As an avid technophile, I often find myself wondering how certain events within books I’ve read, video games I’ve played, and even world history in general, might change if humanity had developed increasingly advanced technology at earlier points in history. To provide a very specific example, consider what might have taken place if modern-day instantaneous communication networks had existed during World War I.

Perhaps in that scenario, the infamous “Zimmermann Telegram” wouldn’t have been intercepted and consequently ended up drastically altering the course of the war. I think the game I’d like to discuss today is another considerable example of this thought experiment of mine. The game in question is The Swindle, developer Size Five Games’ 2015 release.

According to the small amount of exposition with which the game presents you, The Swindle is set in an alternate, steampunk version of London in the year 1849. In this alternate version of history, every nation on Earth is far more technologically advanced than the world was in that same year. Scotland Yard has just completed development of its ultimate device, an artificial intelligence which it calls “The Devil’s Basilisk.”

Scotland Yard plans to officially deploy the Devil’s Basilisk exactly one hundred days from the point at which the game’s events begin. You most assuredly do not want the Devil’s Basilisk to be successfully deployed, as its surveillance capabilities would render your career as a master thief impossible to safely continue.

In order to thwart the government’s plans and ensure that your line of work remains intact, you have the aforementioned one hundred days to prepare to infiltrate Scotland Yard’s headquarters and steal the device. If you’re like me, you’ll quickly learn to appreciate the fact that you have so much time to make the necessary preparations and commence such a daunting heist.

Of course, the game won’t let you simply fly your airship straight to Scotland Yard’s headquarters and attempt the heist on the first of those hundred days. Indeed, doing so would likely be a death sentence. You see, initially, your airship doesn’t have the necessary security clearance to fly anywhere near Scotland Yard without presumably being shot down.

Beyond that, attempting to circumvent the heavy security measures which my intuition tells me must be near the device without adequately preparing yourself would be quite a fool’s errand. In order to address both of these issues, you’ll need amounts of money which grow increasingly difficult to accumulate as you progress through the game.

To get your hands on the money you need to both grant your airship higher security clearances and purchase upgrades for yourself, you’ll have to start small and work your way up. You’ll find yourself attempting your first few burglaries in a region of London the game refers as “the slums.”

These initial burglaries will generally be simple to complete, but you won’t exactly walk away rich after draining a single building of its cash. I should mention at this point that every building you target within The Swindle is randomly-generated. This can either work to your advantage or absolutely ruin your plans.

When you reach your first target in the slums, for example, the targeted building might contain small amounts of cash strewn about the interior and a small handful of robotic guards who may interfere with your plans as you go about your business. Heists will gradually become more difficult based on your character’s number of successful heists and the area in which you’re currently located.

Assuming you escape your first heist with enough money to buy it, the first ability you can purchase allows you to hack certain devices, such as computers. Hacking computers will usually provide a considerable payout.

The hacking ability is also remarkably easy to use, especially during your first few burglaries. You must simply approach the device you intend to hack, initiate a command which is amusingly named “hack.exe,” and respond to a few button prompts within a few seconds.

That is, provided you can complete the entire hacking process without being discovered by any enemies. The vast majority of enemies I’ve encountered in my time with the game have a solid yellow line near their faces which helpfully indicates their current line of sight.

So long as you stay out of sight, you can essentially burglarize your target building at your own pace. You also have the ability to incapacitate guards by attacking them from behind. Doing so obviously means you’re less likely to get caught, though it helps to bear in mind that some guards can withstand more damage than others.

Additionally, even if you do end up getting spotted by a guard, you haven’t automatically failed your current heist. As soon as a guard sees you, your current building’s alarm will go off. Provided you don’t get killed by any guards, you can still go about your business for a short time despite the alarm.

You must be quick about doing so, however, because hack-able computers and other such devices will rapidly lose money if an alarm is tripped. Once you think you’ve gotten all the cash you can, you must then reach your escape pod and return to your airship, before more heavily-armed enemies show up.

There’s one final gameplay aspect of The Swindle which has frustrated me countless times because I keep forgetting it exists. If your current burglary target is a particularly tall building, you should exercise considerable caution during the process of exiting such a building. Gravity is most assuredly not on your side (unless you’ve purchased select upgrades), and instantly fatal fall damage is a very real, very annoying concern.

To conclude, if you find yourself interested in a fully randomly-generated burglary simulator, or even if you’re just intrigued by games that implement steampunk versions of modern cities quite well, I think The Swindle is a solid candidate to fill that niche.

Sure, the randomly-generated aspects of the game can serve to actively work against you, but if you can get past things like that, I think you’ll enjoy The Swindle. To paraphrase one of the most common phrases used in reference to the Civilization series, I’ve found that The Swindle instills within me a “just one more heist” mentality every time I’ve decided to give the game another try.

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The Swindle

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Random Generation Helps Avoid Repetitive Gameplay
• Relatively Beginner-Friendly Difficulty Curve
• Gameplay is Easy to Learn at Your Own Pace

Cons

• Random Generation May Make Some Gameplay Feel Unfair