The Swapper Reviews

Broken and unplayable, do not buy.

The Swapper is the kind of game that messes with your brain—in the best way possible. This indie gem blends eerie sci-fi storytelling with mind-bending puzzle mechanics, all wrapped in a beautifully handcrafted, unsettling atmosphere. The central gimmick? A cloning device that lets you create copies of yourself and swap control between them. Simple? At first. Existentially horrifying? Absolutely. The puzzles are brilliantly designed, constantly making you rethink space, identity, and what it means to be “you.” The haunting soundtrack and lonely, oppressive setting make every step through the abandoned space station feel like a philosophical journey. It’s short but unforgettable, offering one of the most unique puzzle experiences in gaming. Play it if you love atmospheric storytelling, clever mechanics, and questioning your own existence by the end credits.

Very good puzzles. Actually quite relaxing, especially with the music.

The story was amazing. HOWEVER! There were three issues that made this game nearly unplayable. 1) I could only get the game to run with an xbox controller. Nothing else worked. 2) This game does not use the Steam Cloud to backup save information. I got a new computer 5 hours into the game, and I had to manually move my save over. This was very annoying, but the part that I got stuck on was that the save file was under Facepalm Games instead of Swapper. Every one of my games names their save data folders after the game itself. I thought I would have to start all over, but I eventually figured that out. I don't think it would be that hard to enable the Steam Cloud. However, I'm pretty sure the developers have long since forgotten about this game. There are a handful of other bugs people have been begging to be fixed, but it's been over 10 years since its release and no dice. 3) Achievements make your game crash. That should not happen. Every time this game has to call to Steam to notify it of the achievement, the game will hard lock. Either you can do the achievements but not get the lore, OR you can play offline and not get the achievement. Ultimately, I think playing this game was worth it for me, but I REALLY like sci-fi and puzzle games. The story is super compelling. However, actually playing this game was far too much work than I would ever hope to see in a video game. Based on the community discussions, there are a lot of other bugs and issues that make finishing the game impossible. Unless you have the patience or the luck to see it through, don't waste your time.