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Hubert Spala

SWARM GRINDER

 

When Vampire Survivor came out I became one of those unfortunate instant addicts. The poor souls lost to the developer's expertise in managing focus and engagement. Specialty which the dev took from their extensive time working for online casinos. One could think I would be less prone to being hooked myself, given the fact that I also work for the casino industry. But alas, there are no ways to be immunized to such clever tricks! Vampire Survivors was a massive hit.


To such a degree that it is by many considered a father of the genre - Bullet Heavens or survivor-likes. While it is hardly correct - those genres existed long before - it was indeed Vampire Survivors' meteoric success that handled that genre revival. Nowadays clones of the concept are a dime a dozen. And so, when the competition in the market is so fierce, you can go two ways to achieve some degree of success. Either invent something new and fresh within the genre. Or be a very well-executed example of it.


And the best thing you can do is reach for both, at least to some degree. SWARM GRINDER in my eyes managed to be both. A great representative of the Bullet Heaven core ideas as well as bringing enough freshness to the table to not be accused of being a blatant copy. The setup is quite straightforward - you work for the nebulous Company. Or for your outfit. It's never specified in any hard way and it doesn't matter much. You pilot a robot that is half a mining drone, and half a war machine. You descend the dark caves and tunnels to excavate rare materials, and find remnants of ancient machines… and previous expeditions. All that when the ever-growing hordes of some nasty bugs take grave offense to your very presence. And so, feel within their rights to do everything within their power to excise you from their domain.

Yet you have a job to do and you won't let some bugs keep you away from your goals! And so, you start a run, a cycle, in which you will do the usual trappings of the genre… Albeit with interesting twists. For once, you don’t automatically gain experience that level you up and offer upgrades of any kind. What falls out of obliterated bugs is Fuel - your very lifeblood that powers your machine. To gain new weapons and powers ups you need to scour the map in search of mineable locations, which you must clear of obstacles so the Higher Ups - in this case, folks above the surface - can drop you an extractor that will bring you some upgrades to pick from. This is the first shift to the formula that is very welcomed. It makes sure that staying in motion and trying to explore the entirety of the area is more or less a must.


The aforementioned fuel is also a great little design tweak. Your robot consumes fuel at a steady rate which increases whenever you take an upgrade. Sometimes by quite a lot! But as each upgrade increases your killing power and thus reduces time to clear hordes, the game (heh!) fuels the combat loop by making sure you cannot take extensive pauses between engagements. In the most literal sense, you need enemies. You need their dead bodies to keep dropping you Fuel, because if you avoid combat for too long - and with enough updates it’s hardly a long time at all! - you will run dry. Collecting excess fuel is rewarded as well, as you can have more than your tanks can hold, be at max and beyond, and achieving that state boosts your combat prowess for a bit of time. It’s a well-thought-out loop that makes sure you keep acting in a very specific, dynamic way. You need to explore. You need to be in motion. And you need to squash alien bugs at an ever-increasing pace. Lovely stuff!


As the title suggests, the game progresses in a rather… Steady way. One could say that it is a bit of a grind. While there is progression between runs and quite a solid bit of it, it does come with a bit of a trickle. You collect special stones in your runs to buy passive stat upgrades. You can find components for your bots on ancient robots found within the caves and tunnels, but they do need to be repaired to function. And even then you might not have a slot available on your machine yet to use them.

Those unlock by finishing particular challenges, different per robot, that ask for quite specific feats to be performed and achieved. It took me a couple of hours to unlock my second robot and some items to edit my build. So if you’re looking for an experience that feeds you a steady drip of new items, new characters, and rewards left and right, this is not going to do it for you. It is a slower burn, but the unlocks are solid, always feeling impactful in one way or another.


It's important to add that the game looks and sounds pretty good! The tunes are a bit on the heavier side, which matches the grim, brown, and grey aesthetics. After all, we are in the dark, dank underbelly of the planet, fighting endless swarms. The biggest plus is its reactiveness to changing situations. It escalates greatly during tough encounters and whenever a swarm hits with an unleashed horde it cranks up to eleven. The weapons sound great as well.


As a fan of this re-emergent genre, I must say I am having a good time with SWARM GRINDER. It has enough freshness to its core components that it feels different from its contemporaries. Not in some dramatic and exciting way, but still fresh enough to stand out. It managed that most important bit of the game of its kind - the desire to play another run after ending the last one is high. I do want to roll again, I do want to try the challenge I need to cross off my list to unlock another bot item slot again! I need to, damn it. The Company's bottom line depends on my hard work after all. And so, I am more than happy to roll my sleeves up, get grease on my hands, and bug entrails under my thread.


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