Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

The Swapper is a side scrolling puzzle adventure game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4, PS3 and PS Vita. This particular game has been recognised with a number of high calibre awards since 2011, such as winning the Indie Showcase award at the Develop Conference 2011 and the Special Recognition award at IndieCade 2011, which certainly helped to bring the game to light as Curve Studios has brought Facepalm Games’ The Swapper to PlayStation platforms.

The Swapper sees the player thrust into a gripping story were they are frantically attempting to find their way off a self-sustaining space station outpost called Theseus, which is an interesting name as it is steeped in Ancient Greek mythology, although there is something more than a little off about your surroundings as Theseus has seemingly been abandoned.

The Swapper provides the player with some core gameplay mechanics that are certainly unique as they are able to clone the character up to four times and swap control of them from one clone to another in order to accomplish navigation around a series of extremely challenging and clever, yet ultimately rewarding puzzles.

The level design is excellent as the player is constantly given the feeling that they are exploring a real world environment on another planet in deep outer space, while there are memory terminals that contain logs, which can usually be accessed shortly after each puzzle to provide more detail to the back-story. However, there are cryptic messages that will appear in certain areas, which succeeds in providing a mystifying look into the story arc, while simultaneously increasing the tension as they are displayed upon a darkened fuzzy effect and written rather poetically with such phrases as, “We know only of the minds in our chain. You choose your chain in a dimension we do not know.”

There are plenty of puzzles scattered throughout the game with a perfect example of the conundrums setting the pace as it takes place quite early on with a scenario in which clones cannot be created when they would be about to stand in blue light, therefore the player has to stand on a golden block that will reduce the width of the illumination of the blue light, but as they cannot reach the area required to create the clone without moving away from the golden block, then they must create another clone, switch to that clone, so they can control it independently of the other clones and move that clone into position to create another clone in order for that clone to stand on the golden block that is positioned upon a higher, inaccessible area, so that clone can remove the door that is blocking you from progressing onto the next area. As players progress they will find a gradual shift in the pacing of puzzles in which they will have to repeatedly clone themselves and switch control from clone to clone in order to continue the ascent to access areas that have extreme vertical climbs and the opposite of which in having to descend the same heights or even wide horizontal distances with large drops to avoid for the player to be able to continue the journey, while avoiding certain death.

One of the aims is to collect Encryption Orbs wherever the player can find them throughout the course of the game as they are of huge importance as they are required to access the teleport activation console in order to open the teleporter for gamers to transport from one area to another, although after they have transported the teleporter will most likely malfunction requiring them to find another Encryption Orb in order to be able to teleport back to the area they came from, which can potentially require some backtracking depending upon if they need to transport back and how far away the Encryption Orb is positioned from the teleporter.

The Swapper supports the share feature that allows players to upload a video clip or screen shot to Facebook or Twitter and broadcast live gameplay footage via Twitch or Ustream as they are experiencing the game with a simple tap of the share button and selecting the option of your choice. The PS4’s hard-drive continuously stores the most recent fifteen minutes of gameplay footage, so players still have the chance to decide if they would like to share something amazing a few minutes after it has taken place. The share feature is a next-gen revolution that has only improved with the further customisation provided by the Share Factory app that allows commentary, music, themes, stickers, effects, text, picture-in-picture video between the game footage and the reaction from the PlayStation Camera and much more besides, which will only continue to prosper and flourish as it matures with additional features and further experimentation in the future.

The Swapper supports cross-buy and cross-save between the PS4, PS3 and Vita. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that players will be purchasing the PS4, PS3 and Vita versions of the game with just a single purchase. The cross-save functionality allows them to sync the progression of the save file from the Vita to the PS3 or PS4 and vice versa, so the player can start playing the game on the Vita on the way to and from work, sync your save game when they return home and then resume where you left off by loading the save game and continuing via the PS3 or PS4 version. The cross-save feature is made possible by uploading the save file to the cloud on one console and downloading it from the other console.

Despite having a number of abilities to perform; the DualShock 4 control scheme is easy to master. The control scheme consists of pressing square to perform an action, such as moving a lift, a memory terminal or using a teleporter; holding square to grab objects, such as boxes for them to position upon a golden block or to jump on them to reach a platform that was previously slightly out of reach; tapping X for a shorter jump or holding X for a longer jump; pressing O to view a map of the surrounding area; pressing triangle to access the memory logs that they have already found; pressing L1 or L2 to create a clone; pressing R1 or R2 to swap control between the player and a clone; changing the direction of the left analogue stick or alternatively pressing left or right on the direction pad to manoeuvre; changing the direction of the right analogue stick to shine the torch in a different area, positioning the area of a clone and selecting the clone wanted to swap control with; pressing the share button takes the player to the share feature menu; and pressing the options button to display the pause menu.

