Swarm 2 VR Review - A Virtual Reality Grappling Action Shooter
I’ve never played the first Swarm, though that game is extremely highly rated on the Meta Quest store, so it’s likely pretty good. If you’re looking for a review of Swarm 2 that takes the first game into account, well I’m sorry but this isn’t that Review.
I’ll be looking at Swarm 2 by itself and on its own merits here. Oh, and I did receive a review copy of this game from the developers, though I always do my best to avoid letting that sway my opinions in reviews. Still, big thanks to the folks over at Greensky Games for sending a key my way.
So how would I summarize Swarm 2? If you’ve only got one minute to know something about it from this review then this is all I’d say to you.
Swarm 2 is a fast paced action shooter where most of your movement is done by grappling hook. It’s a little frustrating at first to get the hang of, but when the stars align and you have the skill to swing yourself around like Spiderman and you’re flying through the air effortlessly while blasting robots out of the sky you feel like a god. This VR action game is intense and insanely fun if you want to master the movement system.
If you want to know why this is, and more about the game, then join me in this Swarm 2 VR Review.
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Swarm 2 VR Review - The Movement
The movement in Swarm 2 is the most unique and important part of the game, so let’s talk about that first.
You can move in a few different ways. You have the ability to launch yourself across the map towards enemies, or very slowly towards a piece of terrain. You can also use your left joystick to dash in midair and change the direction you’re headed.
Mostly you use the grappling hooks attached to your guns on either hand. The grappling and the physics surrounding it are not only the main features of Swarm 2 but also where it really shines.
Blasting robots at high speeds is what Swarm 2 is all about.
Grappling to an object will make you swing around it, and the closer the grapple the tighter the swing. You can also generate some force by pulling your grappling hand away from the line attaching it to the object to create some tension. This will make you swing faster.
It’s a pretty straightforward system on paper, and paired with the dash abilities, is comprehensible even when just beginning the game. Though as I mentioned at the beginning of this review it’s in mastering this movement system that the game feels really satisfying.
When you’re playing Swarm 2 just right it is an amazing experience. Going fast and catapulting yourself to where you’re trying to go is hard and so it feels good when you pull it off. You can build up insane speed really quickly and zoom across the map almost effortlessly… until you run into a wall and lose all of your momentum. Then the ten missiles chasing you blow up in your face.
Destroying a robot in Swarm 2.
That’s the downside of Swarm 2, it can feel kind of frustrating. While getting a handle on the controls isn’t hard, learning the tricks of how to swing yourself around to where you want to go is.
I’m not saying that the movement should be easier. The fact that it takes skill to know how to swing yourself accurately and with speed is the core of what makes Swarm 2 fun. What I’m saying is that swinging along happily while blasting with your guns to be interrupted by slamming into a wall and suddenly panicking desperately for a way to keep moving is a little frustrating when you’re first getting a handle on the game.
Should you ever play Swarm 2 I recommend that you abuse the dash abilities a lot to give you some height and get you closer to terrain that you can swing around easily with your grapple. Grappling an enemy and swinging around them while shooting them is another easy and very effective tactic.
There are also a ton of maps in this game, and each gives you interesting geometry to swing around. The map variety is only going to get better according to the developers, but even with the review copy, there were many to play.
Each map has different movement challenges, obstacles, and opportunities to use the objects on the map to swing around. One or two felt a little limiting, and some are very prone to devolving into your character bouncing off of walls and ceilings, but overall they’re very good.
Swarm 2’s movement is very fun but very skill based. Even after playing the game for quite a while, I’d occasionally get frustrated with it, but in the end, every mistake I made was ultimately my fault. When all of the pieces clicked and I was swinging around like a futuristic gun toting Spiderman the experience was absolutely amazing. If you want a Virtual Reality movement shooter to really sink your teeth into there is a lot to master in Swarm 2.
Using a special weapon to one shot an enemy in Swarm 2.
Swarm 2 VR Review - The Shooting
Of course, all of that movement serves purposes in the game, and though there is a free roam mode where you can just experiment risk free with swinging and dashing, most of the game combines that with fighting a variety of robots.
