The Swindle

The good: -Interesting steampunk setting. -Fun looking toys to play with. -Stealth games are my thing, so yeah. -Being detected creates a fun new mood. The bad: -Start out with none of the fun toys, game completion impossible with the basic abilities. -Much grind gated content. -Nonsensical progression for hacking. -Some upgrades are boring stat pushers. -Level generation buggy; dead ends in unintuitive areas, inaccessible areas. -Unforgiving detection and combat, no room for error. -Twitchy, hard to control platforming that feels like it belongs in a different genre. -No mouse control in the menu, and inconsistent menu controls. -The flying police attack car that homes in on your location.

It's been a year since I've played this game. Even still, my very clear memory is that this is a very frustrating game for several hours. The platforming is awful at first. The enemies are very obtuse at first. But! If you put in the time and patience and effort, I think you will, like me, get to a game that is really really incredible. This is one of those games where I'm glad I got the first playthrough done with, because my upcoming playthrough is going to be very enjoyable, now that I know how the enemies work, how the systems work, how the platforming works. It's...frustrating reading the negative reviews of this game. It's frustrating because their irritation and frustration is very understandable. I strongly believe, though, that if you give it some time, and if you compromise with it, agree to meet it halfway, you'll find a very great, clever, and super enjoyable game. Be patient and you may, like me, find one of your very favorite games of all time.

(Disclaimer: Picked this up on PS4, but it seems my complaints are pretty universal) This is an interesting roguelike stealth game with a neat countdown mechanic to keep the pressure on. It's just a shame the game fumbles so hard. Here's a rundown: 1: the controls suck. This isn't particularly helped by the fact that you move with about the same speed and dexterity as James Caan's character at the end of Misery. Wall jumping feels weird and inconsistent; sometimes you'll get a nice high jump off a wall, and sometimes you'll barely push off. VERY often, you'll fall into a spike pit because you were a pixel too far over the ledge before trying to jump. Which ties into my next point. 2: The game is WAY too visually busy. Don't get me wrong, it's a neat aesthetic (I don't even particularly care for steam-punk, but I like it just fine), but as with MANY hand-drawn platformers, characters are sort of cluttered masses of lines and color when you aren't right up close. This also creates a serious problem with level design, because it's easy not to notice something like a land mine when your eyes are darting around looking at the hundred other yellowish line-y objects in the immediate vicinity. The aforementioned ledge deaths are related to this as well; often the ledge's tile will extend just slightly past the actual collision point, leading to a lot of failed jumps. 3: You'd best be prepared to grind and grind HARD, because it takes a LOT of money to get to the point where you don't move like a tranquilized bear. Even the most basic of skill upgrades routinely cost 5 figures or more, and you'll be pulling in maybe a grand per heist early on, if you're lucky. It adds both an extra layer of tedium and, thanks to the 100 day (100 missions) time limit, an unnecessary layer of pressure on the player that isn't fun so much as grating. I say if it goes on sale for $4.99 or so, give it a shot. As it is, don't waste your cash.

This game suffers from an uneven start and controls which feel unresponsive, but those're really all of its major flaws. Unless you luck out, you'll have to play the first area twice before you have money to buy... anything. This ends up feeling that you're wasting some time until the game actually begins. You might as well restart if the RNG wasn't on your side at first (allowing you to buy hacking after your first heist). The game might as well be 99 days, since you get no interesting decisions until after the (lucky) first heist. I mean, sure, you could fail the first level, but at that point you'll probably restart the game unless you're doing a challenge or something. The game would probably have been better if it had the option to start with some money or abilities. All those complaints about things not working never happened to me without it knowingly being my fault. I'd say that this game's biggest problem is that it requires patience - something people nowadays sorely lack (I don't really exclude myself here... the game felt awful at first). You must plan your approach, wait for cycles, decide what abilities are critical to you and spend what little money you have on them. About the controls... I am pretty sure that's a design choice meant to disempower you and make you play more strategically and carefully. And let me tell you, once you get familiar with your limits, you'll find that the sluggish feeling mostly stems from the animation. You are Robo-Rambo. Really (albeit without the guns). You can skip the safe landing ability if you're good enough with the steampack. You can jump enemies just within range for your club to work, jump out, then return to hit others. Buying abilities might feel like a gamble, since heists are randomized, but all you need to do is buy the things that cover your weak points. Having problems with bots? Make note of when you usually fail and buy the upgrade that will fix that point or you.