Review: The Swapper

You arrive on a space station disoriented and confused about what had occurred.  The personnel are missing and the compartments seem oddly abandoned.  Rock samples litter the halls; you hear whispers of mysterious happenings as you commence your investigation.  You stumble upon a device that allows you to make clones of yourself, the only method to successfully navigate the complicated layout of your destination.  As you progress and find computer logs detailing the moments before the incident behind the crew’s absence, you begin to unravel the deep secrecies present on board.  Find a way off the station to tell your superiors of what happened.

The Swapper is a science fiction, puzzle video game.  It was created by a group of developers in the indie scene:  Olli Harjola, Otto Hantula, Tom Jubert, Carlo Castellano.  The goal of the game is to find out what has occurred to the crewmembers and to save yourself from their fate.  Players must collect orbs along the way to open doors and new areas in the station.  Some puzzles are simpler than others, but each possesses a clever solution.  The majority of the time players are forced to think outside of the box for their approaches to the puzzles.  They become more intricate as you get deeper into the story, such as adding different lights that hinder certain functions of the cloning device.  Numerous switches and the moving of boxes provide an extra level of difficulty.

What this game accomplishes the most is a great atmospheric delivery.  The artistic design is minimalistic and refined, creating this feeling of aloneness and slight claustrophobia as you traverse the station.  Colors are dark and washed out in most cases.  It causes a sense of dread and intrigue of being in space.  Light and shadow are spectacularly employed in every room of the station.  A subtle musical score enhances the experience further, forlorn notes setting up the perfect tone for your goal.  The soundtrack is never overbearing or out of place throughout the game.  There were a few moments that genuinely made me goosebump—mumblings in the background, eerie violin or piano flaring.

The question of who is real and not creeps into the narrative as you make more and more clones.  Upon meeting someone who appears to be the only surviving crewmember, philosophical questions of what is a soul is revealed.  What are these strange rocks that seem to whisper of consciousness as you pass by them?  And what if someone knew you better than you?  The game never feels too preachy about these subjects, instead trying to cover all sides of the argument.  Themes of what true existence really is get pretty deep as the player progresses through the story.  The game is a tad shorter than I originally anticipated, coming in at around 4 hours to complete.  However, that’s not including secrets and achievements that I didn’t bother finding.  I heard that they’re quite challenging to acquire.

The Swapper is fairly linear with not much decision-making left to players on where the story goes.  You’re told to do something, and you do it.  Being a silent protagonist gives you little choice, and it allows the writers to tell the story that they want.  The instance where it feels like it’s really you in that spacesuit isn’t until the very final scenes of the game.  It leaves a strong impression and delivers something that will be remembered in your gaming history.  It is an all-around fun puzzle game that has a fantastic atmosphere and intriguing narrative to accompany it.  The game isn’t afraid to take twists and turns in its presentation, which leaves players with a lasting experience.  It held a lot more depth than I thought it would, and I’m glad that I picked it up.  I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a short, entertaining time.  If you like to be challenged through brainteasers, you’ll most likely enjoy this.

Rating: Play it

*screenshots all taken by me, taviastrife