Game Info
GAME NAME: The Unfinished Swan
DEVELOPER(S): Giant Sparrow
PUBLISHER(S): Giant Sparrow
PLATFORM(S): ps4
GENRE(S): puzzle
RELEASE DATE(S): October 28, 2014
The Unfinished Swan is a very unique game is probably the best way to describe it. It’s not like any traditional game I have ever played and it definitely has a charm to it that keeps you wanting to keep playing through it. Although it is not a very long game, it brings a story to the game that is fun and cute for the whole family. It begins with Monroe’s mother passing and she leaves behind over 300 canvases but none were finished and the orphanage wouldn’t let him keep them all. So he chose to keep one painting and it was of an unfinished swan, which was one of his mother’s favorites. One night he woke up and saw that the swan had disappeared and so he took the paint brush and followed the footprints into a little door he had not seen before. As you progress through each level, the story will continue to be read aloud and throughout til the end of the game.
The very first level confused me because all you will see is a dot in the middle of the screen. Once you tap a trigger button, Monroe will throw out a paint bubble and it will splatter and start creating a world that was just completely white a second ago. As you walk through the level, you must keep shooting the paint bubbles to help create the world around you and find your way through. After the first level, it gets easier to see being that the rest of the levels are actually designed around you but the blank white level will appear again later on in the story. During the designed levels, your paintbrush will now be water balloons that you toss. In these levels, you will mostly guide vines up and around walls to climb up and down. There is also another level that has some craziness to it, like going through a picture and being on two different ends of a spectrum. On one side, you can walk around the level and there will be jumps you can’t make or a wall that you can not get up. You will find a painting that you jump through and on the other side it’s almost like you are walking in a print of floor plans. While on this side of the spectrum you can add steps to the level that you were trying to proceed through.
The music is captivating while running around and painting. It gives you that feel of adventure and it adds that child’s feeling of it being story time. The graphics are nothing fancy but it is perfect the way the game plays out. It is definitely a unique take on gaming and the idea of it is really original and I feel it could not have been made any better for what it is as a game. The game plays pretty smooth but I did have one spot where it slowed down and was glitchy but it didn’t last but a whole 30 seconds. The controls are pretty simple with the basics of using both analog sticks to move and the trigger buttons to shoot the paint splash or the water balloons. Also, throughout the game you will be in search of random balloons floating around that you must shoot to collect them. Collecting these balloons will allow you to unlock toys, which are kind of like upgrades like a balloon finder, chapter unlocks, firehose and etc.
The Recommendation
The Unfinished Swan has a very childish story to it because it is basically a children’s storybook. I feel if you have children then that would be the only way to play this game. It has a minor challenge to it but nothing any hardcore gamer could not handle. I think the game is pretty original the way it plays through and the music captivates the entire charm of the game. I will say if you have young children then get this, it would be a great game to introduce them into the world of games and it a good way to enjoy a game as a family. Outside of being a parent, I would not recommend this to the regular gamer.
