The Unfinished Swan

          Video games have been struggling with their identities recently. Much like pubescent teens, video games have been growing in size, intellect, and maturity. Sure they make mistakes and things can get a bit hairy, but overall they have been moving in the right direction. But as this self-awareness grows, questions about what exactly this medium is and how it works are bound to arise. Self-reflexive games, or games that either bluntly or obliquely tackle the subject of games themselves, have started to become a lot more common. The Bioshock series is the most notable of the bunch, ignoring Bioshock 2, but Little Inferno, Far Cry: Blood Dragon, and Thomas was Alone have all in their own style begun to contribute to the conversation of what video games are and should be. The Unfinished Swan, developed by Giant Sparrow for the PS3, continues this trend while also providing an affecting story about family.

            The story is told in the form of a children’s book. A boy named Monroe loses his mother and, when taken to an orphanage, is allowed to take only one of her many paintings with him. He chooses the unfinished painting of a swan which was her favorite. One night, the swan escapes through a door he’d never seen before, and Monroe finds himself in a vast and magical land. As Monroe travels through the empty kingdom looking for the swan, he finds snippets of a story about the king who ruled the place. Everything that happens in the story is very whimsical, but not always without weight. The story is full of loss and regret and can at times become very sober, but it is never somber. It is well-balanced with humor and a light touch. Art and the act of creation are also very important in the story, but that comes out more in the gameplay.

            This game is no simple platformer. Yes there is jumping and climbing, but from the very beginning you are forced to reveal the world around you. The game begins with a solid white screen. Upon experimentation, you realize that the only things your character can do are jump and throw little black balls of paint. The paint reveals that there is a world around you. The developers cleverly placed white objects in the world, and the only way you can move through it is by finding them. Though the objects and the walls are there no matter what you do, painting them feels like you are bringing them into being. You wander around painting everything until you eventually find shadows. Then there are huge cities and labyrinthine mazes that you can still splatter with black paint, occasionally finding barrels or streetlamps hidden against the white walls. Eventually your paint can make vines grow or lights shine; getting to the point where you can actually paint platforms to get to higher places. It’s impossible not to think parallels to the developers as you do this. The artifice of the game is constantly revealed by the gameplay. I’m not sure why necessarily, but I know it was on purpose. There is a breaking of the fourth wall during the credit sequence I won’t go into that makes it all but certain this was their intention. It may be that the developers were drawing parallels between classic artistic mediums and video games. There may be a personal story, as this feels like a very personal game. I can’t be sure. I implore you to play it and tell me what you think.

            As important as art is to this game, it would have been a shame if it was anything but beautiful. Luckily the game employs a starkly beautiful style fitting that fits it perfectly. The buildings in the cities look like something you find in Greece with pure white walls and pale blue roofs. All of the lines are bold because of the pervasive use of white in the early levels and black in the later. The music is also very spare, using a lot of chimes and piano. It’s all very indie.

            Of course it isn’t perfect. The Unfinished Swan can feel very boring some times. It doesn’t drag exactly, but it definitely meanders. If most games these days are like a Michael Bay film, this game is more like an episode of “Winnie the Pooh”. If you stick with it, though, you won’t help but be charmed by it. It’s so sweet and sincere it’s hard not to. The action also begins to pick up slightly near the end, if that’s really all you need. In the end, this is an effective little story about art, family, and all of the other things I’ve already said it was about. They pack a lot of feeling into what is about a two to three hour game. The visuals are stunning, the gameplay is fun and surprisingly varied, and it’s just so damn nice. We need more games like this. Hell, we just need more of this in general. A piece of media without a drop of snark or cynicism is practically unheard of today. I don’t know if this trend of thoughtfulness will continue, and I don’t even know if the developers intended to make any kind of a statement with this game. I just know that I become more encouraged almost any time I play something new these days. Hotline Miami notwithstanding.

             Also, Terry Gilliam lends his voice to the game. I was surprised as you are.