This review contains spoilers
An awesome puzzle game. Wasn't expecting the whole existential crisis at the end.
not creating enough of an impression on me to come back to often rn, but that might be a Current Me problem because the vibes are definitely strong
Both fun to play and intriguing philosophical narrative.
Enthralling art style and atmosphere for its day, but the puzzles eventually just got too grating for me.
2D Sci-fi puzzler. This game delivers in many areas; it has a lot of well-designed puzzles, a strong atmosphere and an intriguing narrative. I'm very impressed that such a well-rounded product was developed by such a small team, and it's 10 years old!
The main puzzle mechanic is actually unique from what I've played, this fortunately means the puzzles are also fresh. I don't think the difficulty curve is perfectly consistent across the whole game but there are plenty of challenging puzzles, in fact I was pleasantly surprised by how puzzle-dense this game is.
It's short but sweet, highly recommended for fans of the genre.
The main puzzle mechanic is actually unique from what I've played, this fortunately means the puzzles are also fresh. I don't think the difficulty curve is perfectly consistent across the whole game but there are plenty of challenging puzzles, in fact I was pleasantly surprised by how puzzle-dense this game is.
It's short but sweet, highly recommended for fans of the genre.
It's alright
When I heard the musical theme called "Recreation" I stood still and fall into an oblivion. It was so beautiful and calming, that I couldn't walk away from the location where it played. The ending of the game is dope, puzzles are interesting, so don't miss this indie jem
Ótimo puzzle e roteiro maravilhoso, vários textos desse jogo me marcaram legal.
Um jogo de estrutura simples com mecânica de troca de corpos, bem aproveitado nos puzzles, a história conversa bem com a mecânica, com temas de identidade e o que faz você ser você, nada muito profundo, mas continua interessante e tudo se completa com o tema de sci fi espacial com gráficos estilizados parecidos com argila, apesar do jogo ser antigo e a idade em certos aspectos ser aparente, o jogo ainda é sólido, simples, mas muito bom no que se propõe a fazer.
The Swapper is a game where you solve puzzles by existing in multiple places at the same time.. sort of. It's got a strong visual design (that overcomes my usual aversion to detailed 3D looking assets in entirely 2D games) with a dark atmospheric spaceship to explore, and strong mysterious vibes in its story, mechanics and level design.
The puzzles themselves are more dynamic than I expected, introducing elements of timing and "skilled" platforming in a way that opens up the possibility space in an interesting way without being too mechanically demanding.
Having said that, I haven't been blown away by any puzzles throughout the first half or so of the game - and haven't experienced as power a moment of revelation as I would have liked from a game with such a compelling mechanical foundation.
I still haven't finished The Swapper yet, but I'm enjoying what I've played so far.
The puzzles themselves are more dynamic than I expected, introducing elements of timing and "skilled" platforming in a way that opens up the possibility space in an interesting way without being too mechanically demanding.
Having said that, I haven't been blown away by any puzzles throughout the first half or so of the game - and haven't experienced as power a moment of revelation as I would have liked from a game with such a compelling mechanical foundation.
I still haven't finished The Swapper yet, but I'm enjoying what I've played so far.
One of the most memorable games I've played. First time I played The Swapper was almost a decade ago; it stuck with me enough that I replayed it recently. It is just as good and immersive. Underrated game.
Similar to Unmechanical I played recently, The Swapper is a game I've had since near the start of the PS4 era yet never got around to playing until 10 years later. Equally like Unmechanical this game is also a sci-fi puzzle game but I feel overall though this is a much tighter and more interesting experience.
The Swapper uses cloning as a way of providing plenty of puzzles as well as a background for it's narrative of something weird and sinister happening at a deep space mining outpost known as Theseus. Your unnamed character finds a gun that allows them to create multiple clones of themself that copies their movements. This gun also allows your character to swap consciousness into the clones leaving your original body behind. There is some simple philosophy raised as the game progresses about what constitutes a mind and the morality of using the swapper though it's all surface level questions raised as you progress chasing after another astronaut that is talking to you and themselves at the same time.
