Welcome to our review of the turn-based puzzler called Swim Out! Relax and enjoy the swim in the lovely water!
Dive into the relaxing and refreshing atmosphere of Swim Out, a strategic, turn-based puzzle game, that will transport you on a sunny day by the swimming pool, the river or the sea. Plan each of your strokes wisely and be sure to never cross any other swimmer’s path if you want to peacefully enjoy the sea view on a cozy chaise-longue. Over 100 levels nestled in carefully crafted landscapes, soothed by the sound of seagulls, frogs or water splashes.
The tutorial is 1 simple screen, swim from left to right, leave the water and you are done! It is that simple or at least the game wants to make you think that! Enter the next level with swimmers in the pool. The game makes you restart levels upon hitting other swimmers and it becomes clear that they always have a fixed swimming pattern.
Next up, swimming balls, fixed lanes, turns in the water, water guns, buoys, … So many ways to keep you occupied! With each addition, this gets harder and harder and it changes from easy to challenging. I loved this, despite not knowing what each new item brings to the pool.
For example the swimming ball, it stops a swimmer in their moves for 3 moves so you can slip past them. It took me a few attempts to really see everything this could make me do. You can not swim across them, despite other swimmers being able to. You can only really avoid them, within 3 moves.
Also not every swimmer swims the same. There are some that swim around corners or my favorite ones, the artistic swimmers. They often stop in the middle of their movements to take a breather and then they are off again.
This game is basically the aquatic symphony version of a puzzle game, both incorporating timing, skills and pure strategy. Plan ahead or just go through all the options. When new skills or items or swimmers appear, figure out first what they do rather than jumping in.
At 6 euros, this game brings 100 strategic levels to the mix and it really starts getting interesting (read as more challenging) really quickly. I always loved games like this and while I do dislike the slower pace for the game, at the same time it does a great job at preventing you from making the wrong move too quickly because you were impatient and clicked once too many.
In conclusion, this game is cheap and fun at the same time, providing with some fun mechanics and an overall great experience, loving the ones spreading over multiple pools most of all. While this genre is not for everyone, do not be misled by the silly graphics, this game can get quite hardcore in its gameplay and should be loved for it.
My rating is 80%
