Swirl W@tch

You'd think an unholy merger of MGSV: The Phantom Pain and Silent Hunter painted on the backdrop of squidpeople labour unions firebombing refineries and spacing corporate death squads inside of a gas giant would end up a disjointed mess, but Swirl W@tch not only managed to make the above work, it went beyond just a gimmicky aesthetic and interesting premise, creating an absolutely top-shelf stealth game with varied content and potentially tens if not hundreds of hours of gameplay. The core gameplay loop is simple, you load up on equipment and weapons at your base that you use in missions of varying length and difficulty, where you have to sneak around company property, complete specific objectives usually relating to sabotaging corporate infrastructure and blowing up particularly nasty hired goons. While your pre-mission budget never changes (with the exception of taking 'challenge' upgrades that weaken you in return for extra cash), the game's progression stems from extracting hostile ships alive to recruit their crews which lets you unlock different weapons, ship upgrades, and even different ships to use (though, admittedly, most of the ships are just sidegrades, providing bonuses but only in specific circumstances). As for flaws, there aren't any massive, glaring issues but, owing to the game's small dev team, there is a fair amount of Jank. Be it occasional weird colission detection, enemies spawning in weird places and getting stuck, or your melee hits not connecting when they should, the game still has occasional hiccups which can get exponentially more annoying due to its high difficulty and demand for relatively high precision and skill. In addition; the visual style, while unique and beautiful, is very intense and can be hard to process even people who aren't exceptionally sensitive to visual stimuli, while those people who *are* would find the game borderline unplayable. If this still sounds like your game though, it's certainly worth a try, the devs are great, and they put in a lot of effort to fix and adjust the game based on player feedback, meaning the game will always come ever-closer to perfection as long as people keep playing it and interacting with the community. A thousand limbs uplift you o7

For a TL; DR, read the foreword and score I guess. I can bulletpoint this in the comments if needed. This is honestly one of the best games I have ever played. Not only does it have an extremely long-lasting fun value, it’s amazingly paced and has a solid grasp of what made the mechanics good and how to improve on them. Stefan is one of those devs who makes banger after banger after banger and really deserves the recognition. This game can get difficult, but it’s never frustrating, and the tutorial work is solid and easy to grasp. Take a gander at the cinematic trailer, and it’s pretty much what you see there. After this brief overview, here’s a detailed analysis of the game and what to expect in it: Gameplay: The moment to moment gameplay is very close to Metal Gear Solid V, you stealth quietly though open areas, getting close to reactor choke enemies, shooting them from short range with a hack (tranq) gun, and ballooning them off to make unlocks. You are meant to stealth, and enemies communicate with their Chief Sec Officer to report and raise soft alert (more vision, sporadic movement) and combat alert (you are always visible and shot at), like in that game. But fighting is also quite feasible. This is aided by a movement and detection system reminiscent of both —Red—Tether→ and a submarine game. You move by boosting into the mouse, mostly. I usually have issues with multi-key hand inputs but this game is the only one where that is compensated and not a problem. The detection is through LIDAR sightlines, and sound. If you move fast, you get heard and seen, because you are brightly lit and you/your devices make rings of sound around them. If you are slow, you are invisible unless they slam into you. This may sound simple, but the game has abundant mechanics that take advantage of this, like how cloaking while using an afterburner lets you pierce through the drag and slide for a few seconds in silence. Combined with a variety of enemies that resist some technique or other, you never feel like you have all the info. The strategic gameplay is standard roguelite fare. You get 100 exotic matter to buy gear. You unlock gear options by capturing enemies and doing challenges, and the first time you purchase them you gotta tap into Public Support to make them (you get it by being effective, fast and quiet in missions). Almost no gear is strictly better than the others, and it has a good balance going. And when it doesn’t, Stefan is _still releasing patches to this day_. Graphics and Music: Very charming. The music is inspired by modular soundtracks like FTL:FTL’s. You got magma detector noises, laser instruments, electronic sliders, electronic bases and even some harsh drum rims for deploying into a mission. The graphics are color-coded, generally pretty distinguishable, and intuitive. They are not too flashy, and you can tone down some of the effects in the settings menu. Also has screen scaling. UI: Very clear and concise. It’s not overly technical, and you get no health bars, but it’s doing exactly what you want it to do. Hover over anything and you get its name, role and state. Many actions have “TEXT FEEDBACK!” that pops out (and damage numbers) to inform you that a technique has been executed (for example, that cloak trick gets the feedback “DRIFT!”), which makes it very clear. You have a coordinate system for objectives, spread based targeting reticule, visibility, heart-based health, a yellow “damage tint” for shields, and a pause inventory screen in addition to cycling. Overall super clear and functional. Tutorials and flavor: Some of the best in the market. The hyperspace setting is rich and solid. All the items, areas and enemies have flavor text you can access by calling Tactical Higher Intelligence (using q while hovering over them, or empty space), and any item you hold has everything from chatlogs, to CorPro news broadcasts, to urban legends, to extracts from The Cargo Manifesto and SW codes of conduct. Most are funny, but some are inspiring and truly wise. Take the time to hit q on the inventory screen for your upgrades and ship. A lot of good stuff is there. The rest of the tutorials are VR missions. They give solid rewards for completing them, and are invaluable for testing new gear, especially against some of the later ships. They don’t explain everything, but that just means there are fun surprises to find if you take a wild guess (like how dragging stunned ships to a refinery can permanently disable them by making them “HIDDEN!”). Overall some of the best in the indie landscape. Fun: Much to be had. I can only recall a single time where I got stuck, and it was during a drought in unlocks around level 4s unlocking. Just do a few runs with balloon storage, try to unlock some of the challenge upgrades, and you’ll be out of it in one or two hours. Before and after that? Pure blast. The enemies are very much like you, so use your brain and get ‘em! Also, for people like me, who come from places like Argentina, this is some of the best value you are gonna get for each dollar this side of Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft. I have been playing nonstop since steam dollarized and it doesn’t seem like it will ever run out! Score: 9/10. Truly a case of taking concepts and settings and refining them to the sharpest of edges. Updates are still coming out, and Stefan fixes bugs with amazing speed on the discord, so don’t miss out on this hidden gem and recommend it to your friends. And I am not even all the way through! A must buy for any stealth/Sci-Fi/Fast submarine enthusiast!

