What is a mind? Does a clone have a soul? These are big questions for a puzzle game to try to engage with, but The Swapper is a game that's willing to take a few risks. An atmospheric platformer from an independent Finnish developer, The Swapper takes some heavy themes and molds them into an engaging if short adventure that plays as well as it looks.
After you're dropped into the dimly lit 2D environment for the first time, there is a great sense of isolation. You won't be alone for long, though, because you can make yourself some new best friends. You are almost immediately given access to a handheld cloning device and the eponymous swapper--the object that makes the game more than just a simple puzzle-platformer. The cloning device does what you might expect: it lets you create a clone of yourself anywhere you have line of sight (you can't, for instance, create a clone through walls). Four of these clones can exist at a time, and all of them move the same ways you do. Move to the right, and your clones do the same. Jump and they jump. They exist like this until you touch them, absorbing them into the whole that is "you," or they die.
The swapper makes things more interesting, both in the narrative and in gameplay. It is a device that lets its user move its soul from one body to another…or does it? The plot of The Swapper, imparted by audio conversations and text entries you find throughout the game, explores whether or not any soul swapping is actually taking place--or if the soul even exists at all. It's a very philosophical tale that asks questions of belief, skepticism, science, and materialism, and it doesn't talk down to its audience when doing so.
Regardless of the metaphysical consequences, though, from a gameplay perspective, the swapper is invaluable. With a clear shot and a click of the left mouse button, you can transfer control from one body to another, allowing you to, in a way, warp around the environment and reach previously inaccessible areas. Using the swapper, things like large gaps and high platforms are not much of a problem. Simply drop a clone where you need to go, and then swap to it.
Things are complicated by the existence of colored lights scattered throughout the world. Areas covered in blue light prevent clone creation (though clones can walk into the light without issue), while red light blocks the swapper's beam, preventing you from jumping between clones. Purple light predictably has both downsides, making it a real pain to deal with. While there is no satisfying narrative explanation for why things work this way, these lights are one of your primary concerns in most puzzles in the game, and working around them is where you find most of the challenge.
Aside from lights, there are a few other wrenches thrown into the environment to keep puzzles fresh throughout The Swapper, including areas that involve reversing gravity on a clone-by-clone basis. With a few exceptions, none of these obstacles make the puzzles mind-crushingly difficult to solve, but they are usually tricky enough to make you feel clever for conquering them, and each puzzle is different enough from the one before it that things never get too monotonous. Therefore, the game strikes a good balance between being challenging enough to require work, but not too difficult to make it unapproachable.
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