Swim Out

Well balanced (multi)-pool escape puzzler, which also makes me laugh with the game mechanics of throwing a beach ball at another swimmer. It's a refreshing mix of ideas with great sound effects and it's an overall well designed and coherent concept for a puzzle game. Definitely recommended.

This game has been used consistently for the last 3 years to teach the foundations of game design. I love the ease of which it can be used as a classroom tool.

Yes.

While the title screen and resized screenshots on the store page look slick, in-game the figures come off a bit sloppier, and some are difficult to distinguish from each other at a glance. Backgrounds are nice, but level transitions appear to be bite-sized prerendered movies. The resolution drop on these, despite their use of primarily (if not completely) in-game assets, is impossible to ignore. I would have been happier with a level results screen—perhaps one that pointed out any optional objectives. I only figured what the dots represented by exceeding a turn limit in II-10, and didn't realize the objectives could be seen until several stages later...by stumbling across a thread in the Steam forums. There were a few levels of trying things randomly until the dots stopped turning red. Glad I at least found that information before reaching the levels with mutually-exclusive objectives...

Not only can music and SFX be toggled individually, but the settings are separate for in-level vs stage select. This is great! That said, the levels effectively only have sound effects. (There is an infrequent three-note synth vox, but you'd have to pay attention to notice.)
Some may be disappointed, but I like this decision a lot; the SFX are lively and well-executed, crab walk aside...and I actually like them a lot more than the stage select music.

The core path traversal mechanics with different obstacles and items have plenty of merit, but the execution has some faults. You can bang out directional inputs lightning fast on a keyboard, but there is a full second or more of delay after each action while objects move and animations play out during the obstacle turn. You may not notice as much on the first try of a level, but on subsequent attempts (and there are almost always subsequent attempts, because there is no undo) the lag time and unresponsiveness get old fast. There's no way to skip animations or otherwise speed things up. Mashing through the parts you know to get back to the part you're still trying to figure out results in missed or unintended inputs...which are additionally punishing because there is no undo.

Later stages are broken into multiple checkpointed areas to soften the blow of irrevocable actions. This does prevent later levels from becoming grueling memory tests, but I'm not sure the consequences were fully considered. Restricting undo nudges the player toward only correct actions by punishing errors, whether unforced or as part of brute-forcing. But breaking levels into smaller, inherently less-complex areas facilitates trial and error perhaps even more than unlimited undo because there are fewer possibilities to churn through. On top of that there's no penalty for leveraging checkpoints, no reward for doing full levels perfectly, and most levels don't have turn or item restrictions. Players will likely find themselves deliberately failing in order to "respawn at a checkpoint" rather than restart—which feels really weird in a puzzle game.
Limited undos would do a better job of preserving the intended strain on working memory without punishing the occasional unintended input. Or: yes, allowing recovery from minor mistakes. (It's a turn-based puzzle game. No need to be that tryhard about it. But I digress...)

Ultimately, the sluggishness is probably what tips the scales from "flawed but there's still a game here that maybe you'll dig" to "I can't recommend this in good conscience" for me. Kudos to the creators for offering a demo; don't make my mistake and try it before buying.

Uninteresting puzzler, with sluggish movement.

Lovely aesthetics not enough to save it.

Bought on sale -> Still refunding.

This game will make you hate Kellogg's Special K

edit: review text unchanged but flipped it to a non-recommendation because there's no undo.

swim out is what you get if you equip a female agent 47 from hitman go with a beach ball and throw her into a pool. same gameplay, but instead of avoiding guards and dogs and the occasional assassination, you're dodging obnoxious swimmers and doing other fun(?) summer stuff I assume people do, but the main goal is to get out of the pool, you fool!

the swimming areas are essentially grids to traverse turn by turn with the arrow keys (wasd doesn't work) or by holding and moving the mouse to advance a tile. once you move, everybody else moves and you gotta make sure not to collide with anyone. there are 12 types of human 'enemies', some just in the way, others go back and forth every turn or every other turn, throw boomerangs or fishing lines into the water, and so on. even kayakers make an appearance, how's that allowed? (though you get to use one as well, so fair enough.) most pool occupants get along fine, others obliterate whoever they bump into, not just the player. further obstacles include gusts of icy wind (or something) every few turns, freezing whoever's in the way for a bit, and representatives of wildlife, such as jellyfish or crabs crabbing around.

various items can be used to your advantage, or disadvantage, as the case may be with 'attachments' that make you take up multiple tiles as soon as they're picked up. took a while to get used to moving with them. some other things are activated or have to be used immediately as well (e.g. the lifebelt), while others can be picked up and used whenever with space or by clicking them. it's worth noting that items block most enemy movement, so choosing the right time to grab them can be the key to success, and don't be afraid to touch the fishermen's bait (not a euphemism).

inventory space is limited and attempting to grab an extra item will make it disappear, but using an object doesn't count as a turn. throwable items need a target within range, and hurling stuff around is not only necessary but also fun. who wouldn't want to stun people by throwing a beach ball at them? not something to try in real life, they might drown if they lose consciousness, but it's fine here. other items let you skip a turn or move two tiles at once, as long as it doesn't involve turning a corner, and so on.