Very interesting idea, really good execution. The gameplay is an unholy mix of newtonian flight mechanics (in thick gas though, so you won't have much trouble braking), tense but at the same time strangely relaxing stealth (likewise mostly enabled by the thick gas) and sheer terror at realizing you've been spotted and your dinky little ship is being pursued by an armada. I really enjoy the variety of equipment and build potential - you can customize your ship to your heart's content, and a lot of differing playstyles feel effective (and importantly, no one build stands out as "the right one", at least so far). You can sabotage key points without the enemy ever finding out you were even there, or blow everything up like a maniac if you have the finesse to not get paid back in kind. The artstyle is incredible, and I love how everything looks so distinctive while still being very readable. You can see the screenshots so I won't expand too much on that, except one flaw - the colors are very distinctive and stylish, but sometimes the screen gets flooded with a really saturated color for a long time, which makes my eyes feel funny. not in a good way. It's eye candy but much like regular candy it starts to hurt if you have too much at once Likewise the soundscape is very well done. Ambient sounds and music vary based on where you are, and there's something really tranquil about flying in a "forested" region and hearing the patter of rain on your ship's hull. The trailer doesn't convey this very well, but it really feels urgent when a tranquil moment (which often sound like something you'd play to help you fall asleep, [in a good way]) suddenly gets replaced with an alarm noise, gosh forbid followed by gunfire - and despite this suddenness, the music and ambience flow into this agitated state really fluidly. Overall I think the strongest suit of this game is the atmosphere. I can't quite put my finger on it but it's a perfect mix of a really original soundtrack, artstyle and (surprisingly expanded) lore that works incredibly well to immerse you in the game's world. Worth every penny

I'm honestly surprised of how little people have played this amazing game, this is a very unique stealth game with some elements Ive never seen before in some, the flying is fluid the fights feel amazing and generally is a very fun game, this deserves way more recognition.

This thing was released April 23 and it's still sold less than 200 units per the publisher's in-game transparency report? That's ridiculous. Did you like Cryptark and Nova Drift but want it a bit more cerebral but still very much real time? Buy this.

An absolutely awesome game! There are many tools and gadgets to use to your advantage, each of them being quite unique in their function and the ways they can be used There are many, and i mean [i]many[/i], ways you can decide to deal with your enemies using the various tools you're given The game even lets you go as far as blowing them all up and cause havoc to everyone involved while remaining undetected by them, if you play well enough, that is if you're unfortunately detected, it is not the end. You can still blow them up, or flee and make them think that you're gone for good as you continue to sneak around under their noses. Your enemies also have various craft, some for general guarding while others are to specifically track down you with more special use cases, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Although, the best way to take them down is by no means limited to their weaknesses, for many of them, it is possible to use their own strengths against themselves Overall one of the best games I've played

