The minute players step into one of the tactical shooter DarkSwarm's procedurally generated missions, they are confronted by the titular Swarm: parasitic aliens who take a variety of forms. The Swarm is horrifying from the moment players first witness it: it's fast, it's powerful, and it's smart. DarkSwarm's foes are a chillingly effective use of body horror, as many enemies still have recognizably human bodies that have been transformed into something truly nightmarish.
The Best War Games spoke to Bitfire Games CEO Hans Oxmond and DarkSwarm Game Director Jonas Raagard about the inspiration behind the Swarm. The two are big fans of shooters and horror games alike, and cited Alien Swarm, GTFO, and the original Helldivers as major inspirations. However, as Raagard explained, the pair wanted to take things in an even more extreme direction, placing a larger focus on body horror and satisfying, gory alien kills when making DarkSwarm.
The Thing And Other Body Horror Classics Inspired The Swarm
Given that DarkSwarm features alien foes and at least some of its levels take place on spaceships and space stations, the Bitfire Games team had to ensure that they weren't just copying genre standards such as the iconic Alien films. Starting from a desire to create something that resembled games they enjoyed and would not be considered "too Alien," the team almost immediately settled on a body horror-heavy direction for the game. Said Raagard of the development process:
"I just kind of started working on these body horror aliens, because I wanted something that didn't look like anything from the Alien universe. It's a bit more rooted in The Thing. It's this alien virus that mutates people from within - and it's really nasty."
The influence of The Thing films can definitely be seen in some of the enemies players will face in DarkSwarm. There are tiny but numerous newborn creatures, resembling a cross between a spider and a human hand, that burst from pulsing red eggs. There are shambling bipedal forms covered in wounds and blisters, still retaining their human shape despite all the horrors that have been inflicted upon them. As they complete more and more missions, players will face enormous worm-like beings, multi-armed creatures capable of shooting fireballs, giant fleshy spiderwebs that trap them in place, and much, much more. The Swarm is constantly evolving, and so new enemy types are always showing up throughout the game.
So Much Terror Comes From The Knowledge That The DarkSwarm Was Once Human
Brilliantly, DarkSwarm never lets its players forget that the sinister, intelligent, constantly evolving aliens they are fighting used to be human. "Everything that you're killing here used to be a person," Raagard confirmed. "Bioprinted people — they've been constantly printing people and sending them to these space stations and planets." Raagard explained that the "bio-printed" mercenaries — made using a genetic "printer" — can be created in bulk, and are particularly easy for the Swarm to take over.
As players progress through each procedurally generated level, they are confronted by more and more examples of alien body horror. They are also never allowed to forget how easily they could become part of the Swarm, especially in levels where the organic spider web-shaped traps capture them and attempt to assimilate them if their allies cannot rescue them in time. One particularly brilliant twist is that missions can be successful if even one person survives, and the screen lingers on those left behind as the Swarm devours and assimilates them. DarkSwarm is not just a fun alien shooter, but a sinister and chilling body horror experience featuring plenty of frights and tons of splatter, dismembered limbs, exploding bodies, and more.