The Swapper (2013)

This game is an atmospheric puzzle-platformer, set on a mysterious and abandoned research station. Its central mechanic revolves around a device that allows you to create clones of yourself and swap your consciousness between them, leading to puzzles that are both clever and thematically tied to questions of identity and existence. At first I thought it would have a complex story, with mysteries, interpretative sections and some characters, but in the end it is just a pretext for the gameplay, nothing more than that.

The game’s handmade clay and model-based art style, combined with eerie lighting and ambient sound, gives it a haunting, otherworldly feel that perfectly matches its philosophical tone. The puzzles escalate in complexity with mechanics like light restrictions and gravity, keeping the challenge engaging without overwhelming the player. I confess that I struggled a lot in the beginning, but once you get the hang of it, mid-way through, it becomes a breeze and a very satisfying puzzle game experience.

While relatively short, about four hours, the game’s brevity works in its favor, maintaining a focused experience that blends cerebral puzzle-solving with thought-provoking narrative elements. Its story is deliberately cryptic, inviting interpretation, and it resonates strongly with people who enjoy games that explore deeper themes of consciousness and humanity. So if you enjoy this kind of plot, which can be a very obscure one, and lacking a lot of explanation deliberately, this is one of the best games you can play.

I would argue this game has a bad story simply because it is lacking a lot, but in the end, since this is a very interpretative story, I cannot really say this, what I can say is that sometimes it can feel cheap on this regard, relying too much on it's more interpretative nature. Overall, this is a striking indie title, praised for its originality, mood, and puzzle design. It remains memorable as much for its philosophical weight as for its clever gameplay, making it an excellent choice for fans of atmospheric and contemplative experiences.

I took an early liking to The Swapper. Platforming puzzles relying on clever reasoning with a weird story background and quirky graphics. However, as the game wore on, it started to grate on me. The story made little sense (which may be intentional), there was a lot of running around back and forth to get to puzzle areas and, most problematic, the puzzles started relying on accuracy in position and timing rather than reasoning. The fact that the existence of these puzzles and the different colored lights made no in-game sense was beside the point.

So after having to resort to walk-through solutions three times successfully and in the fourth failing due to not having good enough manual dexterity, I quit. It did not leave a good taste in my mouth and I will never go back again.

Absolutely excellent game. The clone and swapping mechanics are just inherently fun and the puzzles are very well thought out. They ramp in difficult well over the course of the game but never hit the point of being frustrating-- one of the final puzzles took me a good while to figure out, but I never felt the need to seek outside help. The atmosphere is great, with a unique art style and gloomy piano music expertly setting a dark, isolated mood.

The biggest stand out here is the story, though. I'd put it on the level of one of Phillip Dick's better short stories-- the characters are fairly thin, but the plot and ideas are excellent. The exploration of dualism and physicalism, largely led by characters appropriately named after David Chalmers and Daniel Dennett, was exceedingly well considered, both presenting the ideas clearly and having narrative stakes that force you to directly consider your own philosophy.

I really don't have anything to complain about here, other than the fact that I'm a decade late to the party. The Swapper is going straight to my All Time Favorites shelf.

The story was interesting enough to make me want to play to the end, and the puzzles were hard enough to make me use a walkthrough for most of the 2nd half. I'm not entirely convinced that's all on me, though. Sometimes I'd watch the walkthrough and it would be like, "Oh, that makes sense," and then sometimes it would just be, "Ok, I guess that's how this works." I may have just been missing something, but those puzzles just felt very unintuitive and kind of arbitrary.

I would say it's worth playing regardless, because the the story is interesting and the puzzles are short enough that if you do need a walkthrough for one it's not a big deal—except it's also really difficult to find a walkthrough for the exact puzzle you're working on because the puzzles don't have any identifiers beyond the general area in which they appear. So if you only need help for some of the puzzles it's actually more frustrating then if you just follow a walkthrough for the whole game.

So I guess if you think you're really good at puzzles then have at it...or if you know you're terrible and want to just follow a walkthrough, though at that point I don't know what you'd get from playing that you wouldn't from just watching it be played. Anyone in between may find it unconstructively challenging.

Side note: when the sound cuts out 'cause you're in space, it's very good.

A 2D puzzle platformer with a Soma like atmoshpere makes a pretty decent game I enjoyed playing quite a bit.

The action takes place on a space station of some kind with very little introduction of what's really going on. You will figure it out along the way and it's pretty interesting and enjoyable. All accompanied by dark sci-fi atmosphere.

Visually it's not the prettiest looking game but at least it makes up for it in ambience. The animations are rather mediocre and the world generally lacks in detail but it's serviceable.

The game focuses on the puzzle aspect. You get a swapping gun with which you're able to create up to five clones and swap your conciousness with any selected clone. With obstacles preventing you either creating a clone in certain places or swap to clone located in the certain place you're tasked with collecting orbs in order to unlock certain hatches and progress forward.

The level of puzzles varies but they're not super hard. Not sure if you need to gather all of the orbs to finish the game but I did and enjoyed every puzzle the game had to offer. They start easy while all the same introducing the mechanics and get progresively harder. I think only three or four puzzles did get me scratch my head for a little bit - the remaining ones were usually solvable after a thought or two. I'd say the difficulty was just right.

The game's length is also basically right - not too short and not too long. There's no real plot twist at any time but the story is pretty nice.

Overall a very fine game though at core a puzzle rather than anything else.

The Swapper is a metroidvania style puzzle game with a unique puzzle mechanic, gloomy environment, and a great, almost philosophical story.

The puzzle mechanic involves creating clones of yourself and sending your soul into another body. As with many puzzle games, this sounds simple enough, but by the end of the game the puzzles can be quite difficult because they are so well crafted. The game's difficulty curve is smooth enough to ease you along while still teaching you new ways to use your ability.

The environments are dark, but only to create a dreary and hopeless atmosphere. Important things that you need to see are bright and impossible to miss. It does well to make you feel isolated on the desolate planet.

The story was easily my favorite part of the game. You land on a planet and have to determine what happened to people who were stationed here before you because things... didn't work out for them too well. It's a common setup, but it works very well with this game since you are unraveling a complex mystery.

I recommend this to fans of Braid and Limbo. Personally, I enjoyed it more than both because the story is well developed and intriguing.