I don’t always want a game drowning me in exposition and detail, and I do want a game where I can switch my brain off and mercilessly mow down a pack of aliens trying to be subtle about my person. DarkSwarm immediately took me back to the later 00s to early 2010s and Housemarque’s earlier work before it moved on to big-budget AAA roguelites.
The twin-stick shooter’s roots can be traced back to the 1980s and earlier. One stick to move, the other to fire. DarkSwarm is a warm reminder that this genre is a blast and, when stripped down, is just completely dumb fun.
Is it Swarm in Here?
DarkSwarm is founded by Bitfire Games, described as ‘a small, nimble indie studio.’ I sat opposite Hans Oxmond, CEO of Bitfire Games, and game director, Jonas Ejby Raagaard, as we teamed up to take down alien scum.
In my haste, I locked into the mouse and keyboard and jumped the gun, not realising we were about to become the most talented team you’ve ever seen! I was briefed on DarkSwarm and its origins before we proceeded to get stuck in. My character class was packing a mean assault rifle, a pistol, and my personal favorite—the flamethrower.
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We rampaged through the corridors and open rooms of the area, aptly being swarmed by hundreds, and what felt like thousands of enemies at times. You’d get near a closed door, and it would explode open with more on-screen bugs and creatures than The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies could even dream of.
I’ve touched on Housemarque, and that’s because I adore Super Stardust, Dead Nation, and Resogun. The feel, the vibe, the sound design: It all clicks. DarkSwarm needs a bit more polish, which is fine, as it will be going into early access first, but it gave me that distinct arcade feeling I adore: My friends and I sticking together, overcome by a sense of urgency and dread with every combat encounter in tight spaces and relying on each other.
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The mission built to a scintillating climax where we had to defend our evac zone, and as you can guess, we were suffocated by aliens. and extract valuable resources through procedurally generated levels. We made it out…just. With more polish, DarkSwarm could be a wonderfully fun multiplayer option, and it’s a great arcade title that would gleefully chomp your quarters if it came to it.
Will you be trying DarkSwarm once it begins early access? Let us know what you think via the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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