Heat-seeking missiles and enemies add further pressure to move intelligently around the small areas in each stage. Changes in direction and swinging horizontally rather than vertically, which can leave you floating up in the air and makes you an easy target, are the first things you need to get used to. You'll want to keep moving to avoid incoming threats from enemies. It's smooth to swing from platform to platform, and thanks to a recent update, the swinging mechanics are much more reliable since the game's initial release. Swarm's biggest achievement is its movement system. There is an easy mode that isn't as punishing and a higher difficulty for a second playthrough, so you can adjust the experience to suit your expertise. As you progress through the 25 stages, you'll hit a wall because Swarm has many more nuances to consider if you want to beat every level on medium difficulty. The early tutorial challenges introduce the basics, and within minutes, a few tons of scrap metal are shooting at you from all corners of the map. Those are the basics, and it's quite natural to learn as you go. While your grab button on either controller shoots a grapple hook, the trigger buttons shoot your weapons on either side, and you cannot grapple and shoot with the same hand at the same time. Each stage features floating platforms to provide anchor spots for grappling, occasional environmental hazards to avoid, and loads of enemies that force you to move and shoot with precision. Swarm is a relatively straightforward affair, with 25 levels across five worlds and five boss fights.
(The robots prefer to attack in swarms, of course.) The story isn't the reason for playing Swarm, but thankfully, the gameplay carries the experience quite admirably. If you do pay attention, you likely won't get more out of it than that you're an important badass who is humanity's only hope to defeat the robot invasion. It uses static comic strip interludes to progress the story, but you may as well skip those distractions and jump into the action. Swarm has a serviceable story that sets the tone for the experience and ties the different worlds into one package. Narrative isn't something one can expect from an action-oriented arcade-style game. Here is how we fared with the title running on the Quest 2. Swarm is one of the most addictive arcade experiences I have played in VR to date. Swarm isn't too different in theory, but that it pulls some serious witchcraft with a movement system that looks like it should be nauseating but isn't. It didn't need much room to play, and it ran on almost every available VR platform. To name the most prominent example, Space Pirate Trainer worked well because its concept was easy to pick up but difficult to master. Virtual reality has lent itself well to simple gameplay concepts and arcade shooters.