The game is essentially a series of puzzle rooms off of a fairly linear path to collect orbs that allow you to open doors to progress. Rinse and repeat. It feels a little Metroidvania in the absolute barest sense that there is a map with locked doors. The puzzles are simple in a way I appreciate in that they are all fairly logical. Making clones at distances, swapping between them to hit switches etc. There are a few additional mechanics involving coloured lights limiting where you can create or swap clones as well as some artificial gravity to both mix things up and make the puzzles a bit harder. Most were fairly straight forward but a couple did stump me for a while until I realized the solution was much simpler than I thought, I just wasn't thinking laterally enough. The Swapper isn't perfect, some of the puzzles even when you have figured out what you need to do can be messed up by one poor placement forcing you to start the whole process over again can be a little frustrating at times but this is a minor complaint for other wise fairly consistently balanced puzzle design.
As good as the mechanics are the aesthetics of a game help bring it all together thematically and this game has a fantastic atmosphere, like a mixture of Aliens and The Abyss. The design, use of lighting and music create a great feeling of loneliness and fear despite it being a puzzle title that the thought of being isolated in space or under the sea can produce. What is more impressive is this was made entirely by two university students, as per Wikipedia:
"The Swapper was a project made by two University of Helsinki students Otto Hantula and Olli Harjola in their spare time. The Swapper was backed by the Indie Fund, the 6th indie game title the fund has supported. Rather than digital textures, the game features handcrafted art assets and clay which forms the various game levels."
I didn't notice it at the time playing but it actually makes a lot of sense for the visual style here.
The Swapper is only a few hours long, I finished it in a day which is either going to be a positive or negative for you but personally I puzzle games should be short and sweet so they don't out live their welcome. If you've got a spare afternoon or weekend you could do far worse than this atmospheric narrative based puzzle game.
The Swapper uses cloning as a way of providing plenty of puzzles as well as a background for it's narrative of something weird and sinister happening at a deep space mining outpost known as Theseus. Your unnamed character finds a gun that allows them to create multiple clones of themself that copies their movements. This gun also allows your character to swap consciousness into the clones leaving your original body behind. There is some simple philosophy raised as the game progresses about what constitutes a mind and the morality of using the swapper though it's all surface level questions raised as you progress chasing after another astronaut that is talking to you and themselves at the same time.
The game is essentially a series of puzzle rooms off of a fairly linear path to collect orbs that allow you to open doors to progress. Rinse and repeat. It feels a little Metroidvania in the absolute barest sense that there is a map with locked doors. The puzzles are simple in a way I appreciate in that they are all fairly logical. Making clones at distances, swapping between them to hit switches etc. There are a few additional mechanics involving coloured lights limiting where you can create or swap clones as well as some artificial gravity to both mix things up and make the puzzles a bit harder. Most were fairly straight forward but a couple did stump me for a while until I realized the solution was much simpler than I thought, I just wasn't thinking laterally enough. The Swapper isn't perfect, some of the puzzles even when you have figured out what you need to do can be messed up by one poor placement forcing you to start the whole process over again can be a little frustrating at times but this is a minor complaint for other wise fairly consistently balanced puzzle design.
As good as the mechanics are the aesthetics of a game help bring it all together thematically and this game has a fantastic atmosphere, like a mixture of Aliens and The Abyss. The design, use of lighting and music create a great feeling of loneliness and fear despite it being a puzzle title that the thought of being isolated in space or under the sea can produce. What is more impressive is this was made entirely by two university students, as per Wikipedia:
"The Swapper was a project made by two University of Helsinki students Otto Hantula and Olli Harjola in their spare time. The Swapper was backed by the Indie Fund, the 6th indie game title the fund has supported. Rather than digital textures, the game features handcrafted art assets and clay which forms the various game levels."
