The Swapper (2013)

The Swapper is a puzzle game in the same vein as Portal, only forgoing humor and instead going with a more mysterious, darker narrative.

You control one of the last surviving crew members of the spaceship Theseus as you explore the giant ship, piecing together what happened there. You're also trying to track down another mysterious survivor. To get through the ship, you must solve puzzles and collect orbs, which then unlock certain areas of the ship with more puzzles. Where Portal utilizes the orange and blue portals, The Swapper has you solve problems with clones. Using a gun called a "swapper," you can create up to four clones of yourself, with the ability to transfer your consciousness into any one clone.

Each clone moves in concert with whichever body has the consciousness. If you move one avatar left, all the clones move to the left at equal pace. Jump? Then so does everyone else! (Something that's easy to forget when trying to place clones on switches.) The puzzles often include different kinds of lights. Red lights block your ability to "swap with" a clone. Blue lights prevent you from creating clones, though you can swap with them. Indigo lights shut down both abilities. Many puzzles have you try to figure out how to place your clones on switches that then shut off said lights and allow you to grab the orb. You can "reclaim" clones by running into them or getting them killed - something worth remembering in later puzzles - or by running through special white lights that call all the clones back.

Some of the puzzles - especially late - are extremely challenging. They do a good job building up your confidence and skill, but throw in a good number of very difficult puzzles to solve. From my experience, they ranged from taking two minutes to solve to over an hour. There was even one puzzle in particular that I simply could not figure out, and after a few days of trying an hour at a time, I reluctantly conceded to look it up online. Even then, it took me a while to truly grasp the solution! So unless you're super smart, you should be prepared to become stumped.

The story is conveyed through occasional and brief scenes where a woman across the room talks to you, or she speaks to you over the radio. More insight to what had happened is revealed through data terminals you can access throughout the ship, as well as by running into special rocks that evidently have highly functioning brain power that telepathically conveys messages to you. Narrative is revealed through exploration of the ship - almost similarly to how audio logs and radio messages do so in BioShock - while keeping you in control as much as possible.

The Swapper tackles one of the more interesting themes about clones. For most of the game, you don't think much of the cloning process. By the end, you're left wondering which clone is really you? Is it really you if you're creating a new body and transmitting your consciousness into it? What even makes you "you" to begin with? Is the consciousness, the soul? Do you lose a bit of it each time you swap? These are questions that never get answered, and perhaps you can't truly answer them anyway.

The game is challenging, fun, and engaging. It was released to much critical acclaim and with good reason. It has its own unique charm, and there are awesome puzzle and level designs (it's pretty fun and unique when you find yourself without gravity, forced to use the swapper device to propel yourself through space, or when you find yourself in places where vents can cause your clones to stand upside down on the ceiling). Reasonably priced for $10-$15, I don't know that I can recommend it enough! It fast became one of my favorites in a while.

Although, one must be patient. It's definitely harder than Portal games.