Short version: This is a game about being anonymous eco-terrorist tasked with series of increasingly suicidal missions, using stealth and satisfying pew-pew to complete random goals. This is probably best game Sleeper Games delivered yet, and because of this is deserves more love. Like other titles of this studio, it is characterised by unique graphics and well-thought mechanics. But it's hard to love, even more than they usually are. Longer version: - Game offers very little in terms of narrative; it's intentionally laconic, only telling you bits and pieces through equipment descriptions. You have to like the gameplay. Nothing will divert your attention from it; no dialogue nor fancy graphics, and enemy talking is useful rather than narrative. - There is fantastic roster of available items that give you plenty of options to mess around with your opponents. And yes, many weapons too, with actual customisation. This is something that was missing in Hyperspace Dogfights imho; it makes Swirl W@tch more personal. - Giving point limit of how much you can take is a good decision. Balance of restricting your loadout only to best items, forcing to make trade-offs, it all makes personalisation more rewarding... - Basic mechanics of stealth, spotting, melee attacks and variety of enemies are excellent. I really think Swirl W@tch is very mature as a final product, a complete experience that constantly challenges you to improve, learn and fail to become competent at basics, introducing new things and telling you nothing about them, encouraging you to learn. I saw the end credits and I don’t think I ever got actually good at this game. Patience is the key here – rushing it will most likely get you killed. And yes, it is important to mention why new player may turn it off in frustration… - Development focus was to make it replayable. Making it easy would ruin the fun; so instead difficulty level is absolutely brutal. If you ever want to see the end credits, you will have to do several high difficulty missions. They have three phases and if you fail, you lose all progress. Let that sink in. It's like you never attempted them; you got nothing from it. And it matters because... - ...during harder part of the campaign if you got spotted you may very well die in about 10 seconds if you're unlucky, and in 30 seconds if you're doing good job at surviving annihilation. I actually enjoyed it in some weird way, but hitting a mine just before extraction and horror of realisation you just lost 57 minutes of your life is experience like no other. If you played Hyperspace Dogfights and thought you got catharsis after losing to final boss, you know nothing - because in Swirl W@tch you didn't even unlock anything. - And thus began the grind. Oh god, the grind is real in this one. Since you don’t get anything from failed attempts, you may struggle to get anything new in this game. Maybe if you take it easy and earn it patiently in few easy missions it’s doable to max out the game without being unicum player, but for me, I only got items I wanted to try out the most. But some of those items actually help a lot in danger control, so you will eventually want to unlock something just to make it more bearable. And yes, because you have lot of missions to do, there is a lot of equipment to unlock. In 100 hours you probably won’t unlock it all. This game never hit the mainstream audience and thus Sleeper Games went ham on political aspect. You are a guerilla, you do terrorist stuff like blowing up industry and breaking out political prisoners, you kidnap the guards for tech progress (xd) and generally resist capitalism in every way possible. I enjoyed it and smirked at some item descriptions, I knew what kind of irony to expect after Hyperspace Dogfights, but I can imagine some people can be surprised. To sum it up: This is excellent stealth game with good mechanics, challenging difficulty level and good replay value, rewarding if you actually know what you are doing, but very unforgiving. I wouldn’t call it too complex – I just think it’s tailored to a veteran player, because it certainly seems designed this way. My only concern is why you cannot bind slots to individual keys, I think it would do game a favour – allowing it to be played on Deck or with a gamepad.

Never knew you could have stealth done with entire ships But hey, honestly, I am not here because of stealth. I absolutely love the way this looks, the various little notes, how the UI gets shown (and how notes get thrown in the world). The aesthetic value of this for me is quite high, and I haven't even gotten too far in yet :D Another interesting aspect is the universe itself. You don't really get it explained much, just get thrown right in through a bunch of sims and into missions. But the helpful "what's this" sorta button is always there to explain what's up... Like what the heck is this area full of emplacements. Also, sneaky drifting controls that just come up naturally as you mess around with the movement mechanics. Also, ability to evade things really makes it feel much more satisfying to play. You don't just grind a single level, hovering on a reset button, but you try to work around what you got... And if all else fails, extract! Just uh, don't do that right in the middle of an enemy base as they chase you :P

I have nothing to say beyond this being my favorite indie stealth game. I hope the hours I put into this game speak for me on how good this game is.

A frankly incredible space submarine stealth combat game with a splash of Metal Gear Solid 5 and Max Payne. Features a ridiculous amount of customization for your little player ship with hundreds of modules and weapons available. You get to pick out of them with a point buy system, or you can hope to fill out your build from the in-run stores. Most of the unlockables are reasonable sidegrades to each other, and the "beginner" gear is some of the best available. There's also a good variety of enemies and a few proc-gen playing fields with different environmantal helps or hindrances, and all of that together gives you lots of replayability. And you're going to want to play again because sneaking around half a dozen enemies then distracting one guard so that you safely take out the "sniper" guarding your objective, well, it doesn't get old. The game just feels good to play; your little space sub is the same level of sneaky and squishy as Thief's Garrett and, again like Thief, it is usually possible (though difficult) to complete your objectives without kills / being seen / causing an alert / triggering the time slowdown. There's some negatives: the metaprogression in terms of unlocking the various weapons etc can feel a bit slow but that's mostly because there's lots and LOTS of unlockables. My pet peeve is that there's no mid-game save or checkpoint, you need to play a whole run through in one sitting - which at higher difficulties can take more than an hour. Pausing works for short breaks but it would also be nice to be able to just shut the game off and come back to the same run tomorrow.