Giant Sparrow have created something very special with The Unfinished Swan. It’s simple and yet quite adventurous.
Enter a blank world. Everything is completely white; you find yourself blind without a sense of direction. Suddenly with the press of a button you fire a black paint ball which splatters, ruining the blank perfection.
You fire more and more paint, revealing walls, corners, trees and sculptures. You regain your bearings as the previously blank world around you comes alive. The paint acts as a key to exploration, and you quickly find yourself wanting to know more about the world you’re in.
You see this world in the eyes of an orphan named Monroe. His mother never finished anything she painted, leaving three hundred behind when she tragically passed. But Monroe could only keep one; the unfinished swan was his favourite.
One night at the orphanage he woke to find the swan had disappeared. Only golden footprints remained leading a path into a door Monroe had never seen before. This is where we enter the new world, an unfinished world that acts almost as a blank canvas.
Uncovering the King’s Garden for the first time.
We quickly learn that the world is that of a great king. As you continue to follow the footprints of the swan we learn more about the story of the king. It’s almost like a fairytale, one that resembles a bed-time story, it is even told like one. However, the story is desperately tragic, and maybe one with a hidden meaning for players.
It’s simple to follow and narrated from story pages dotted around each level. It’s also short, a journey that won’t take more than a few hours, if that. Although the story is tragic the narrative leaves you unemotional and cold. It’s difficult to connect to the game.
The Unfinished Swan shines in the way it plays for me. The simple unguided gameplay let’s you explore and uncover a new world. There’s a real sense of beauty when you fill in sculptures and buildings with paint splatter. You’re always left wanting to uncover more of what lies ahead.
One trophy even challenges you to complete this level only using three paint splatters! It was quite difficult to achieve.
Only a small part of the game is this blank canvas. As you progress further shadows and faint colours come into play, so there’s no need for paint splatter. Instead you’re gifted with a splash of water. This water guides vibrant green vines to crawl their way over the ground tiles and up walls. It’s a huge contrast to the level the player has previously completed.
Along with the vines comes puzzles. You have to use these vines to clamber up walls or build bridges. It’s never something too challenging but it’s certainly a nice touch to the game.
The vines spread where you splatter water droplets.
Suddenly the player is thrown into a world of darkness. It’s eerie and perilous, as strange beings lie in the dark. Paint splatters now become your only hope at hitting distant lights to illuminate the path, otherwise you’ll become the meal of the beings if you stray in the dark too long.
At this point I felt the game lost its way. I preferred the sense of exploration and puzzle offered in previous levels. The ability to uncover new things I believe is the game’s forte so I was underwhelmed with the levels that took place in the darkness.
With that being said latter parts of the game were so well designed that praise for the developers must be given. It is as if you travel through a portal at some stages. During these parts you have to build objects to progress. There’s an element of platforming.
When the player reaches the end every element of gameplay comes together to create something very special indeed.
There’s incentive to replay the game. This is in the form of hidden balloons which you need to free in order to unlock toys. Toys are basically cheats. For example, if you collect all balloons you unlock the sniper paint splatter for pin point accuracy. You can also unlock concept art and the prototype first level of the game to play through.
The levels that take place in a dark forest.
Overall I rate The Unfinished Swan as highly as Journey (for which there is a small reference of in the game). Although, it doesn’t offer the same emotional experience as Journey, the simple unguided nature of the game is something unique.
There’s something really intriguing about uncovering this new world in the opening chapter of The Unfinished Swan that I think all gamers should experience. The game may lose it’s way half way through but everything comes together in the end.
8/10
