£3000 and still nobody has raised the alarm. But that’s about to change, because between Jake and the exit, there is one last guard and it’s an armed one, with a very long sight. Jake knew a few good burglars who died when encountering these guards, so he had to be careful. The second the guard turned his back to Jake, he opened the door, knocked the guard unconscious and ran for it. Sadly he hasn’t seen the flying drone, but it was too late. By the time the alarm was raised, Jake was already outside. When the police arrived, Jake was already back in his airship, planning his next heist.

The Swindle is a steampunk theft game where you break into buildings, hack the systems, steal all the cash, and quickly run away again before the (finally) police shows up. It has some rogue-like aspects, as well as RPG-elements, with a strong focus on stealth and 2D platforming

100 heists

The story isn’t it strongest point. It’s about Scotland Yard who will activate some kind of AI in 100 days and you have to stop them. You have 100 days to collect enough funds to perform your biggest heist and prevent the launch of the AI. You collect your funds by robbing places, mostly by hacking the systems. During a heist, you will meet all kind of guards, from walking bots to flying drones and crawling robots on the walls. If you manage to get back to your airship alive, you can use your cash to unlock new skills, new tools and advanced technologies and new areas. Each area has a bigger reward, but the risk is that much higher. You will need the advantage of your upgrades to get out alive with all the loot, because The Swindle has a permadeath.

If you die during a heist, your thief dies and you’ll lose all the money he was carrying. Luckily, everything you have unlocked in the airship (your hub) is transferred to your new robber. But he will die as well. Because your robbers will die by the dozens. In the beginning, it’s mostly because of your inexperience where you’ll misjudge your speed (robber 1 was killed by a guard before he managed to get away) or the height of a building (another felt to his death) or that mines do explode if you make a mistake while hacking (bye bye old grandpa robber). Later, it’s mostly because you think you can manage to get through a room full of bots (Nope). Or that you can kill a guard bot before the hunter bot turns around (again, nope). Yet, you will always come back. It’s one of those games where you’ll say “This is the last one” even though you’ve said it a dozen times.

The buildings

You will never rob the same place twice because all the buildings are randomly-generated. It’s here that The Swindle sometimes comes up short, especially in the beginning. The first level, you don’t have any upgrades, meaning you can’t hack the systems that contain a high amount of cash. The hack upgrades costs £100, so you need to collect £100 in your first heist. But all too often, the first level doesn’t contain £100, meaning you have to waste another precious day to collect enough funds to buy the hack upgrade. It wouldn’t be a problem, if it was just a single day. Sadly, too often in the first hours, you’ll come across an obstacle that you can’t conquer because you don’t have the necessary upgrade yet. Not because you spend money on another upgrade, but because the upgrade is too expensive for you to obtain it at that point in the game. It can be frustrating to find out that you can’t get back, because you don’t have the double jump upgrade yet. Or that you have to finish the heist early; because you didn’t have enough cash to buy the bombs which you need to create an opening to be able to continue further in that heist. But this minor remark will remove itself once you have bought the necessary upgrades. You just have to push through those first few hours. Another “annoyance” is that jumping sometimes feels wanky. From time to time I’m able to jump really high while a few moments before, my feet barely left the floor.

Relaxed

I, personally, am not a big fan of speed games where you have to finish your objectives within a specific time period. Even though The Swindle has a 100 days limit, it doesn’t has that “speed-run” vibe. During the heists, you can take as long as you want to finish it. The 100 days is there as a reminder, to keep you advancing, spending cash to unlock new upgrades and to push you to the new areas with their higher risk and higher rewards. Granted, if you come across a building that is unfinishable due to the problem mentioned above, it can be frustrating that you just lost a day; but you will lose more days due to your own stupidity than due to this problem. And if you are running out of time, you can always unlock the hack-terminal. Here you can convert money for 2 extra days.

Steampunk

Don’t let the minor min-points prevent you from playing the game. The Swindle really is a very good game with very nice artwork. Each area has his own artwork; the slums has dark, sober buildings. These poor men’s houses stand in strong contrast with the casinos and their bright, colourful buildings. This all in a steampunk world with a nice satisfaction for details. The flying birds with their mechanical eyes, your double jump thanks to a steam exhaust and the background of ancient steampunk London.

The Swindle is at its core a very satisfying stealth platformer that gets more rewarding with each unlocked upgrade.

9/10

Tested on PC