Swigian

by Mathbrush (as Rainbus North) profile

2017

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Reviews and Ratings

5 star:
(7)
4 star:
(16)
3 star:
(9)
2 star:
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Average Rating:
Number of Ratings: 32
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- Ms. Woods, July 26, 2023

- bkirwi, January 23, 2023

- VanishingSky (Nanjing, China), August 9, 2022

- Kinetic Mouse Car, August 4, 2022

- Vulturous, April 26, 2022

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The lake is still..., March 19, 2022
by Rovarsson (Belgium)

Stark, dry, rhythmic prose.

Dark, hazy, evocative art.

The whole becomes more than its parts.

Unseen others stalk you on your descent.

An otherwordly realm.


(inspired by the Adventuron-port
of the game)

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- wisprabbit (Sheffield, UK), June 10, 2021

- Durafen, March 20, 2021

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Extraordinary and unique, March 14, 2021

Swigian has a limited vocabulary, a limited range of expression, at every level: the text level, the story level, the gameplay level. This doesn't sound promising, but in the end it's the key to making this game extraordinary and unique.

Descriptions could not be shorter. Things are named with simple words, but there are almost no adjectives, and no details besides the things that there are. "It is what it is". The character doesn't like to describe things, so he gives them unambiguous names. But, despite this sparse and precise language, there is an amazing degree of ambiguity, because of the lack of details. A name may be enough to understand how to use a thing, but not enough to understand what it is.

The story is also full of fog and ambiguity. The narrator knows what they are and what they need, but they never explain it to the player. Fantastic worlds are generally over-explained, particulary in games, where you need to manipulate them; but in Swigian, the world is wonderfully under-explained. Players don't know what they face, or why they have to do the things they do. The puzzles are simple, but intuitive instead of logical. This heightens the myth-like feeling.

And the limited vocabulary of the text also fits perfectly with a limited parser with very few available options. That is of great help to players not very good at parser, like me.

My only complaint is that I wish it was longer, with more puzzles. I wish I could play a longer game like this.

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- J. J. Guest (London, England), December 20, 2020

- xkia, November 16, 2020

- Zape, July 22, 2020

- nf, February 18, 2020

- Jacic, November 8, 2019

- Bartlebooth, July 21, 2019

- ramada, July 16, 2019

- jakomo, July 16, 2019

- Denk, August 27, 2018

- Sobol (Russia), August 27, 2018

- dgtziea, May 9, 2018

- IFforL2 (Chiayi, Taiwan), March 31, 2018

Dhakajack

In the Epic Age, heroes didn’t ramble on, they just did stuff. In this game, that’s how it works. Why? Because that is how it is done. Period.

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- E.K., November 19, 2017

- tekket (Česká Lípa, Czech Republic), November 17, 2017

- Karl Ove Hufthammer (Bergen, Norway), November 17, 2017


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