The Indie Informer

As fun to say as to play, Zwaard is a gem I tripped right over to my utter delight. Its story introduction hits uncomfortably close to home right now. A giant corporation offers a technological advancement guaranteed to revolutionize human life, for a reasonable fee and unfettered access to your biodata, of course. Blinded by the possibilities, the world races towards the chance to give up everything it has. Now, everything stands in ruins.

What happens between dreaming of a bright future and the seeming fall of humanity? I don’t know. I’m dropped into the post-apocalyptic world as a character who, while looking human, is certainly not.

My hands-on time is first filled with exploring a ruined underground railway, slicing hostile robots with a sword I craft from scavenged parts. Landing melee hits fills a bar that represents ammo for a laser-like ranged weapon. And dashing is otherwise the best strategy.

Always a fan of secrets, a hidden nook reveals an environmental tale of death and struggle. It doesn’t radicalize my experience, but grounds it in the suffering that must have taken place before I arrived. This is easy to lose track of among the alluring pixel art, which suffuses the crumbling world with a wondrous glow.

I don’t know where my quest in Zwaard will take me, or even why I’m undertaking it, but I’m in too deep not to follow it to the end.