"Uniquely Artistic, Not Very Fun"
"The Unfinished Swan" is still a pretty interesting concept for an adventure/puzzle game - fill a world up with paint to tell a children's story. However, it doesn't quite capitalize on its clever gameplay framing and quickly devolves into a pretty run-of-the-mill adventure game that doesn't take many risks. Its visuals and theme are fine, but it lacks a deeply compelling story and doesn't really change much of its gameplay up to stay engaging through to the end.
The visuals here are simple but help to give the sense that the game world is straight out of a children's book. Most colors are simple, and many stand out amidst a crowd of black, whites, and grays. The theme of painting the environment is cool enough, though I feel the game should have utilized more of what made Chapter 1 a bit more unique compared to Chapters 2 & 3.
The game changes pace and starts focusing less on paint puzzles and more on slight physics puzzles and puzzle-platforming. It honestly felt very unfinished with both of these aspects and leads to some clunky encounters down the line.
The story is also not too great, with a very slow pace despite the game's super short two to three-ish hour runtime. It's mostly telling you things you haven't seen yet or explaining what is right in front of you, and I think it could've had more subtlety. I never felt like I cared about the characters or the world, and a lot of cliche points are brought up.
Overall, I didn't like this game as much as I had hoped to. The story and gameplay were just far too limited to capitalize on the theme and visuals the game has going for itself. There's also no real replay value besides just experiencing the game again with slightly different powers, but they felt inconsequential to the experience. I would Not Recommend playing this one if you prefer more active gameplay and narrative, unless you are really into children's allegorical stories or are not too bothered by simple gameplay loops.
Final Verdict: 5/10 (Average)
"The Unfinished Swan" is still a pretty interesting concept for an adventure/puzzle game - fill a world up with paint to tell a children's story. However, it doesn't quite capitalize on its clever gameplay framing and quickly devolves into a pretty run-of-the-mill adventure game that doesn't take many risks. Its visuals and theme are fine, but it lacks a deeply compelling story and doesn't really change much of its gameplay up to stay engaging through to the end.
The visuals here are simple but help to give the sense that the game world is straight out of a children's book. Most colors are simple, and many stand out amidst a crowd of black, whites, and grays. The theme of painting the environment is cool enough, though I feel the game should have utilized more of what made Chapter 1 a bit more unique compared to Chapters 2 & 3.
The game changes pace and starts focusing less on paint puzzles and more on slight physics puzzles and puzzle-platforming. It honestly felt very unfinished with both of these aspects and leads to some clunky encounters down the line.
The story is also not too great, with a very slow pace despite the game's super short two to three-ish hour runtime. It's mostly telling you things you haven't seen yet or explaining what is right in front of you, and I think it could've had more subtlety. I never felt like I cared about the characters or the world, and a lot of cliche points are brought up.
Overall, I didn't like this game as much as I had hoped to. The story and gameplay were just far too limited to capitalize on the theme and visuals the game has going for itself. There's also no real replay value besides just experiencing the game again with slightly different powers, but they felt inconsequential to the experience. I would Not Recommend playing this one if you prefer more active gameplay and narrative, unless you are really into children's allegorical stories or are not too bothered by simple gameplay loops.
Final Verdict: 5/10 (Average)