The Swapper is brilliant, beautiful, and one of the best games of the year.
There are a lot of indie games. There are a lot of puzzle games. There are a lot of indie puzzle games. Managing to stand out from the pack and be original is a challenge a lot of games have but when your genre is filled with games like Portal, Braid, Limbo, and recently Antichamber, it can be almost impossible.
To say that The Swapper stands out from the pack would be an understatement. The Swapper not only stands out from the pack but it stands head and shoulders among the best puzzle platformers of the last decade at least.
One of the marks of a great puzzle game is it's ability to teach you it's concepts and mechanics without feeling like you're being led by the hand. The Swapper handles this with ease. It manages to teach you every concept and mechanic through progression rather than telegraphed tutorials. Every solution feels earned and you will almost never "luck" into it. The Swapper is an incredibly rewarding experience.
As mentioned, The Swapper is beautiful. It uses a unique "claymation" art-style where every element of the game, from the characters, to the levels, are all built and animated out of clay. Topped onto that it uses plenty of stark contrast lighting with lots of reds, blues, white, and blacks. Both of these elements creates a moody atmosphere that is instantly memorable. Exploring around in the game world is a delight with plenty of eye-candy.
Earlier this year Antichamber impressed me with plenty of clever puzzles and fun exploration. However I felt it lacked in some areas, specifically it's ability to teach critical game mechanics. The Swapper excels at former and doesn't falter when it comes to the latter. It's an incredible game with rewarding gameplay and stunning presentation. I highly recommend it.