I didn't notice it at the time playing but it actually makes a lot of sense for the visual style here.
The Swapper is only a few hours long, I finished it in a day which is either going to be a positive or negative for you but personally I puzzle games should be short and sweet so they don't out live their welcome. If you've got a spare afternoon or weekend you could do far worse than this atmospheric narrative based puzzle game.
Um bom jogo sidescroller de puzzle sem combate, claramente inspirado por Metroid e Event Horizon (o filme de 1997). É bastante atmosférico e tem uma OST simples, mas adequada pro jogo, e uma história de sci-fi bastante intrigante.
This review contains spoilers
Really cool concept, remember the puzzles being pretty good, puzzle design maybe could have been built into the world a little more smoothly.
I've always have a big problem with a moment right at the end where it gives you the final big binary choice and it's just "press x to do this, press y to do that", when it so easily could have just been handled by the game mechanics and not telegraphed, it sounds like such a small thing but realizing the choice on your own would have been so much more impactful.
I've always have a big problem with a moment right at the end where it gives you the final big binary choice and it's just "press x to do this, press y to do that", when it so easily could have just been handled by the game mechanics and not telegraphed, it sounds like such a small thing but realizing the choice on your own would have been so much more impactful.
My issue with these puzzle games is that they fixate so hard on creating their own unique mechanics, that by the end the puzzles end up so far up their own asses that they practically impregnate themselves and create clones.
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else. Still have done spoiler warning just in case though.
First time doing a full playthrough after playing through a lot of it but not being able to finish it (struggled with some of the puzzles and didn't want to look up the answers) at least 6 years ago.
I feel as though if I hadn't had originally got this game in a bundle and tried it out I probably wouldn't have looked twice at it due to my lack of interest in the Sci-Fi genre but because I remember being into it I wanted to give it a second go and I'm quite glad I did.
The concept is really interesting and I was a little worried early on when there was a tactic I needed to use a couple of times in a row for puzzles and navigation but outside of this instance the game somehow manages to not feel like its repeating itself too much or stretching its core concept too thin. I think the short length is a big factor in this but it just seems that a lot of thought was put into all of the different ways a player could use the swapping mechanic which were then each used for a puzzle idea. I think it does result in it being a game where each puzzle only has one solution but considering the variation of puzzles I don't really mind.
The difficulty is a little odd I think, there were instances where I'd struggle with a particular puzzle and then then the next couple I'd be able to solve really quickly and it felt like perhaps the majority of puzzles were actually on the easier side but there were certainly some I struggled with. There were a fair few that I spent a good while on but I actually had a good time as it was fun to experiment with what I could actually do and it also felt quite rewarding to be able to solve them (or it was kind of funny how much I'd struggle with one just to realise that the answer was obvious and I was just being kind of stupid). In the end there were two puzzles that I just couldn't do and had to look up the solution for and sweet fuck am I glad I did because I never would have got them but I still thought that they were good and that the solutions made a lot of sense but were just a bit too complicated for me. There weren't really any puzzles I would say I disliked I think.
The story was another thing I struggled with but that's just because I'm not overly familiar with some of the words or terms used and also the concepts at play here either except for the main one. What I was able to follow I enjoyed and there were some really neat revelations or moments in there. I also wasn't really expecting to have to make a choice at the end so it took me off guard but I think it was a great choice as it felt like a difficult decision to make even if morally the answer is obvious. I think I really like having to make a choice like that at the end of a game as it gives me something to think about while also holding some emotional weight.
Few scattered thoughts. I really liked the artstyle and I think it fit with the setting of the mostly deserted space station quite well. The music further complemented this and just sounded beautiful. The game played well but I don't think I was the biggest fan of having to mash RT to propel myself through the zero gravity sections as it just felt a little awkward. One good thing that came from the controls though was being able to do a light jog backwards which amused me a fair bit.