You can shoot constantly as long as you’re holding down the trigger. Each bullet does low damage, but they shoot very quickly and there’s no ammunition counter or overheating meter on your weapons, at least the basic pistols you usually have. There are special weapons that are extremely powerful with limited ammunition, but we’ll get into that more when we talk about progression.
You use your pistols to blast robots out of the sky, and the robots are almost constantly spawning as you clear the level, though there’s an upper limit to how many will be around at a time until you get rid of some of them. So you’re not on a timer to clear them out as quickly as possible, but in the later levels, a lot will be present at the same time.
A ton of enemies around at once in Swarm 2.
Of course, you’ll want to blast robots away as quickly as possible, because they’ll be constantly attacking you if they can.
Their attacks vary between ramming you or shooting missiles and lasers. Some shoot with lasers which are beams that predict your path before firing, and some with bolts of energy that also try to predict your path. Missiles follow you slowly and explode in an area of effect. The only way to stop a missile is to trick it into hitting a wall or shooting it.
You have health and shields that can be regenerated with pickups, but you want to avoid getting hit as much as possible. The best way to do that is to move erratically, quickly, or both.
You also want to avoid moving too close to enemies, though you can melee them for big damage by flying into them. This is sometimes more dangerous than effective though.
So the enemies you fight in Swarm 2 all directly incentivize you as a player to master the movement system. By constantly moving you’re under less threat, and so the enemy design and the design of the movement work together in tandem to make you want to move fast and move constantly.
Larger enemy robots have glowing weak points on them in Swarm 2.
There are also enemies that have glowing weak spots on them. Break all of the weak spots and the enemy becomes vulnerable to your damage and will go down quickly, but until you break them they will take much reduced damage.
So you’re further incentivized to shoot at the more advanced enemies from several different angles to break the weak spots before destroying them. This gives you a reason to move in a certain direction instead of just wherever is convenient.
If you want to destroy that big robot that keeps firing salvos of missiles at you you’re going to need to use your movement skills to zoom over to the other side of it and break the last weak spot before really letting it have it.
Once more the enemy design and the movement mechanics work together in Swarm 2, forcing you to try to figure out how to move in a certain way in order to deal maximum damage. All while keeping your eye on enemies, shooting at them, and avoiding being hit.
Enemies also drop shield batteries and shards when destroyed. If you’re low on health they’ll drop health capsules as well. So if you’re taking hits you also have to figure out how to get over to those drops before they disappear so that you can take more hits and survive in the future. Those shards are important as well, and I’ll talk about them soon in this review.
Swarm 2 isn’t content to just make you move quickly and often, it also wants you to move to specific places at specific times. In that way, the design of this VR game is simple, but elegant in how it keeps you from just swinging around the map in the same path that is optimal for speed and distance.
The one complaint that I have is that enemies will often spawn right behind you, so suddenly you’ll get hit from an area that you thought was safe but is suddenly littered with opponents. A louder sound cue when enemies are spawning near you would be nice to give you a chance to react before you take hits.
The first boss in the Swarm 2 roguelike game mode.
Now for the ultimate enemies, the bosses. The first time you make it far enough to fight a boss it’s pretty epic. The boss has weak points on the front and back of it that regenerate, oh and it’s a giant robot too, which looks pretty sweet.
You have to break enough weak points before they regenerate so that the boss becomes vulnerable. Some enemies will spawn and you have some time to deal a ton of damage to the boss before it recovers. Rinse and repeat until either you or the boss are destroyed.
The disappointing thing about the three bosses is that they’re all variants of the same giant robot. While they do have some significant differences in the enemies they spawn and their attacks, it would have been nice to see a little more creativity in the boss design. Each being a similar giant robot felt a little uninspired.
That’s not to say they’re entirely boring, however. My favorite has to be the second boss, which can light you on fire. You’ll constantly take damage before flinging yourself into a nearby waterfall to put the fire out. So maybe I’m being nitpicky in terms of creativity as that’s a very cool idea.
The second boss in the Swarm 2 roguelike gamemode.
Swarm 2 VR Review - The Progression
That covers the game mechanics, but what about everything that surrounds that? Let’s talk about the different game modes of Swarm 2.
