When Indiana Jones and the Great Circle first launched on PC and Xbox Series X, it was the kind of game that showed off what current hardware could do. Ray-traced lighting, sharp character detail, and a steady 60 frames per second made it a visual treat. So when a Nintendo Switch 2 version was announced, it raised a fair question: how much of that experience survives on a hybrid handheld? Our review covers the visuals, performance, and overall playability of the Switch 2 port, and whether it’s worth picking up on Nintendo’s latest hardware.

For newcomers, The Great Circle is set between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Indiana Jones is on the trail of a mysterious ancient order with ties to early Christianity, which takes him across Egypt, Vatican City, the jungles of Sukhothai, and several other locations. The gameplay is built around stealth, puzzle-solving, and creative thinking rather than straight-up combat. Large semi-open areas are filled with main missions, side quests, and hidden puzzles, and the structure feels closer to a Zelda game than a typical action title. It’s one of the more faithful takes on the Indiana Jones franchise, and that holds up no matter which platform you play it on.

How It Looks on Switch 2

Most people going into this port will expect a significant downgrade, and that’s a fair starting point. What the Switch 2 version delivers is better than those lowered expectations, though it stops short of being anything remarkable. It’s a port that makes smart trade-offs rather than pushing the hardware to do something it can’t.

The biggest thing worth noting is that ray-traced global illumination is still present in this version. That’s the lighting system responsible for giving environments their grounded, cinematic feel, and it holds up well enough here that the atmosphere of each location stays mostly intact. Hunting for obvious rendering issues takes real effort, which is a good sign.

Character detail has taken a step back from the PC and Xbox versions. Faces lose some sharpness, though the base models are still recognizable. There’s an odd side effect here: the original game’s character animations and facial expressions were already a bit stiff, and the softer image at 720p actually softens that stiffness slightly. The downgrade accidentally works in the game’s favor in that specific area.

Environments hold up reasonably well at a glance. Foliage, desert landscapes, and snow-covered terrain all look acceptable during normal play. The issues show up on closer inspection, where textures on both characters and environments are noticeably compressed compared to higher-end versions. At a comfortable viewing distance, the game reads fine. Up close, the roughness is hard to miss.

Performance and Technical Notes

The Switch 2 version runs at 30 frames per second in both docked and handheld modes, compared to 60fps on PC and Xbox. For a game centered on exploration, observation, and puzzle-solving, this is a more manageable trade-off than it sounds. The Great Circle rarely demands the kind of fast reactions where a lower frame rate becomes a real problem, and 30fps holds up well for what the game actually asks of you.

Stability is generally solid. Chase sequences and hand-to-hand combat run without noticeable drops or hitching, which is where most people would expect problems to appear.

Two issues do stand out, though. The first is a stutter tied to autosaves. The game saves often, and each time it does, there’s a brief but visible freeze. At 30fps, any break in the frame cadence is more noticeable than it would be at 60, and this happens frequently enough that it becomes something you’re aware of throughout the game. The second issue is low-resolution textures on certain close-up objects, particularly props that are supposed to display readable text or images. When the camera lingers on one of these, the blurring is significant enough to pull you out of the moment.

Lower-detail assets loading in at a distance before resolving as you get closer is present but fairly standard for a port of this size. NPC density has also been reduced, though this is unlikely to be something most players notice in the game’s open environments.

One more thing worth knowing before playing in handheld mode: the game’s audio mix does not translate well through the Switch 2’s built-in speakers. Distant dialogue can become barely audible, and spatial audio is difficult to follow without headphones. This is partly a hardware limitation, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re planning long sessions without earphones.

Verdict

The Switch 2 port of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle gets the core experience across in one piece. The frame rate holds steady, the game is fully playable, and the technical compromises are handled well enough that nothing feels broken. As a port, it does what it needs to do.

That said, the full version of this game was built around 60fps and current-gen visuals, including sweeping environments and fine detail that make the world feel real and lived-in. A meaningful part of that does not make it to Switch 2. Players who have access to a PC or a current-gen console will get a noticeably better experience on those platforms.

For Switch 2 owners without those options, this port is worth picking up. Just go in knowing that the scenery will not hit quite the same way it does on the hardware the game was originally designed for.