The touch pad implementation is focused upon navigating around the map by gently swiping the finger over the touch pad, although it would have been better if tapping the touch pad would have provided an alternative method of toggling between accessing the map and exiting out of it, while the vibration is used during the opening of the game to provide a sense of the force from the thrusters and is used subtly throughout the game when using lifts or when the character dies from a lengthy fall. However, there is a distinct lack of light bar implementation as might have been expected it to flash red when the character had died or to change colour when the player has successfully completed a puzzle or collected an Encryption Orb.

The Swapper has stunning graphics with amazing amounts of detail as the lighting, shadows and particle effects really work in harmony with the audio to create an atmospheric tone to the surrounding environments, while there are aged effects on signs to show signs of wear and abandonment of the environment within and around the confines of the Theseus space station. However, The Swapper’s graphics are not just stunning, but they are unique in their own right as they have been created by using handcrafted art and clay models that were designed by the original developers at Facepalm Games and with some serious effort it has provided a feeling of realism throughout your characters’ movements and the environments.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main, cloud sync, options and gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad, although that is not an issue considering the other methods of navigation that are available. The background of the main and the pause menu are both vibrant as the main menu contains abstract, out of focus colours, while the background of the pause menu contains stars as the camera spins through the depths of outer space.

The audio consists of voice-overs, sound effects and music with the voice-overs being the central computer of the Theseus space station and muffled radio transmissions, while the sound effects include sounds to represent each of the character’s abilities, such as jumping, walking, moving objects, cloning and swapping with eerie noises from the space station and sounds of life amongst the gardens in the background, alongside some great references, such as the text appearing on the memory logs with the familiar sound of the computer from Alien, while there is atmospheric music that fuses classical piano and tension filled sounds together to create a unique form of tension as though the player is expecting something to happen imminently. Unfortunately, the DualShock 4 speaker has not been implemented, which is a shame as a game with such amazing atmosphere should have certainly taken advantage of the opportunity the speaker provides to layer audio by producing an optional layer of audio, such as a combination of the atmospheric music and the tensions of the background sound effects or the central computer and muffled radio transmissions.

The trophy list includes ten trophies with four bronze trophies, five silver trophies and one gold trophy. All trophies should be earned as the player naturally progresses through the game as the entirety of the trophy list is based around completing the ten chapters of the puzzle with each trophy’s name and description represented by Roman numerals, which is another interesting link to ancient mythology. It should be estimated that depending upon skill in regards to solving the puzzles and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around five to ten hours to 100% the trophy list.

There is no multiplayer, online leaderboards or any form of online functionality, which is surprising; as there is certainly the potential to have a local and online co-operative multiplayer component in which up to four players are attempting to solve the puzzles. There are no online leaderboards meaning there are no rankings for the fastest times of completing each chapter and the entirety of the game. while further online functionality could have came in the form of a level editor where the player could create their own puzzles throughout their own levels to test their own puzzle solving skills, while testing the puzzle solving abilities of your friends and the world through being able to share the user created levels publicly, although unfortunately none of this content is available with the lack of any multiplayer or online functionality proving to be the only negative. However, on the opposite side to that; perhaps having a level editor and co-operative multiplayer would have somewhat diminished the focus, direction and atmosphere of the game, so in that case it is a positive that the work has been channelled into the appropriate areas.

There are no difficulty levels, although the difficulty curve naturally increases as the player progresses through the game as the puzzles become harder to understand as they become significantly more complex. The complexity of the puzzles is a positive in itself as it keeps the player engaged and aware, while using the important game mechanics of creating clones and switching control between each of them to successfully achieve the appropriate outcome of solving the puzzle.

The replayability of The Swapper stems from the clever and engaging puzzles, atmosphere and unique graphical art style as the lack of multiplayer and online functionality does not reduce the quality or replay value as anybody playing the game will be charmed and enthralled by everything it has to offer.

Overall, The Swapper is a masterpiece in every sense of the word from rampant atmospheric tension of the graphical style and audio, while The Swapper possesses amazing gameplay mechanics that makes the game standout from the crowd. If you are a fan of any film that has clearly inspired The Swapper, such as the Alien films and Sunshine, then you will absolutely want to play The Swapper as soon as possible as it recreates the atmosphere of a sci-fi Hollywood blockbuster film perfectly for the exceptional value of a triple cross-buy purchase of only £9.99.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: The Swapper
• Developer: Curve Studios/Facepalm Games
• Publisher: Curve Studios
• System: PS4
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: Yes (PS4, PS3 and PS Vita)
• Cross-Play: Yes (Cross-Save)
• Players: 1
• Hard Drive Space Required: 420MB