Swarm Arena Demo

Swarm Arena is a strategy game that requires players to control a swarm of drones and to fight other people or AI counterparts that are trying to do the same.

Swarm Arena feels like an arcade game because it plays in 2D, but it’s difficult to consider at such. The control shouldn’t really define the game, like an FPS, or third person shooter, but the type of action that’s involved. It’s not easy to describe Swarm Arena with words that make sense, but I’ll give it a try nonetheless.

The developer of the game, Dmytry Lavrov, put an entire tutorial level that explains how to play the game, mostly because it makes little sense to put in into words. It’s also probably worth noting that there isn’t anything like Swarm Arena, so making any kind of comparisons is out of the question.

Gameplay like nothing else

The players control a point of light with the WASD keys, which has a small radius of influence around it. When one of the drones that float around the level enters that radius, it sticks with the point of light, circling it.

Those drones are automated, and you can’t control them, most of the time. This means that they will attack enemy drones that enter the same circle, and that they can perform a number of other actions.

The more enemies you destroy and the more things you pick up, the bigger the radius. Sometimes, you get an upgrade that makes them revolve around the player with better precision, and it’s more difficult to lose them in the heat of battle.

It’s possible to play against other players, or against the AI, which is not much of a challenge. Like in most games, the AI is predictable and not nearly as aggressive as it should be.

Swarm Arena is a game that defies explanations. That is not a good thing, most of the time, but in the case of Swarm Arena, it works for it. When players find a unique game they tend to remember it, and being remembered by the gaming community is not something easily to dismiss.