Swordship [Xbox]
Developed by Digital Kingdom, Swordship is a fast-paced “dodge ’em up” where you pilot a speedy cargo delivery ship that needs to swoop in and intercept large crates. After the effects of global warming have taken hold, humanity has delved below the ocean’s surface to three underwater cities - but some people have been banished to the barren, burned lands. Once you complete a level, any crates you’ve successfully retrieved can be donated to the Banished to help them survive.
Donating containers will increase your score, but keeping them will reward you with additional lives as well as upgrades, so there’s benefits to both options - you just need to weigh up which is more beneficial for you. Upgrades available to you can give you the ability to cancel out enemies if you stay on top of where they try to surface, or increase the amount of time that the drop off warning (the long yellow line) appears before the crate shows up, to name a few.
You don’t have any weapons, so you need to rely on your wits to succeed. Enemies will fire lasers at you, as well as send exploding mines your way, and even airborne bombs - but all of these can be used in your favour too, by getting enemies to accidentally lock on to each other as well as triggering mines to explode when they’re within range of an enemy. Managing tricks like this will reward you with extra points, though it’s not totally necessary as enemies will leave after a few attempts to kill you, so if you’re in total panic-mode and struggling to survive, you can always just focus on that rather than tricking them, if needs be.
You can dive under the water briefly with A, allowing you to dodge enemies and their projectiles; you’ve also got various powers that can be equipped via different ships at the start of a game, and these can be triggered with X - such as electrifying all around you to deal with enemies once you’ve collected enough energy cells, something that is super helpful when you find yourself in a tight spot. It takes a fair bit of getting used to, but just as you start to get into the swing of things, it’s over - with only three cities to complete, with three lines for you to play through in each. Controls are nice and tight, and pulling off dodges and exploding enemies feels extremely satisfying, especially given how much chaos is normally going down on screen.
Swordship is very aesthetically pleasing: each city has a different hue to the water, and enemy designs are simple but effective, with different varieties on offer that get more intense as you progress - though once you’ve earned enough points for your score, harder enemies may start to appear on earlier levels. The soundtrack is fantastic too, with an electronic vibe that perfectly matches with the gameplay - and is mega catchy, to boot.
Swordship has a very moreish quality to it, where even after dying you just want to keep going back again and again - and with death coming in a single hit, that will happen a lot. Saving up additional lives to go up against the final boss is something I’d recommend, as you will likely find yourself struggling quite a bit if you don’t. Replaying will allow you to continue increasing your points, and ultimately, the selection of ships and upgrades you have to choose from, but you’ll also unlock new weather options that change the gameplay up further, key art and more - though I do wish there were a few more levels or alternate gameplay modes for the price. Priced at £16.99 on Xbox, Swordship is a very fun, very fast-paced game that will keep you well entertained.
In the end, we decided to give Swordship the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.
Are you interested in Swordship? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Plan of Attack for the Swordship Xbox review code!
