The Unfinished Swan PS3 Demo Review 10/10

In The Unfinished Swan you play as Monroe, an orphaned boy whose mother left him with only her paintings, all of which were left incomplete. When Monroe goes to live in an orphanage he can only take one painting, the Unfinished Swan. One night he awakes to find the frame empty, the swan disappeared, leaving only a trail of orange, web-footed prints. Monroe grabs his mother’s paintbrush and follows the trail into a mysterious world of unfinished art.

    When the demo starts your screen is completely white with just a black circle in the center. It took me a second to realize that this was the game world and that circle was my center of view. You aren’t given any directions or tutorial explaining what to do so at first I was confused. Only after walking around a while, and hearing my footsteps, did I know that I was in a room. I tried some other buttons and then a ball of black paint was thrown forth and it beautifully splattered on what I then discovered to be a wall. This lack of direction would probably have annoyed me in any other game but it became clear that the designers wanted me to feel as lost, lonely, and confused as the boy was. This game’s fun is partly in the exploring and learning that you, the player, and the boy experience. This white screen was in fact an unpainted room which led to a whole world that I discovered as I painted my way into a magical storybook kingdom of unfinished paintings.

    The Unfinished Swan is an adventure game where you must explore the kingdom by painting your way through the three dimensional environment. The demo gives you the first three parts of the game. At first your world is completely white but by end of the demo the world is already shaded in a little so you don’t have to feel your way around blindly the whole time. This wondrous exploration is accompanied by a simple and beautiful score of music and ambient sounds that adds to the magic and mystery of the world you are in. As you explore, you find bright golden letters on some of the stark white walls that, once painted, reveal a page of the story written like a children's storybook. These excerpts are read to you by the excellent narrator of the tale. The demo concludes just when you catch your first glimpse of the painted kingdom from a high terrace. Then they show you a video montage of the chapters to come where you see that you will later get to paint in color and that the world is far more beautiful and colorful further down the road. After the video you can purchase the full game to continue your adventure from that point.

I rank this demo as a perfect 10/10. As a demo, this could not have been better. It offered a small portion of the game that is just enough to make you want more. I would, and probably will, gladly buy this game for $15. This game is also playable with Playstation Move which I imagine would pull you into the world even more. If you’re looking for a game that proves videogames are art, check out The Unfinished Swan.

- Skye