Check out our Monthly Survey Page to see what our users are running.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Turns out The Swindle has a Linux beta, a short review

By - | Views: 11,615

Thanks to Playstation Plus, I’m given a handful of free games to try out on my PS4 each month. Amongst last month’s bundle was a fascinating game called The Swindle [Steam, Official Site]. After playing for 10 minutes, I was hooked. After playing for an hour, I was turfed off “my” PS4 by my impatient children.

Curious, about the game, I looked it up on Steam. It’s available for Windows and OSX only, sadly, but as always when I see two out of three platforms supported, I head to the community page, click into the Discussion tab and search for “Linux”. When I did so, this thread obviously leapt out:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/369110/discussions/1/535152511365554576/

Long story short, The Swindle has a beta Linux client! Even better, it appears to have been well tested since its initial launch back in August 2015 and the most recent feedback is all extremely positive.



Encouraged, I took the plunge, bought the game, and started playing in Big Picture mode with my Steam Controller. After nearly 12 hours of play, I can happily report that this “beta” is nearly completely bug-free. In actual fact, the only bug I did catch was that if you pause the game long enough for your Steam Controller to go to sleep, it’s sometimes not detected by the game when you turn it back on again - hardly a huge issue! That said, you might want to turn off the "Bloom" effect in the video options - it's definitely more pronounced on the Linux version than the PS4.


So what’s The Swindle all about? Try to imagine a SteamPunk-based version of Mark of the Ninja and you’ll be some of the way there, although The Swindle features random level generation, so no two games are the same.

The basic premise is that you have 100 days to swoop down from your Airship in a drop pod and steal as much loot as you can to continually increase your security clearance until you have a chance at robbing the police themselves! Why the time limit? Because in 100 days, the police will have ready their new nanny-state Artificial Intelligence "The Devil's Basilisk" and will bring it online across the city, ending any hope of future heists. You intend to steal the blueprints before this can happen, ending the threat directly.



To help you, your airship has a shop that will help you power up your never-ending stream of randomly generated crooks with abilities like double or even triple jump, wall sliding, short term invisibility, stealth, bombs, remote detonators, increased strength, or even, ultimately, teleportation.

The bombs are worth noting too - nearly every block in the level is destructible, meaning that if you’re carrying enough bombs (and have ideally upgraded their blast radius), you aren’t constrained by any given level's doors and corridors. You have full control over which paths you take and which you’ll simply make. It’s amazingly fun to scale all the way over a building, bypassing reams of defences, then blasting your way in from the rear of the building!

I've recorded five minutes of game play to give you a taste of the early game. It doesn't, however, end well...
 

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link


The controls are crisp and precise as you leap, zap, hack and wall slide around levels, clubbing the robot sentries as you visit banking terminal after banking terminal, racking up huge sums of money from each day’s heist. You are rewarded experience multipliers to your haul for consecutive heists in which your hero (sorry, crook) survives.

Although the levels are randomly generated, the sentry movement is largely scripted, dependent upon which type of sentry robot you face. Combined with those tight controls and lack of a time limit (assuming you haven’t tripped any alarms) means that this is one of those rarest of games in which, if you die, you have no one to blame but yourself.

And if you do trip an alarm, it's not game over - you have a short period before the police arrive in force. When they do, you'll have a struggle on your hands to make it back to your dropship as more and more police bots arrive at the scene.

In short, The Swindle is hugely compelling. Each 100 day run will take around 3-4 hours and I'm on my fourth run already after just a few days. The sheer variety of upgrades means that each run can see a different set of capabilities, depending on how you spend your money. I’ll be playing for hours yet and wholly recommend that you give this gem a chance.
 

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
10 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I'm Neil, an avid Linux user since 2006 and a Linux-only gamer since 2013. I used to contribute to GOL's Funding Crowd articles, but now contribute the odd article directly, most recently the Play It Now series, and the IYL articles.

I also occasionally dabble a bit in Python, I do Internet Security for a living and finally, I'm a big fan of Neil Degrasse Tyson. And not just because he has a cool first name.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
13 comments
Page: «2/2
  Go to:

scaine Mar 26, 2017
View PC info
  • Contributing Editor
  • Mega Supporter
Well, I've played a bit more now and I've discovered one further bug - playing with an Xbox360 controller "works" but with the condition that the analogue thumbsticks don't work in menus. You have to use the D-Pad. Worse, up is down and down is up!

Still, you'll only use the menu, generally, to start/exit the game, so it's not the end of the world. Odd that the Steam Controller is unaffected through, given that I'm using an Xbox360 configuration on it!
Cheeseness Mar 26, 2017
Quoting: scaineWell, I've played a bit more now and I've discovered one further bug - playing with an Xbox360 controller "works" but with the condition that the analogue thumbsticks don't work in menus. You have to use the D-Pad. Worse, up is down and down is up!
Do you get this with the main branch? IIRC one has the menu inverted and the other doesn't - it's been a while and I don't have it installed at the moment to check.
scaine Mar 26, 2017
View PC info
  • Contributing Editor
  • Mega Supporter
Quoting: Cheeseness
Quoting: scaineWell, I've played a bit more now and I've discovered one further bug - playing with an Xbox360 controller "works" but with the condition that the analogue thumbsticks don't work in menus. You have to use the D-Pad. Worse, up is down and down is up!
Do you get this with the main branch? IIRC one has the menu inverted and the other doesn't - it's been a while and I don't have it installed at the moment to check.

I'll give the main branch a go when I get a chance. I'm definitely on the LinuxBeta branch though.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.