At a glance...

Swarm review

Last week I journeyed into parts unknown, visited a strange planet and killed an evolving race by the thousands by setting them on fire, electrocuting them, sending them off cliffs and vaporising them. I am, of course, talking about Swarm, a recent PSN release and crazy puzzle platformer from Hothead Games.

The first thing you'll notice when starting up the game is the running ticker in the top left corner of the screen. Dubbed the "Swarmite Death Total", throughout the course of my playthrough, I noticed this total continuously ticking into the tens of millions. This is a running count of all the little creatures killed across all players on PSN since the game launched. One thing became clear; this wasn't going to be a fairy tale adventure. Confirming this was a button on the main menu, amusingly titled "Do Not Press". Being the rule breaker that I am, I didn’t feel we would do this review justice if I didn’t at least try. Instantly, the little creature that was standing around on the title screen was obliterated in a shower of arrows and moments later another appeared to replace him. Little did we know that this was a warning of what would happen for the duration of our review.

Starting the actual game we were treated to animated cut-scenes of the Swarmites arriving at a strange planet. You're then taken to the level select screen, showing the lay of the land and where you're trying to get to in a comical style. A large blob sits in the corner with a large tail that trails over the land representing the various places you'll visit. This menu is beautifully animated and has a design that is very reminiscent of the PixelJunk Shooter series, both in terms of style and the interface for selecting levels.

So how does the game work? Simply put, you control a group of Swarmites, aka a swarm, that you have to lead to the end of the stage. It's a simple enough concept, but the world is a dangerous place and you'll need to deftly control your creatures to avoid them getting electrocuted, burned, vaporised or otherwise obliterated. Entering the first level, the game pops up the tips menu, detailing all the moves that will be available to you. The level of detail they go into on this hint screen can be a little overwhelming the first time you see it and we wish that they had padded the instructions out a bit more. However, once you get your head around these concepts, you'll be able to control your swarm with ease.

Spread and huddle are the key to these moves, the former spreading the group of fifty swarmites out as much as possible and the latter compacting them in a tight bunch, useful for navigating narrow platforms but making them all too easy to get wiped out. By huddling the swarm together and then quickly releasing them gives you a brief speed boost, perfect for jumping the longer gaps or over a dangerous fire trap. Finally, the stack ability lets you group your swarmites on top of each other like a very inelegant cheerleader pyramid, letting you reach high up objects.

Entering the first level, the tail that lays over the land in the menu appears, dropping off the swarm. The swarmites are simple folk and controlling them is easy, but you need to be careful. If you point them off a cliff they will follow your orders to the letter. Although you'll be encountering worse hazards than a cliff over the course of your adventure. How many different deaths are there? Let me count the ways; there's electrocution (both from electric beams and lightening bolts), fire, spikes, poison gas, mechanical blades and even bear traps, plus many others besides. It's pretty easy to imagine your swarm diminishing to single digits pretty quickly so, helpfully, there are blue pods at strategic points that let you repopulate your numbers. Additionally, if your swarm gets taken out then you'll start again at the previous checkpoint will a full quota of swarmites waiting for you (50 in total). Throughout all this, I got the impression that the game was on a mission to kill me and that's certainly the impression you'll get when you see some of the levels they have on offer. Luckily (if you can call it that) the game rewards your for these deaths, awarding Mega Death medals when you hit certain numbers of destruction. Killing the last ten swamites in quick succession will also see you earn a medal. You don't get any in-game reward for these (bar some obligatory trophies) but it is amusing to see how many deaths you've acquired.

Level progression is achieved by earning a certain score in each level. Collecting the various orbs littered throughout the level is not enough, the key to Swarm is constantly powering up your multiplier. This is earned by simply collecting more orbs, but you must never let this combo fade. You'll need to effectively manage the orbs and crates scattered around so that there's always an orb ready for you to reset the multiplier timer and thanks to the dangerous level design, this isn't always an easy task. There's also five collectible DNA strands in each stage for which you'll need to keep your eye out for if you want to reach the game's final level. If your level score is enough to please Momma, aka the blob on the aforementioned level screen, then the blob evolves a little and a new level is unlocked. You'll also encounter two boss stages that test your swarm control to the maximum, avoiding death traps whilst taking out gigantic creatures. These stages and the levels before them are some of the most enjoyable encounters in the game.

Swarm's collection of twelve levels is enough to give you some variety, but short enough that it doesn't overstay its welcome. I began to feel this might be the case in the final few sections, most notably, when I was asked to repeat sections to collect the DNA pieces. Overall, it'll last about two to three hours, which I believe hits the right spot, but there are global and friend leaderboards for each level if you feel like replaying them and improving your score.

Swarm is a game that delights in the different ways to kill you. It gets a little tricky at times, particularly when trying to keep your multiplayer high enough to reach the required score. But it's a fun ride and you may find yourself slaughtering a few Swarmites on purpose, if only to see the various deaths on offer to you.

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