Game review: The Swindle leaves players feeling cheated
Platform actioner has the right ideas but fails in its execution
Gaming has its trends, and a recent one has been the procedurally generated or "rogue-like" indie game. You could go back over the decades picking out examples of this design technique, but the big inspiration for this modern flowering is the success of Spelunky. A 2D platformer that married Nintendo-quality controls with brilliant enemies and ever-changing environments, it's not only a classic but shows why the technique is so attractive to small teams. A procedurally generated game can, if you get it right, keep surprising players for years and even decades to come.
The Swindle is firmly in this lineage, a treasure-focused platformer with an emphasis on stealth and an overarching structure that gives each individual "run" its own importance. Playing as a succession of thieves in a world of steampunk Victoriana, your goal is to filch enough cash to upgrade your thieves' capabilities, access new areas and steal a new crime-busting invention from the police before 100 days are up. Each heist takes one day, and if you die, then that's that - the cash is lost, the day is wasted, and you move on to the next thief (who have great names: a particular favourite was the short-lived Pleasant Undercarriage.)
The best thing about The Swindle, around which everything pivots, is the tension between greed and safety. Anything will kill you in one hit and so every day's level is an exercise in seeing just how far you can push your luck - when you have enough cash to get your next upgrade, but are looking at a heavily defended room with a cash-stuffed computer inside, it's a real decision. Personally I'm a "you only live once" kind of thief, which is why I have an achievement for dying while in possession of 100 per cent of a level's money.