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Release date: 05/28/13

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DAILY MANIFESTO

The Unfinished Swan Is Incredible - TGS Hands-On Preview

Posted on Sunday, September 23 @ 02:57:27 Eastern by Heath_Hindman

That young sport in the above picture is me, some 12 years ago. As you can see, I know my stuff when it comes to spatter painting. In fact, it's the only kind of painting I can do with any level of competence. The Unfinished Swan speaks to my heart.

Placed in a pure white room, I could only navigate by lobbing black balls of paint, then watching how the landscape reacted to their spatter. My path more visible, I could proceed. It was so beautiful, yet so simple, I briefly wondered how this concept hadn't yet been used in a game (that I'm aware of). The process of seeing the room around me, analyzing the layout, and deciding where to lob my next couple of paint wads provided a special feeling. Doing nothing more than standing and walking, not unlike Rory Calhoun, was as entertaining as some other games' final boss battles.

This was an example of an incredible experience somewhat marred by a booth attendant whose patience had run out. Me being presumably the 100th person she'd seen play this demo, she kept pointing things out to me before I had a chance to discover them. I'd spend a whole four seconds exploring this crazy new world, and she'd cut in with "Throw some paint over here" and point to a spot on the screen. Thanks, but I was trying to enjoy the experience; I'm sorry if enjoying the game cuts into your... whatever it is you've got going on.

Kids, if you ever grow up and work at an E3 or TGS booth, please don't jump in more often than you need to. Fortunately, after a simple "Yes, I'm enjoying this. Please let me find the way myself," her intrusions were minimized. Let that be another lesson: When your friend is playing The Unfinished Swan, don't jump in with your "help" unless your friend asks for it. Discovery is a reward; don't steal someone's reward.

Anecdotes and advice aside, The Unfinished Swan is a seriously impressive, truly unique game, and easily enters the discussion of games being art. If you like games that deliver feelings akin to those of Journey and ICO, then you should absolutely check out The Unfinished Swan, exclusive to PS3 via the PlayStation Network. And if you've never played either of those other two games, well then, go do so and have your life changed, son.

Related Games: The Unfinished Swan

Tags: Tokyo Game Show

Comments

danielrbischoff
Joined: Nov 2009

Posted: Sep 23rd, 2012 at 10:04 am
Telling the player where to go effectively ruins the entire game. I can see its potential but at that point I would have rudely dropped the controller and walked away.

0 1

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Sep 23rd, 2012 at 2:33 pm
After what I'd gone through to get the controller IN my hands, that wasn't gonna happen!

0 1

Sourdeez
Joined: Feb 2012

Posted: Sep 23rd, 2012 at 10:33 am
Shhh sony doesnt want you playing or talking about this secret game. There both attendants dont even say it exists!

0 2

Heath_Hindman
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Sep 23rd, 2012 at 3:41 pm
That still drives me nuts. If the person would have walked with me 15 feet she would have seen what I was talking about but, whoa, hey, that's asking A LOT apparently....

0 1