe-spanning investigation that puts Jones in conflict with fascist factions of the late 1930s, taking players to market squares, tombs, Vatican corridors, and flooded jungles.
MachineGames balances action, stealth, environmental puzzle solving, and exploration—which includes optional open-map hubs and collectible-driven side content—with a story that expands supporting characters beyond the scope a typical Indiana Jones film might allow.
The reviewer initially questioned whether a first-person perspective would suit such an established, cinematic character, but said that MachineGames’ execution changed that view and delivered a new favorite Indiana Jones story.
The review also noted that the game’s longer runtime—roughly 15–20 hours for the main story, with completionists doubling that—lets secondary characters breathe and gives the narrative more weight than a single film-length outing.
Mechanics, progression and presentation
Despite being presented largely in first person, the title emphasizes adventure and puzzle mechanics over shooter-style gameplay.
Indiana Jones can climb, use his whip to interact with the environment and enemies, and employ improvised weapons; a disguise system and stealth play a meaningful role.
Progression is tied to in-world Adventure Books and unlockable attributes, which are earned through exploration, photography, puzzle solving, and story advancement.
Switch 2 port: fidelity, performance and platform notes
The Nintendo Switch 2 version preserves several visual features from other platforms, including lighting and ray-tracing effects and broad physics interactions.
However, to fit the hardware profile, the port targets 720p in handheld and 1080p in docked mode.
The experience is capped at a 30 frames-per-second target; handheld performance generally hits that mark more consistently than docked, where reviewers observed frequent stuttering and frame drops—notably in dense hubs such as the Vatican.
Texture streaming and distant-detail reductions are also present, and a handful of technical issues (including an isolated softlock and a crash) were reported during review, though these were described as one-off occurrences.
The Switch 2 build includes platform-specific options such as mouse controls but retains the game’s core systems: stealth, environmental puzzles, whip-based traversal, and a variety of emergent combat scenarios.
Reviewers praised the audio design and period-authentic score cues for contributing to atmosphere while calling out the docked-mode performance as the largest compromise on this platform.
Conclusion
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Nintendo Switch 2 is a substantial, fidelity-conscious port of MachineGames’ first-person adventure.
While the Switch 2 release sacrifices some visual detail and shows inconsistent frame pacing in docked mode, the underlying design, narrative depth, and platform-specific features make it a noteworthy addition to the franchise on handheld hardware.
The review copy was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this assessment.
