Swirl W@tch

Probably the best stealth game I've ever played (among Thief, the MGS series, Splinter Cell, Dishonored) in regards to pure information warfare. Your ability to track guards in this cloudy gas giant is only slightly higher than their ablility to find you, resulting in a tense cat-and-mouse action that never gets stale. It does get a little unforgiving in later levels: you'll find ships with imperceptible engine noise and LIDAR resistance, snipers staying completely still far from any visible guard beacons, and proximity mines normally only detectable via sonar. Thankfully, all of these threats can be overcome with the right equipment and map knowledge. There's an absurd amount of equipment and passive gear to choose from, and some of their interactions are so varied that (imo) they promote this game from regular stealth-action game to true immersive sim. Flares can distract enemies, but if you land a frontal hit, you can blind them for a few seconds. Any hacking weapon can shut down laser fences, mines, comms equipment, and of course, guards. The wrench can sabotage structures, create zones of sound-muffling foam, and even pry open crates that have been locked from a previous comb…

This was quietly and surprisingly amazing. If you aren't going to read anything else, know that I also consider this one of the best stealth games I've played, like most of the other reviews here. It's very much like playing Metal Gear Solid V if you and all of the guards were all submarine-spaceships floating in the thick murk of a gas giant's atmosphere. The sound design is great, everything clicks, beeps, or chirps just like it should. After a while playing the sounds become natural and you can hear whether your sonar ping has found anything without looking at the visual feedback, because the sound tells you. The guns sound good, the gadgets all sound good, everything is good. The visuals are very bright, but if you can cope with that, they do the job just fine - arguably better than more detailed graphics would, as the wireframe computer-aided-abstraction look fits very nicely with the idea that you can't really SEE anything, and this is all being processed from sensors on board. I like them, they're stylized and fresh. The gameplay is excellent, easily one of the best tuned stealth games I've played. You can take it slow, you can go fast and risky, but there's tradeof…

I like the style a lot. And the concept of a more deliberate gameplay loop in stead of just another space shooter. Unfortunatelty This is undermined by the fiddly control scheme. The problem boils down to the few inputs being so overloaded. For example left mouse can melee OR do a ranged attack, or board an enemy ship or stun an enemy ship OR (i think release an enemy ship?) depending on if you are aiming or how close you are to an enemy. "w" can move you forward OR change how the weapon toggles work OR increase your lidar range. Keeping track of all these once you have engaged an enemy turns into an exercise in frustration. You intend to shoot, but you melee or do nothing in stead. You want to quickly switch weapon from the stun to the railgun after you have engaged an enemy you get some menu popping up. Every single one of these can technically be attributed to user error i suppose, but in concert it feels like I am not in control of my ship. And any mistakes are extremely punishing so messing up because you stubbed your toe on unintuitive controls wasted a second feel svery bad. Oh, Im also unclear what the status of controller support is. Some in game menues exist but steam…

Hello Im Skill Incarnate and Welcome to My Games Review Series. My reviews cover indie games that i have bought, had gifted to me and have been provided by developers for review. In this episode I check out one of the most unique games ive played this year with Swirl W@tch. This game was developed and published by Sleeper Games, who also worked on one of the greatest Space Action Games on steam Red Tether. Swirl W@tch is a Stealth Strategy Game that takes place in Deep Space, it occurs in the game universe as Red Tether. In this game the player takes the role of a member of the Swirl W@tch resistance group, who have taken on the impossible task of toppling the corrupt Megacorporation Corpco, who have a stranglehold on the galaxy. Faced with impossible odds, you decide to employ stealth and cunning instead of brute force. You will strike back at CorpCo, through a guerilla war waged via your stealth ship, specially designed to infiltrate enemy installations and disable your foes by hacking into their ships. The games trump card is the stealth system, which plays out like a high stakes game of battleships. Your ship is equipped with a sonar system, where enemies are detected via p…

I very much like the ideas and mechanics here. It's just missing that addictive quality.

The Hyperspace Anthology is some of the best science fiction that I have had the pleasure of experiencing. The impression that the lore has left on me rivals the likes of Red RIsing by Pierce Brown and Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. The gameplay is also exceptional and unique. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who likes roguelites.