Console Corner: Review of The Unfinished Swan

I am always on the lookout for video games that are developmental (or at least not mindless) for my children. (If adults can also play, all the better.) A brain should be required. So far, games like Far: Lone Sails, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Figment, Journey, Never Alone (Kisima Ingitchuna), Overcooked, and Unravel have hit that sweet spot. With The Unfinished Swan (2012), I've found another.

Unlike any other game I've ever played, The Unfinished Swan is essentially 'graffiti the puzzle' game. Based on a fairy tale, players begin in a white, colorless world in the first-person perspective. There is no up down, left, or right. But there is a dot on screen, and when pushing the 'shoot' button, a blob of black paint is launched into the world, splashing against the closest surface. By spamming the 'shoot' button, players slowly paint their world, and in the process discover where walls, floors, doors, and windows are. Getting to the next point in the game/story, players perform this type of exploration.

But there is more to the The Unfinished Swan. Each chapter evolving gameplay, variants on lobbing paint come into play, coalescing in environmental puzzles that see players unveiling text that continues the story, as well as the path to that chapter's exit.

As one can imagine, The Unfinished Swan is an artistic game. But the fact it is also puzzle-based means that matters are not entirely free-form. It goes without saying my children love going wild with the paint gun, splashing paint all over the world. But the way in which this device is also used to solve puzzles is highly innovative and fun. The way in which the story is woven into gameplay is likewise a hit. The Unfinished Swan does not appear in much media today, but for parents and indie gamers interested in something enriching and unique, check it out.