The main game mode, and the one you’ll likely be tackling first, is a roguelike game mode. Virtual Reality gaming might have too many roguelikes, but to be honest, the gameplay of Swarm 2 might not have lent itself to be great as a more linear experience with preset and predesigned challenges. Though if there were a series of hand crafted Swarm 2 levels I’d be very happy to play them. Hopefully future updates to the story will add something like this.
The roguelike section has the usual drawbacks of roguelikes, mostly that playing the early levels feels like a waste of time when you’ve already become good at the game and just want to get to the challenging parts later on. Swarm 2 does make each run pretty fast though, so you won’t have to wait for too long. If you make it all the way to the end you can beat the game in under thirty minutes.
Even beating the game doesn’t feel quite like completing the game, because there are multiple difficulty modes and even a leaderboard if you want to try and go for the highest score in the world. There are also other game modes than the roguelike one, which we’ll get to soon in this Swarm 2 review.
Swarm 2 works adequately well as a roguelike, and the progression system leans into that. After each level in a run, you get a choice between upgrades to pick. I wouldn’t say that the choices I picked influenced how I played too much though. Regardless of your perks, avoiding being hit and destroying robots as quickly as possible are always the best ideas.
Blasting incoming missiles out of the sky in Swarm 2.
Some perks are obviously better than others. Having slightly more shield capacity is clearly not as good as a chance to just ignore damage coming your way. Shooting faster is always better than doing more damage per shot because so many other perks trigger each time you do damage, and your guns are so accurate and fast firing that how much damage you deal is more dependent on how long you stay on target than the accuracy of each shot.
It’s still satisfying to create good perk combinations during a run and then see them in action though, and there are still some general choices on whether or not you focus more on defense or perks that deal damage versus perks that debuff your opponents. It’s not a brainless system, but some perks are just clearly inferior to others.
Another form of progression happens whenever you complete a run. Each time there is a chance for you to unlock more perks to appear during your later attempts, and also special weapons that may spawn.
Special weapons are very powerful and a ton of fun. Each has limited ammunition before being replaced by your basic pistol again. Getting a special weapon makes you feel extremely powerful for a short period of time. They also make you pick your shots a little more carefully and tactically so that you make the most out of their ammunition, which is a nice change of pace from constantly blasting with your infinite ammo pistols.
The special weapons are a good addition to the game, though I do wish they would spawn a little more often to add some more variety to your offensive capabilities. Most of your attacks will still be done with your pistols, which are an exercise in holding down the trigger.
Using the Minigun special weapon to mow down robots in Swarm 2.
Oh, and remember those shards I mentioned earlier? Collecting them lets you unlock upgrades over time, some of which are very powerful. Mostly they just give you some more options and make you more survivable.
So you do get some progression through each attempt, and more options become available as you go through the game. The progression is pretty solid, and while each run won’t feel different you will get a better handle on these systems over time. The real progression of Swarm 2 is the skills that you learn along the way. Mastering the movement helps more and is far more satisfying than incremental upgrades to health or shields.
In addition to the roguelike main mode and free roam there’s also an arcade challenge mode. In Arcade mode, the focus is more on destroying enemies as quickly as possible for points than staying alive. That’s because in Arcade mode you’re on a timer, and the overall goal is to get the highest score possible.
It’s a great way to practice certain maps or try to get your name on the leaderboard for that map in particular.
My top leaderboard position will not last long.
There are some more modes on the way that I didn’t get a chance to try with my prerelease review copy, namely something called “Challenge Mode.” More maps are slated to be added to the game as well.
There’s also an in-game story planned to be added, so hopefully your character will say something other than the one or two cheesy lines he constantly spouts every once in a while.
Anyhow that’s all for this Swarm 2 review. In summary, the movement system of grappling and dashing is what makes this a great game, and how the game forces you to use these systems to move quickly and decisively in certain directions on the map while utilizing that map’s geometry to pull it off. The progression and perk system isn’t extremely clever or in-depth, and so mastering the movement is really where the fun of this game comes at you with full force.
Swarm 2 is available on the Meta Quest and Pico platforms. Enjoy!
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