The Swindle Reviews
The Swindle creates a challenging environment for fans of the rogue-like game genre, with a wide variety of ways to achieve heists for maximum profit.
An immensely satisfying mix of platforming, stealth, action, and resource management, with character.
Fast-paced stealth set to a ticking clock makes this a procedural platformer to savour.
It's hard to fully recommend a game with inconsistent controls, but The Swindle is awfully close to being excellent. There are a huge number of enemies with different behaviors and the randomized level generator is more than happy to put multiple kinds together in ways that require different strategies to handle.
The Swindle is a minor diversion at best, without the comic timing or cunning to turn anyone to a life of crime. A weekend of crime, perhaps, at most.
It's hugely clever, chaotic and funny, though there are downsides in the implementation of randomly generated stages and in some technical glitches and flaws. Despite some issues the premise, presentation, music and gameplay all work well together, making this a steal on the Wii U - just not the great heist it could have been.
A stylish new take on the indie stealth genre, The Swindle doesn't have the chops to compete with the very best, but manages to be addictive and likable enough to succeed on its own merit.
A clever spin on the Spelunky style of randomly-generated platformer, and although it asks a lot of its players its rewards are worth the effort.
The Swindle is nowhere near an entirely negative experience. It's a festival of moments, of anecdotes filled with failures and smiles. I found myself holding my breath as I hacked a computer with just enough time to dodge three heavy guards coming my way, jumped over two electricity traps, clung to a wall to let a patrol pass, and bombed myself a new escape route. These pockets of perfection kept me hooked, and made me boot up The Swindle again and again in order to preserve this world of rogues. That, and my dedication to you guys. Now, the Devil's Basilisk is for all of us to share. You're goddamned welcome.
The story laid within the game doesn't drive the game, but that's okay because there's plenty of rogue-like goodness waiting to be found inside of Size Five Games procedurally generated steampunk heist simulator.
They say that crime never pays, but in The Swindle you can come out ahead if you play your cards right. In this madcap steampunk rendition London, a city of ludicrous buildings filled with robots and traps, the key is learning how to quit while you're ahead. It's all too easy to slip up and foolishly get spotted – and yes, the occasional glitch or quirk of procedural generation can feel unfair – but it makes each success all the more tense and rewarding.
The Swindle is a game that many will end up playing for months to come. The gameplay is the perfect combination of stealth and action, and its difficulty, while brutal, is satisfying. Size Five Games, and publisher Curve Digital, have created an addictive game that needs to be played by anyone who loves a good challenge. Throw in cross-buy and cross-save compatibility, and you'll never leave your house without The Swindle in pocket.
My time with The Swindle was littered with failure. I blame myself for plenty of those attempts, but the game roots against you in a way that's nearly unrivaled in the past two decades of video games. Not since the Wet Bandits attempted to invade the McCallister residence has burglary gone so laughably wrong. Yet still, it had its moments and surely there are those that will appreciate this sort of beating more than I did. Perhaps it hearkens back to a time when games didn't hold our hands as much, and if that's the case, perhaps I've been coddled by quick-time events and cutscenes that do the hard stuff for me. I don't believe that's the case, though. 2015 is my 20th year as a gamer and I have played few games that challenge your patience as much as The Swindle. Maybe the game's robots have achieved sentience and human-like emotions. That would explain all the menacing satisfaction they seem to derive out of my failure.
Everything adds up to a game with good ideas that is sorely lacking in refinement – the punitive flaws of The Swindle's meta-structure and procedural generation could have been ameliorated with minor tweaks. This feels 80% of the way to a great game, but that missing 20% soon comes to dominate the rest.
Size Five's The Swindle has come to Nintendo Switch but a new console can't fix the same old frustrating controls
I don't think this game is for those new to the genre, but if you're a fan of rogue-likes and crave something super challenging, then you may just want to take a swipe at The Swindle.
The Swindle isn't a revolution in terms of stealth games, but it does offer a compelling challenge for those seeking it.
[D]on't let [the score] deter you if you enjoy other games like Spelunky or even Mark of the Ninja. If that's the case then The Swindle could quite possibly be just the game for you.
The Swindle is a solid game, but it's a swag bag short of our full recommendation. As a title to play over a weekend – or between other games with more substance – it can't really be knocked, but don't expect to be feeling light fingered forever. This is a cunning con, a solid swizz – but it's been robbed of crime of the century status.