Ben X

"The Swindle" from Size Five Games for PC and consoles

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I think I really have to restart, I could even afford the whatever upgrade there is to enter the locked doors in the warehouse and with the cameras in the slums my runs are pretty terrible.

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PSN as well.

 

I'm on the edge of pulling the trigger on this one. Just not sure I need another game while I've got so many I've bought in the last few weeks.

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I'd love to see the Linux port of this get finalized, FWIW. Don't you guys want in on that sweet Steambox action?  :eyebrow:

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As a renewed clarification, I was not involved in the dev of The Swindle (outside playtesting)! Re. Linux, I gather from his tweets etc that Dan really likes the idea of it but also found porting it very complex and can't justify the cost of getting anyone else in on it... SADFACE

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How on Earth do you deal with cameras? I restarted but they still seem to appear in the slums after 10 days or so.

 

I thought a bomb would deal with them, but apparently they're bomb proof? 

 

I think I messed up by buying the upgrade that lets you smash through doors instead of passage to the next level, now I'm lucky if I can even find an entrance that doesn't have mines and cameras in them.

 

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That means I have to waste two bombs from above? But I only have three and the place is crawling with cameras.

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Yep, the best way to deal with cameras is to hack them, bombs are for sticky situations with cameras.

 

The best advice I can give you is that you should always be on the most recent area you unlocked and you should be unlocking those areas as soon as you can, the cash in levels goes up exponentially. 10% of the cash from Area 2 is better than 100% of the cash from Area 1.

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A page or two back in the thread Tanukitsune moved to the new zone too quickly and didn't have the upgrades to do anything in the new zone at all, so I don't think it's quite that simple.

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The thing is I restarted the game and I'm still getting cameras in the Slums after about 10 days.

 

And there is no way I'm making enough money to get the hacking to level 3 with so much things happening in the Slums.

 

Maybe I should restart AGAIN and try to move to the next area as soon as I can afford it? At least if I keep failing I'll make a few more bucks?

 

My problem isn't getting into the level, it's making it to a computer and making it out alive, if I'm lucky enough to make inside the computers are usually under a camera I'm helpless to stop.

 

 

EDIT: I reinstalled the game and that seems to solve it? At least I'm finally in the next area and slowly progressing. This time I also messed up, but when I returned to previous area, at least I could still complete heists? 

 

EDIT EDIT: Wow, I'm at the third area and it almost doesn't matter if I'm successful anymore? The Bugs are giving me more money that I could ever make in a proper heist! 

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This game is on PS+ this month! Exciting! I've always been curious as to how games get on ps+. do you know what happened with this ben? Did sony come up and ask dan if it's ok to put their game on ps+?

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My understanding is that the terms of the contract are different each time, and developers are prohibited from discussing the terms of the contract.

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Quote

The console versions are handled by Curve, so honestly: _\O|\   or whatever that ASCII shrug thing the kidz do is.

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Been enjoying this! Reading earlier in the thread that this was very much not a stealth game changed the way I was playing it for the better. Not getting seen is still an important goal, but I'm much more comfortable running around causing anonymous mayhem. I really enjoy the variety of obstacles the game has and the variety of tools it gives you for dealing with situations that would seem impossible to get through earlier. All the bits and decisions feel very chess-like; observing how enemies move, their sight-lines, which jumps to make, when to hack drones, fire off traps, etc. The design encourages thoughtful play and I love it.

 

A criticism I have is that the game doesn't communicate well. Again, I'll point to how I had to learn how to play by reading this thread- had I not, I probably would have gotten frustrated that I kept on getting caught instead of just rolling with it. Early on, I didn't like how I didn't have a clear idea of how the upgrades worked. Also, even after 14 hours, the controls sometimes don't do what I expect them to do. I'll give the caveat that I'm using the 360 gamepad and its infamous d-pad.

 

Like I said though- 14 hours in. Still enjoying the randomized levels and excited to finish it off.

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Yeah, Dan made a decision not to "over-tutorialise" and to let players figure the rules out on their own. I think that trips some people up because they worry about the 100 day limit, but you can piss away 50 of those just learning the rules and still have a good run.

I'm glad you're enjoying the ability to upgrade so you can achieve the previously impossible - some people don't like a level including something they can't do, and put it down to bad proc gen, but it's actually a way to show the player what upgrades they should be aiming for. Some players can't bear the idea of not being able to 100% every level, which is not what the game is about.

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On 1/7/2016 at 9:43 AM, Tanukitsune said:

EDIT EDIT: Wow, I'm at the third area and it almost doesn't matter if I'm successful anymore? The Bugs are giving me more money that I could ever make in a proper heist! 

A good tip is that you can bug a computer AND hack it, so it'll still siphon off money even when the lights are off.

 

I've played 40+ hours of this, glad to see more people are trying it out ^_^

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Finished this game not too long after my last post here, but I've been letting my thoughts marinate.

 

The folks over at the Video Games Hot Dog podcast recently played the game as a group and echoed a lot of the initial criticisms I had of the game and reinforces the main thought I had of the learning curve: the game doesn't communicate what it wants of players and the possibilities and thus risks putting them off (as it did with that particular podcast crew).

 

I think there's a comparison to be made here with Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman 2016. I've played tons of the former and watched tons of the latter, but I think one of the reasons that the most recent game really hit with folks is that it communicated the game's possibilities in a way the earlier one didn't. In both the case of The Swindle and Hitman: Blood Money, I can testify that I only pushed through those bad initial impressions because I heard about the games' best parts from other people, but I did have to go outside of the games to learn that those parts existed. (I think there's also something to say about how both games are alike in that you're playing a chaotic catalyst moving through a clockwork environment.)

 

I'm not interested in saying this is good or bad design, but I think it's definitely a disservice to what is an otherwise great game.

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On 1/5/2017 at 4:41 AM, Ben X said:

I've asked Dan here, will let you know if/when he answers!

 

Well that was an informative and entertaining thread. 

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