Overall I enjoyed this game, I don't think there's a lot else that I can really say for it though, other than I'm happy to have played it and I had a good time with it.
First time doing a full playthrough after playing through a lot of it but not being able to finish it (struggled with some of the puzzles and didn't want to look up the answers) at least 6 years ago.
I feel as though if I hadn't had originally got this game in a bundle and tried it out I probably wouldn't have looked twice at it due to my lack of interest in the Sci-Fi genre but because I remember being into it I wanted to give it a second go and I'm quite glad I did.
The concept is really interesting and I was a little worried early on when there was a tactic I needed to use a couple of times in a row for puzzles and navigation but outside of this instance the game somehow manages to not feel like its repeating itself too much or stretching its core concept too thin. I think the short length is a big factor in this but it just seems that a lot of thought was put into all of the different ways a player could use the swapping mechanic which were then each used for a puzzle idea. I think it does result in it being a game where each puzzle only has one solution but considering the variation of puzzles I don't really mind.
The difficulty is a little odd I think, there were instances where I'd struggle with a particular puzzle and then then the next couple I'd be able to solve really quickly and it felt like perhaps the majority of puzzles were actually on the easier side but there were certainly some I struggled with. There were a fair few that I spent a good while on but I actually had a good time as it was fun to experiment with what I could actually do and it also felt quite rewarding to be able to solve them (or it was kind of funny how much I'd struggle with one just to realise that the answer was obvious and I was just being kind of stupid). In the end there were two puzzles that I just couldn't do and had to look up the solution for and sweet fuck am I glad I did because I never would have got them but I still thought that they were good and that the solutions made a lot of sense but were just a bit too complicated for me. There weren't really any puzzles I would say I disliked I think.
The story was another thing I struggled with but that's just because I'm not overly familiar with some of the words or terms used and also the concepts at play here either except for the main one. What I was able to follow I enjoyed and there were some really neat revelations or moments in there. I also wasn't really expecting to have to make a choice at the end so it took me off guard but I think it was a great choice as it felt like a difficult decision to make even if morally the answer is obvious. I think I really like having to make a choice like that at the end of a game as it gives me something to think about while also holding some emotional weight.
Few scattered thoughts. I really liked the artstyle and I think it fit with the setting of the mostly deserted space station quite well. The music further complemented this and just sounded beautiful. The game played well but I don't think I was the biggest fan of having to mash RT to propel myself through the zero gravity sections as it just felt a little awkward. One good thing that came from the controls though was being able to do a light jog backwards which amused me a fair bit.
Overall I enjoyed this game, I don't think there's a lot else that I can really say for it though, other than I'm happy to have played it and I had a good time with it.
tf2 face hugger
It’s basically Inside + Portal + Metroid = The Swapper. And that is a very good thing.
Clever little game with great atmosphere. Looks great, sounds great, and delivers exactly what it intends to.
watched my friend play it and it was interesting
(probably shouldnt be rating this but i meannnn :3)
(probably shouldnt be rating this but i meannnn :3)
Does everything it strives to. Puzzles are interesting but not too challenging. Art style is beautiful. Atmosphere is wonderfully isolating and eerie. Doesn't outstay its welcome. I had a nice time.
classic indie puzzler that I need there to be a sequel to.
Top 50 Favorites: #35
Sumptuous, mysterious, hyperstylized audiovisual descent (or more appropriately, ascent) into existentialism by way of snappy and deeply creative puzzles. Right alongside Escape Plan and Thomas Was Alone as one of the best high-caloric flash games on console you're likely to ever find. Its story is so much more than just background flavor text as I would have expected, touching on experimental themes of humanity and the inherent destruction individualism has on the mind. Gorgeous colors mixed with plenty of crunchy deaths and truly chilling body horror, with the meat of the game serving as a sublimely satisfying test of problem-solving the likes of which I've rarely ever seen in a video game before or since. Simple yet so, so rewarding. It's a brief one and the collectibles are meh, but it's still an unforgettable experience. Tremendous stuff, as eerie as it is relaxing.
