The Therapist Gamer

The Swapper is a puzzle game available on a variety of platforms, but I of course played it on the PlayStation Vita.  It has a 2.5D perspective (playing on a 2D plane with 3D graphics).  The first few puzzles are quite reasonable but the later ones will challenge even the most devoted puzzle solvers.

 

The puzzle mechanic is quite unique - your character has a gun which allows him to create up to four clones of himself.  You control all of the characters on screen at the same time - if you create two clones and walk to the right then you and your two clones will walk to the right.  This lends itself well to puzzles because while one clone is walking into a wall another may be walking across the room - you need to think ahead about where the clones will end up if they are on different terrain.

 

Your clone-generating gun has another feature - you can inhabit any clone you can reach with your gun.  Just shoot your gun at a clone and you'll take it over; your previous body then becomes a clone.  This is useful in a variety of ways.  For example, if you fall from too high then your character will die;  however, it's possible (and frequently necessary!) to create a clone right before you hit the ground and then swap into it.  Your old body will die but your new body will only have fallen from a few inches, so it's fine.  This type of technique is made possible by time slowing down dramatically whenever you use your gun.

 

The most common additional puzzle elements are red and blue lights.  You can't shoot your clone gun through blue lights, and you can't shoot "swapper rays" through red lights.  In other words, there are specific times and places where you need to adapt your techniques in order to progress.

 

These puzzle mechanics are used to reach a variety of places and objects, with the ultimate objective of collecting enough of a certain material to leave the remote space station on which you are trapped.  The gameplay elements also contribute to an interesting (and slightly perplexing) aspect of the story - the nature of consciousness.  The game waxes philosophical at times about whether or not a clone can have consciousness just because it's capable of moving on it's own.  Are you even a person anymore?  After all the swapping you do throughout the game into and out of clones, this is a reasonable question!  

 

Overall, I thought the game was very well made and quite fun!  If you are up for the challenge, I'd recommend giving it a go.