Swarm Review
Game: Swarm
Developer: HotHead Games
Publisher: Ignition Entertainment
Available on: Xbox LIVE Arcade & PlayStation Network (Reviewed on Xbox 360)
There are some hella good casual downloadable games available these days, many of which harken back to the olden days, where games were a lot simpler than they are in these times of 3D, HD, Twitter and Facebook. Rock hard, arcade-oriented, and completely ruthless, these O.G bad boys often required nerves of steel to complete. If you sat a ten year old in front of Jet Set Willy, Ghosts ‘N’ Goblins, or even Lemmings, (the latter being something of an inspiration to the subject matter on hand here) they would last mere minutes before collapsing back into their gaming chair, a quivering mess, reaching for another high energy caffeinated beverage.
Titles such as Super Meat Boy, the recent re-imagining of Mega Man, and the cruelly unforgiving Limbo have something of an old-school flavour to them, and Swarm, the new downloadable offering from Hothead Games, certainly falls into this category. But is it any cop?
Swarm places you in command of the titular rabble of cutesy looking blue creatures, and asks that you guide them through a hazard-strewn landscape in order to collect DNA to take back to their “Momma”, a huge, hideous Swarmite, who when satiated will allow your squadron to progress to the next stage.
Any entities that swarm, behave collectively, as Michael Caine found out when confronting those damned bees in the classic 70s flick, and these little chaps are no different. You control the Swarmites as a single 50-strong unit across the action-platform levels, with the goal to reach the end of the level with at least one of them remaining, but as some of the DNA strands require a set number of Swarmites to collect, it becomes an important task to keep the 50 little blighters alive and together, for as long as possible.
Along the way there are lots of different obstacles to contend with. The likes of landmines, gaping chasms, spikes, and fire hazards are all things that the Swarm can employ a number of tactics to avoid. Clicking on one of the shoulder triggers allows you to disperse the blue critters to cover a wider area. Pulling the other will bring them tightly together to fit through smaller gaps, and can give them strength and speed boosts. The Swarm can jump, stack on top of one another to reach higher areas, and pass over power ups that offer speed boosts and suchlike.
This sounds like great fun, especially when you factor into the equation the spectacularly gruesome ways that the Swarmites perish. However, the difficulty level is extreme right from the get go, meaning that progression is usually based upon trial and error rather than a shallow curve that allows you to become familiar with the obstacles and the control methods in a fair and reasonable manner. Limbo was similarly guilty of this kind of leap-before-you-look gameplay, yet compensated for it’s insane difficulty with a deeply disturbing, foreboding sense of dread and a morbid curiosity of what you were going to encounter next. Swarm just feels like an exercise in gaming masochism, and even with respawn points that allow you to replenish the creatures who have been spectacularly wasted along the way, each time your whole crew pegs out you will lose your score multiplier, making it next to impossible to rack up the necessary amount of points and ultimately forcing a restart.
Swarm does not entirely lack charm though. It looks and sounds perfectly good, and for brief moments, controlling the dynamic mass around the platform levels can be a novel old romp. Hothead Games obviously have an appreciation for retro, hard as nails gameplay and a great sense of humour, and there is no doubt that one day they will probably drop an absolutely banging game; it is clear they are a competent and professional bunch.
VERDICT: Sadly, for all that is good about this 1200 Microsoft Point download, you will be left frustrated by the difficulty, and wondering why anyone would want to play something that is effectively a limited, overly harsh memory exercise. If that sort of thing is your bag, then we would recommend something like Trials HD or the aforementioned Limbo. If you long to guide some cutesy avatars around like some sort of power crazed gaming god, then go slightly more retro and check out Lemmings or even Nintendo’s classic Pikmin.
