The Swapper Reviews
The Swapper is yet another indie coup for Sony, as it is very clearly one of the best puzzle games to come out in years. This is a well-designed experience that has the potential to win over non-puzzler fans.
I am not a religious man by any means, yet despite that a quirky little puzzle/platformer game gave me feelings outside of the one or two I typically register (usually "hungry" and "tired" are about as diverse as my emotional spectrum gets). Using clones to solve environmental puzzles is definitely something we haven't seen on this scale before, and the game is just the right length to prevent the concept from becoming stale.
The Swapper is a fantastic game although it's not without its limitations. The nagging feeling while working your way through the puzzles is that the idea was never really stretched quite far enough. The self-contained puzzles are good in their own right, but it can at times feel like a procession of challenges. It would have been nice to get to grips with multipart puzzles or something just a little meatier. For fans of the genre though this is invaluable, although it's all-too-short 4-hour length could leave seasoned puzzlers wanting.
If you have any interest in puzzle games that will bend your mind, you owe it to yourself to check out The Swapper.
The Swapper is a short, but sweetly addictive puzzle platformer that begs the statement, "If Dead Space were only a puzzle game."
As a new IP, The Swapper is one of the best around. The great puzzles, superbly told story and beautiful visuals make me excited for whatever comes next from the Finnish developer.
Few games fully realize their potential. Thankfully The Swapper is able to execute all of its ideas. The challenging and thought-provoking puzzles are only outdone by the rich narrative which will stay in your mind well after the credits roll. The Swapper is a masterpiece that needs to be experienced.
I came away from 'The Swapper' with that rare feeling of video game content and satisfaction. From the intriguing puzzles and puzzle mechanics, to the awe inspiring handcrafted visuals, there is very little that I didn't admire and appreciate. Released at a time when most gaming consoles are experiencing their yearly summer dry spell, it was a welcome addition and more than just simple filler. It prompted questions of morality with a deeper-than-expected story, while satisfying on a variety of levels with unique and challenging puzzles.
But the core gameplay—puzzle-solving with clones—is distinctly enjoyable. In a way, it reminded me of the Clank puzzles in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, but on a 2D plane. If that kind of puzzle-solving is up your ally, I'd give The Swapper a try.
Taking many tropes from the Metroidvania sub-genre of games, and adding a mechanic all of its own, The Swapper succeeds in creating an interesting world to explore and challenging puzzles to conquer amidst one of the most atmospheric backdrops ever put to a video game.
The Swapper is a wonderful example of what a puzzle platformer should be and has set a very high bar for others that will follow. It is available across all three Sony platforms and that is welcome too, as it is a game that is very hard to put down once you get into it.
Clay, consciousness, space. The Swapper is a homogenous mixture of elements that fit together just well. When you look back at it, it’s hard to find too many things that are objectively broken.
In most ways this game hardly shows its age (almost 4 years old at the time of this writing), sure the graphics could be slightly cleaner, but the the most important aspects (mechanics, gameplay, and puzzles) hold up quite well. In the same vein as Braid, the core of The Swapper is the geometric and logic challenges, which are not hindered by its age. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys puzzles, logic challenges, or atmospheric space games, The Swapper is a solid experience, even by 2017 standards.