Imagine your own pack of globular lemmings that you steer like a school of very self-sacrificing fish - sacrifice being the key word in Swarm. On hand to show off the madness this week at GDC were Shane Bettenhausen of UTV Ignition and Joel DeYoung of Hothead Games. Hothead, the guys behind the Penny Arcade games and DeathSpank, are now delivering an action-puzzler with a heavy dose of platforming fun.
Straight away the game teaches the essentials of life in control of the Swarm - namely, death. Your very first foray takes the little guys across a path littered with spikes that will inevitably skewer a hunk of the crew. No matter, they replenish at a future point - only to meet with similar attrition rates as you encounter bombs, leap chasms or encourage them to plow through obstacles.
You might say the titular blue guys are lacking in smarts, but what they're missing in grey matter they make up for in Borg-like assimilation and esteem for the greater good. Their willy-nilly heroics don't go uncounted, those deaths increase your multiplier and unlock medals for both quantity as well as quality.
While death is heavily rewarded keeping the little guys alive is necessary to collecting DNA and triggering pads. Still, the notion that the Swarmites exist to be destroyed is at the core of Swarm. Levels have score requirements, not Swarm requirements, which means you want them to drop like flies and get that multiplier sky high.
My college biology class leads me to believe that Swarm is educational, focusing on the collection of DNA for "Mother" so that she can get a new hat. It's science! As Swarmites expire across levels, it's possible to replenish the horde with little DNA clusters on the ground. You may only need one Swarmite at level end to finish, but getting there requires a great many more.
Reaching some malicious ventilation, it was necessary to send some of the Swarm into the pipeworks in order to clear the road ahead of poisonous gas. In a rather dire moment the Swarmites were tasked with picking up some bombs and lobbing them at a wall in need of destroying. Most of the Swarmites got it right while others picked up their comrades and chucked them into the explosion. Leave the swarm idle for too long and they get misadventurous, and like the infected in The Happening lose all their self-preservation and find the nearest way to off themselves.
In its more platforming guise you guide the 50 blob flock through perils like Pikmin with more action than strategy. The biggest trick to steering the Swarm is perfecting an almost breathing rhythm of gathering and dispersing your flock to propel them forward like a cheerfully suicidal jellyfish. Other essential moves are dashing to destroy obstacles and having the Swarmites climb one atop the other to form a teetering totem - that can be steered with care! Delivered through a side-on camera the swarm can travel up, down and around the space in 3D space. Moving like fish through water, controlling the swarm is eerily gratifying.
The game's leaderboards will track important things like level times, surviving Swarmites and of course: the kill count. As you play you'll be reminded of friend's high scores and will be able to follow which of the possible Swarmite deaths you've brought about.
I really had fun with this one and look forward to hearing what you all think when the game releases! (releasing in March, date to be confirmed. Coming to PSN and XBLA)
Boosting
Button Sequence
Chasers
Collapsing Bridge
Death Medal
Death Medal 2
DNA
Explosions
Fan Jump
Pit Jumping
Point Orbs
Stack Bash
Stacking
Swarm Fly By
Swarmite Death
Swarm Plate
Throwing Bombs
Wall
Sons of Valhalla is an exceptional 2D side-scroller action game that challenges players' strategic approach and skills management.
The armadillo returns.
I personally do remember Infogrames in the years prior to merger. They really did have a portfolio that stuck out and I enjoyed. I wonder what value they see in reviving it now though?
Sony is apparently experimenting with an AI tool that will play the game for you when you are grinding away. A PlayStation patent for “auto-play” mode would simulate your gameplay style in certain environments and apply them to skip that section completely. This technology would likely be built directly into the cloud-based PlayStation Network and be a new feature that subscribers would have access to.
Hah! Either will never happen or publishers will charge you to use this AI. This concept would only exacerbate the problem we already have with GaaS.
doesnt that concept already exist tho?
buy dlc to get a ahead in games? money, weapon and exp dlc come to mind but yeh. one more thing for them.to potentially charge for.
Usually, for GaaS/Seasonal games, you'll have to perform actions to earn specific in-game currency to buy things for events. Then they sell the currency with real cash or a third-currency to then buy the in-game currency items (it's honestly truly bloated to hide that they're cheating you out of money). With this, they'll just give you items if you do something 50 times or the like and then charge you to have the game play it for you. It's better, right? No currency shenanigans, just play the game and we reward you! But, the truth is they'll inflate the amount of times you have to play through content just to get the same thing.
Why?
Why not just remove the Grindy part?
I hope it's not an excuse to make them worse, but optional if you pay
This IGN blogger mode will allow 'reviewers' to play games like rest of us.
I will never forget watching GamingBolts spoiler video for Horizon FW and realizing they never played it. Made me wonder if they play games at all.
Reminds me of those 24 hours races in gran Turismo 4 having your PlayStation play for you.
But realistically if you have to use any of these for Grundy games there's a bigger underlying problem of the game not respecting your time in the first place.
Grind for game length is a real problem in my view
Looks really cool! Great preview.
Looks great and they have an awesome track record. Thanks Cat! Some interesting news coming out of GDC, wish I was there!
This blog seems more like a story then an article about a game.