100 levels in 7 chapters, often spanning multiple screens, and all of them are unlocked from the start. as much as being able to jump around within a chapter is always a plus instead of getting stuck on that one level, it's obviously wiser to go more or less in order and not swim too far ahead. multi-part levels have to be done in one go, which is a problem in my opinion, mostly because the way it's handled here. moving from one pool to another acts as a checkpoint, so failing a screen only resets to the beginning of that section, but pressing 'r' to restart puts you back to the very beginning, same as quitting a level. reset happens immediately after a mistake and there's no undo either, making things unnecessarily frustrating, especially on busier levels with a lot going on. re-doing a dozen or so moves there involves a lot of waiting around.

besides the titular goal of swimming out (taking as long as you want, both in terms of time and turns), there are often other things to thrive for, like getting all the stars from hard-to-reach places, completing the level within a certain number of turns, not getting caught by elemental forces, avoiding item use, etc. in case of an optional turn limit a move counter will appear in the corner. goals don't all have to be fulfilled during a single attempt, but stars and items are consumed by some of the other swimmers if they get to them before you.

the number of objectives are denoted by dots on the level selection screen, one representing the main goal, others the optional tasks, but unfortunately their nature is only revealed while playing a level, and not even automatically at the beginning, gotta click the dots in the lower right corner or press 'o' (esc doesn't close this window, only another click or pressing 'o' again). not only does the level select screen lack crucial information, but none of the goal stuff or hotkeys (besides space) are mentioned anywhere in the game. and while space works for level selection, enter doesn't.

on the upside, the presentation is simply fantastic. clean, great-looking 50s-style graphics (might be the 60s, what do I know?) with very brief but nicely done cutscenes between levels, some soft background music and a variety of sound effects for ambience. windowed mode only with a fix-sized window, sound on/off and music on/off, no volume settings, so there's room for improvement here as well.

the puzzles are solid and get really tough down the road if you go for the bonus goals, providing many hours of challenging gameplay. it's an excellent game at a good price, but not without issues, so it's not as strong a recommendation as it could be. still, it's worth taking a dip, the water's lovely, and there's a demo to try if you need further convincing.

This is a pure ‘work it out’ turn based, 100 level puzzler with zero timers or reaction needed, even for all optional objectives. Take as long as you need with each move, controls are simple with either mouse or arrow keys (but not WASD). Your goal is to swim out to the exit without touching swimmers or obstacles by using different items which are sometimes available to you.

The optional objectives (bottom right hand side under level number) shows you by pictures what your objectives are. Sometimes you can’t use an item or you need to do a level in under a certain number of moves. This often requires you to not only redo a level 2-3 times but to figure out a completely different way to finish a level. So, a 100-level game becomes practically quite a lot more and that isn’t taking into account the multiple pools a level can have.

The pool/swim theme, from the ambient sounds and the graphics even between levels, all contribute to making this such a fun well made game. Near the beginning I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of different game mechanics only to realise as I went along that the same mechanics applied to new items. For instance, there are a number of different things that will change your position –waves, pebbles, fish. If you touch them it will freeze you for a certain number of odd moves making you be able to get your position correct so you can finish the level.

Tech stuff.
In-game options are simple – windowed/full screen, sounds off/on, music on/off and exit. While in game if you move to a new pool and ‘die’ it will take you back to the beginning of when you entered that pool. But if you leave the game, you will be brought back to the beginning of the level. Press “R” or the in-level button to reset the whole level. I think you can go into any chapter and any level which is nearly unheard of, so if you get stuck in a level you can either move on, or come back to it later. There is no undo button and while often this isn’t a problem, on the levels that it is needed it is a big problem. A lot of my time was redoing a level over and over as I made a stupid mistake (the keys stuck/moved twice etc.)

Due to not having an undo button this game requires a lot of patience especially if you want to 100% (get all objectives.) If you are just a very casual puzzle player, I wouldn’t recommend this game for you. Even if you don’t care about the objectives, I think you’d have to be an intermediate puzzle player with patience to finish this game.

This game really pushed me in terms of figuring it out and patience, it’s not an easy game – it’s not meant to be. But it’s still very doable to 100% if you are used to some logic puzzle games. For me to recommend a puzzle game where an undo button is needed, on some levels, shows how good this game is. It’s so well thought out, graphics are lovely and if it had an undo button it would have been the perfect game for me.

Ginger’s Games Curator page

Swim Out is an excellent puzzle game, and at the same time, an interesting study about how differently people react to very similar games depending on their cover and packaging.

