I. Love. This. Game.
Ok, maybe I’m just seriously infatuated. But I’m enjoying the hell out of Curve’s latest.
Scotland Yard will upgrade their security systems in 100 days, making it impossible for us to continue our “nickin’ stuff”. We must therefore foil their plans. Procedurally-generated stages provide us with loot, that in turn we can use to upgrade our toolkit, to get more loot from the next stage. You can see where this is going, can’t you?
The game looks beautiful on my Vita 1001, and it sounds just as great. The hand-drawn steampunk art is absolutely gorgeous.
The only problem that I’ve been having with “The Swindle” is that I absolutely suck at playing it. In the time that it has taken me to get the game, play it and write this article, there are people who have been speed-running it and completing the game in 15-in-game days. That’s nuts. I haven’t been able to get anywhere close to the 100 day limit yet.
But, I still love it.
It’s fun, and it embraces the portable motto of short bursts like very few games do. While it’s much more complex in its mechanics, it does remind me of the recently reviewed “Squares”: it aims to grab you, not for long stages, but for 3 to 5 minute bursts. And I like that. I think that, in the quest to provide Vita owners with a “console” experience, a lot of devs have forgotten that part of the magic of a handheld is that we can go in and out in seconds.
I will continue to battle it out with my thief pals. I’m sure we’ll end up getting that massive payoff.
In the meantime, unless something catastrophic happens, expect a full, glowing review in the upcoming days.
And here’s to hoping it includes my redemption, because for the time being, I suck at “The Swindle”.
Good thing is, “The Swindle” does not suck at all.
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