In a world of gritty first person shooters and 3rd person hack and slash action games, it can sometimes become repetitive to be a gamer – this is where Swarm comes in. Hothead Games and Ignition Entertainment have teamed up to create an irresistible action platformer that consists of 50 Swarmites crazily huddled together, running across a given level and getting to the other end with the most points possible.
The concept of Swarm sounds simple but reaches a healthy level of complexity which will have players coming back for more, long after they have beaten each stage. Mama Swarm needs to be fed and sends out her tiny Swarmites to gather her ‘food’ in the form of orbs and the occasional DNA sequence. There really isn’t much of an overarching plot in Swarm and the game doesn’t need it, at all. The motivation in this title solely consists of getting the most points possible in order to unlock the next stage and beat all of your friends on the leaderboard.
Swarm takes place in a dark and brutally dangerous dungeon environment; there are dozens of ways for your Swarmites to die – over and over again. And there will be plenty of dying in this game, make no mistake, Swarm can be brutally punishing if the Swarmites are not being used appropriately. By that I mean, keep at least a few Swarmites alive until the next checkpoint, at which your ‘swarm’ will regenerate and 50 blue blobs are ready at player’s disposal again. Earlier I was talking about getting a high score to unlock levels; this requires players to create a multiplier and fast time bonus which will be applied to your score at the end of each stage. In order to get a multiplier and keep it going players will need to collect orbs without dying or slowing down – if played properly a multiplier of 20+ is fairly attainable and should get a score in the million range and believe me, once you pop the first million, you cannot stop. It is extremely infectious to keep getting a higher score and going back to previous levels in order to beat a prior high water mark.
Gameplay in Swarm is something that may look complicated at first because you have to navigate 50 wild blobs across death traps, fire, spears, explosives and giant ledges but once the controls are mastered, it becomes very natural and fun. Controlling the 50 Swarmites is actually fairly simple, with the push of a button the Swarm can huddle, spread out or dash while the combination of huddle and jump builds a Swarmite-Tower of Joy to reach higher up areas or jump onto a tall ledge. The Swarm can also punch through things and dash jump. This is all you’ll need to maneuver the traitorous environments and solve some puzzles along the way. Several times players will need to sacrifice a few Swarmites to live on and continue the journey. Death is a big part of the game as you’ll need to strategically kill a few blobs in order to save the rest – that’s why Hothead made dying awesome! I won’t get tired of the dozens of death animations like being speared, burned, sliced or smashed.
Swarm is a game full of whimsy and fun build on top of a solid action platformer that has players keep trying to improve and best their scores. The puzzles are very enjoyable and just challenging enough to keep it from being frustrating and cause a rage-quit. Rarely have I played a modern day platformer and enjoyed it as much as Swarm. The game looks great and plays well, controlling a bunch of nutty blobs actually works really well and makes this more unique than most titles in the genre.
Score: 8.5 / 10
Swarm was developed by Hothead Games and published by Ignition Entertainment for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on March 22nd/23rd. A review code of the PS3 retail version was provided to us by Ignition for reviewing purposes.