Focusing on the game first. Swim Out is a movement puzzle game, very similar to the Go series (ie. Hitman / Lara Croft / Deus Ex). You are in a swimming pool, and you need to reach the exit by avoiding all the other swimmers, considering the environmental hazards as well. As the game progresses, the pools get more complicated, there are different types of "enemy" swimmers, and also additional tools to help your progress. There are about a 100 levels, and if you want to complete all objectives (there are 1-5 per level), the game will take about 8-10 hours.
The presentation of the game is rather nice. The visuals are simple but stylish, all drawn in a relaxing pastel - but the really important part is the sound, which is an amazing multilayered mix of all kind of swimming pool / seaside sounds. The roar of the sea (or a large swimming pool), sounds from a crowd of people, all kinds of water splashes, gulls, wind - it's all there in a laid back mixture of background audio. Check it out in the demo, it's really captivating.
Finally, and most importantly, the puzzle quality. The game does a very good job introducing the mechanics (without one written word), then it ramps up the difficulty gradually. The first four level sets are OK to good, and the real fun starts afterwards - sets V and VI have several excellent and clever puzzles, and surprisingly, an absolute stinker (V-10). Then set VII is a bit disappointing - it has a few good levels, but I would more see it as V, shifting V and VI to VI and VII.
While most of the game mechanics work well, guiding a two-wide vehicle feels really awkward and unintuitive - luckily, there's only one level that is fully built around such a device (the aforementioned V-10). There's no undo, but that's a natural design choice, and there are not many levels that are long enough for the lack of undo to be annoying. Works pretty well, all in all.
In summary, Swim Out was a lot of fun, and it's easy to recommend to anyone who likes some decent brain exercise. The excellent atmosphere is just a plus - and a big plus, at that.


So if the game is so good as I claim it to be, why does it (currently) have a Mixed review summary? I believe poor Swim Out got itself into quite a vicious fix - let me try to untangle it a bit.
First, quite obviously, Swim Out doesn't have a big IP to back it - while Hitman Go and Lara Croft Go have some 1000 reviews, Swim Out has 25, 10 of which don't count as they're written based on a free review copy. 40% of the remaining reviews are negative, for reasons I'll soon go into, and that's enough to push the game out of the Positive territory. And then, selling it becomes much more difficult - especially as its visuals are not eye-catching, and when one's browsing among many games, an atmospheric soundscape doesn't have any chance to make itself heard.
But is Swim Out comparable to the Go games? Obviously it has a hard time to compete in visuals, it has just as good or better sound, and the puzzles themselves are certainly comparable. For brain exercise, it's slightly inferior to Hitman, somewhat better than Lara, and much better than Deus Ex. The gameplay is visibly less polished though, and that's a problem - even more so as these rough edges could have been fixed in a reasonable amount of time with some friendly user testing.
I already mentioned the awkwardness of the two-wide vehicles - they should have simply been dropped from the game as user controllable assets.
Undo is a much more complex problem. As with Hitman, there are a few levels where you need to do a lot of to and fro moves to get all the NPCs into favourable positions - if you need to restart after 40-50 steps, it gets annoying. Lozenge Lab tried to remedy the issue of long levels by breaking some levels into multiple pools, adding checkpoints when you move from one pool to the other. This could work very well, but they inadvertently created a much bigger issue - if you pass back and forth between the pools, it's easy to get into the situation where you can't solve the puzzle, and the restarts after a foul (ie. hitting another swimmer) will just put you back into that situation. Manual restart works, of course, but then you lose the value of checkpoints.
These problems lead to a handful of negative reviews, and as it happens it's just enough to pull the game down. I really feel for the creators, as they did a great job with the game, and made only a few honest mistakes - which turned out to be damaging. Judging from the achievement counters when I finished the game, it may have around 1000 players on Steam - which is orders of magnitude less than it deserves. I hope the mobile versions do better.

It's a very good puzzle game, with good mechanisms, but after chapter 4 it becomes really too hard.

Beautiful, relaxing puzzle game

I love most puzzle games but I didn't enjoy this one at all.

Not a terrible game but there are so many other excellent puzzle games on Steam I can't recommend this one.

Looks good but I did not enjoy it.
In every chapter there are new tools to use, but this did not make it more enjoyable. I do love puzzle games but I can't recommend it. Only but if you are die hard puzzle gamer and have nothing better to play.

This game is freaking awesome!

Gameplay.
First of all there is a demo version available so it's better to try yourself. It might look a bit simple an easy on start and all mechanichs are very familiar to a puzzle fan but as you progress more and more the defficulty increases pretty seriously. Especially when you completing all possible tasks at each level. It took me about 15 hours to complete this game 100% and I am pretty experienced in puzzles. And at the end feeling of satisfaction was one of the strongest in a game period.

Design.
Game looks nice and relaxing and that was basically the main reason why I bought it. Colors are as bright as needed, contrast is great and animations are smooth. Long story short: relaxing and peacefull.

Audio.
Swim Out sound good, I reallt felt being in a pool playng the game. However, sounds of actual swimming and whistles were too loud for me. Also there is no music in a gaming process only in a menu. So I would recommend to play it listening some chill-out music on a background.

To summarize: if you want to relax after a long day and don't want to tryhard - this game is might be what you are looking for; If you want to challenge yourself and beat some really hard puzzles - this is a perfect choice; if you are still not sure if this game fits you - just give it a try, it's really worth it.

Excellent puzzle game : smart, delightful, elegant. Includes enough gameplay diversity (various usable items) to renew the game and keep it challenging. Great work, if you like the genre !