[i]Swiftly[/i] tells an exciting story with a deep message and a surprising twist at the end: you buy a game for 0.49€, and it turns out to not be good.
It's not as obvious as it might seem, though. I got [i]Super Meat Boy[/i] for 0.69€ and it has since become a proof to me that "cheap" doesn't have to mean "bad". Even if [i]SMB[/i]'s case remains an exception more than a rule, I refuse to treat uncostly games any differently from all the other ones. I expect, at worst, a fun distraction that lasts way too short, or something of this sort.
[i]Swiftly[/i], in any case, is a non-descript, generic game in the hardcore-platformer-with-minimalist-aesthetics genre. It has no story, worldbuilding or joke to it. What you see on the screenshots — black square, spiky wheels etc. — is all you get. It's super basic, and nothing changes during the game either; no new mechanic appears, even the background and the music remain the same throughout. (In fact, the single music track is looped, and there are no other sounds.)
If there's one distinctive element to [i]Swiftly[/i] — and maybe the one thing that could have saved it somehow — it's the focus on physics. I should, however, put "focus" in quotes here because it really only is lip service. While the game makes the notions of having some very physics-y stuff in it (e.g. you "add force" by pressing move buttons, according to the help text), there isn't any actually to be found. What's more, you shouldn't even expect the most basic physics to behave correctly. Some of the things that happened to me when playing Swiftly:
I strafed in the air.
I jumped in the air. But I think it only works when you're falling.
I jumped in the air when hitting a bouncy platform and got rocketed into the sky.
I also got sent into the sky because I moved between two different-colored segments on a platform.
I got stuck to the ground.
I got locked in between two blocks with no way to restart from a checkpoint. (In fact, there is no pause menu; you just exit to the main one.)
And many, many more surprising situations. Or, as one might call them, bugs.
To make things better, the game explicitly includes wall jumping which I guess was added just 'cause it's cool — so much for the "scientific approach".
For what it's worth, [i]Swiftly[/i] is relatively challenging, so at least one of its claims is true. (Although maybe I should say, relatively unchallenging, since while it was somewhat hard at certain points, the game doesn't come close to the difficulty of [i]VVVVVV[/i] or [i]SMB[/i], or many other titles.) At least it is short, so you won't suffer too much if you do buy it (took me 2.8 hours to beat). I can't recommend getting it, though.
