Swarm Grinder Review

Swarm Grinder is a roguelite bullet heaven à la Vampire Survivors, developed by Last Bite Games. You play as mech pilots stationed on an alien planet with abandoned mines filled with bugs. Your mission is to dive into these mines and collect as much salvage and Bioshards as you can. The story is simple and to the point, no need for anything else, so let’s check this out.

You should probably be aware of how games like Vampire Survivors work by now. Your weapons work without your input, with shooting, aiming, and attacking all done for you. All you have to do is move and choose when to use your mech's special ability while you’re facing hordes of enemies that will eventually fill up the screen. However, it’s done slightly differently here. Enemies aren't spawned automatically; they break out of eggs when they're in your vicinity, so the more you move, the more enemies you'll create. This is both a good thing and a bad thing, as your mech is held together by powered magnets, so if you run out of fuel, your health rapidly drops. Don't worry, though! Turns out bugs drop fuel when killed.

The swarms get tougher and more numerous the longer your run lasts, introducing more enemy types you have to watch out for. Also, at certain times, there will be giant waves sent after you that you can’t stop. You need to be active here, staying still is just asking for a really quick death either from being overwhelmed or not having enough bugs to kill for fuel. However, you aren’t going to last five minutes if your weapons aren’t up to scratch, so let’s talk about that next.

After clearing a drilling field, you'll get a selection of three upgrades to choose from if you can get to them, from adding something new to your arsenal to making your weapons and passives even better. You only have five slots, so you better choose wisely. That is actually a little difficult considering it is not a menu, it literally drops them onto the ground around the drill, which is usually swarmed by several dozen enemies. That's not all, though, as power comes with a price. With every upgrade, you increase your fuel consumption, so you either limit yourself and save upgrades for when you really need them… or go nuts and kill bugs faster than you use fuel. I typically chose the latter. You can only do this X amount of times depending on the Evolution (read: difficulty) before you have to fight the boss to win the level. Thinking ahead and adapting to whatever you’re given can be a matter of life and death. I do recommend turning on the option to choose your upgrade with a button press instead of just running into it to avoid mistakes.

Throughout your dive, you'll find Biocrystals from ore or from mini-bosses. These are spent in the workshop on projects to increase stats and weapon performance across all mechs, so it's only a matter of grinding until you can beat the levels. However, this is limited as you can only put so many points into each project, many of which only have enough to max out one or two choices. If you don't like your decision, though, you can always spend 100 crystals to reset your points. At the garage, you use the salvaged parts to make your individual mechs better by equipping parts or swapping a gadget. However, I found the first gadget – the dash – to be the most useful.

That is pretty much all there is to Swarm Grinder, but there are a few issues. The game ran well, but I did suffer a freeze during one session, ending that run early. I think the biggest problem, though, was what was available. There are only three procedurally generated maps, and the weapon variety is rather limited, with some being exclusive to certain mechs. There aren't a lot of weapons to choose from already, but the upgrade systems do allow great changes to your play style. Finally… Well, it’s in the name of the game. Swarm Grinder wants you to grind out their levels for every upgrade you can get. There are quite a few unlocks, such as ranking up your mech, which requires completing challenges and achievements, some of which will rely on your RNG. It can take a while before you can get the build you want, and it will also require tons of Biocrystals. At the very least, it gives it some longevity and an incentive to go for 100% completion.

Swarm Grinder is a good time, but it does lack a little variety. You’re more focused on the action (even if most of that action is kiting and circle-strafing) and forced to think on your feet while making sure to actually plan ahead. But the real kicker is the amount of grinding and what you have to do in order to unlock everything. If you’re gonna stick with it, prepare for the long haul.