Sumptuous, mysterious, hyperstylized audiovisual descent (or more appropriately, ascent) into existentialism by way of snappy and deeply creative puzzles. Right alongside Escape Plan and Thomas Was Alone as one of the best high-caloric flash games on console you're likely to ever find. Its story is so much more than just background flavor text as I would have expected, touching on experimental themes of humanity and the inherent destruction individualism has on the mind. Gorgeous colors mixed with plenty of crunchy deaths and truly chilling body horror, with the meat of the game serving as a sublimely satisfying test of problem-solving the likes of which I've rarely ever seen in a video game before or since. Simple yet so, so rewarding. It's a brief one and the collectibles are meh, but it's still an unforgettable experience. Tremendous stuff, as eerie as it is relaxing.
This is the game equivalent of a thought provoking and heavily environmental sci fi short story, and it does a pretty damn fine job of doing that while having some excellently designed puzzles with it's cloning and swapping mechanic.
If you are into that type of sci fi and are looking for a short game to scratch that itch, the Swapper is a great choice.
If you are into that type of sci fi and are looking for a short game to scratch that itch, the Swapper is a great choice.
The prettiest depiction of space we have seen in games, and that's the best part about it. There's not much to say really, the cloning and swapping mechanic works well but never reaches the appeal that say, portals have. What I like is how it ties into the ending though, a very good closure and reminiscent of Soma.
As someone that doesn't really care for puzzles, I didn't enjoy this much.
A decent little game which still stands up a decade later. And I do mean 'little', because it didn't half feel short...
The core mechanic of the game is great, and its fun to be forced to learn the various ways you can abuse it to solve some of the later puzzles. But I'm less sold on the world outside of those puzzles.
The theming is very atmospheric and philosophical, but I fear that the game's short length means these end up being quite underdeveloped. It's quite possible there was more information in the secret rooms (that the game never let me know existed so I never looked for), but from my experience it feels like the game sets up lots of themes and mysteries that either get unceremoniously wrapped up quickly at the end, or dropped completely. Overall the theme the game is going for normally resonates pretty well with me, but I just found this one didn't quite land as well as it should have,
I have mixed feelings on the art style too. Technically its awesome that the game is animated in claymation but, perhaps to compensate for this, its also very dark and gritty with various ugly filters over the screen at times. I feel like the art style doesn't really fit the game so well and leaves it feeling disjointed, backed up by the fact all the puzzles are in self-contained side-rooms rather than incorporated into the game world at all.
Despite all this the game is honestly still pretty solid. The puzzles adequately explore pretty much everything the devs could have done with the concept, and I did come away feeling satisfied.
The core mechanic of the game is great, and its fun to be forced to learn the various ways you can abuse it to solve some of the later puzzles. But I'm less sold on the world outside of those puzzles.
The theming is very atmospheric and philosophical, but I fear that the game's short length means these end up being quite underdeveloped. It's quite possible there was more information in the secret rooms (that the game never let me know existed so I never looked for), but from my experience it feels like the game sets up lots of themes and mysteries that either get unceremoniously wrapped up quickly at the end, or dropped completely. Overall the theme the game is going for normally resonates pretty well with me, but I just found this one didn't quite land as well as it should have,
I have mixed feelings on the art style too. Technically its awesome that the game is animated in claymation but, perhaps to compensate for this, its also very dark and gritty with various ugly filters over the screen at times. I feel like the art style doesn't really fit the game so well and leaves it feeling disjointed, backed up by the fact all the puzzles are in self-contained side-rooms rather than incorporated into the game world at all.
Despite all this the game is honestly still pretty solid. The puzzles adequately explore pretty much everything the devs could have done with the concept, and I did come away feeling satisfied.
ambient
Cool game with fun puzzles and narrative, great ending too
The puzzles never get hard enough to enjoy them