But when you hear that distant ring, quickly scroll the page, tap a button and hear a vital message, a grin will rapidly spread across your face. Text and images alike propel the plot but are also peppered with clues designed to help you further unlock the story. Sometimes, sentences need a tap to resolve images shift and change. And although the sense of wonder from those very early scenes is never quite matched, The Unfinished Swan regularly shakes things up to keep you engrossed for its duration.īy that point you’ll have already clocked that unmemory isn’t quite a normal tome. Your quest is punctuated by voiceovers that explain how the kingdom came to be, providing explanations for the evolving landscape as you get deeper into the quest.

This is an odd production, which feels part fairytale, part adventure and part shooter. This enables you to spot pathways, including golden swan footprints that help you keep on the fleeing bird’s trail. Fortunately, this scene of blank white can be ‘augmented’ by you lobbing paint bombs about. Because video games, the swan decides to escape the painting one night, and Monroe sets off in hot pursuit.Īs if this wasn’t weird enough, the protagonist finds himself in a place so visually minimal it’d give Jony Ive heart palpitations. He chooses her favourite, which depicts a painting of a swan missing its neck. His artist mother’s died and he’s been told by a tightfisted orphanage that he can keep just one of her 300 incomplete works. £4.99/$5.99 | For iPhone and iPad (Universal) | Getting to the elusive full-fat win condition (no jail new life stinking rich) involves repetition, but the game’s breezy nature and script ensures that’s never dull and the shortish games make Overboard an especially ideal fit for iPhone. On subsequent playthroughs, you’ll fast realise Overboard is about taking notes, chipping away at a solution to find a path to freedom. Within 30 minutes or so, you’ll be done – and almost certainly in jail. This ramps up the tension while the hours speed by, as you dart between the ship’s few locations and chat with its handful of characters. However, unlike 80 Days or Sorcery, Overboard provides a sense of claustrophobia rather than offering free-roaming and space. Routes through a branching narrative are taken by selecting responses to people during conversations, or by performing actions on objects. The game plays out like other inkle titles, in being an old-school adventure game in fast forward. Either way, the game’s a delight and suitably different from other arcade adventures you’ll have played before. iPad is arguably the better option, though, the larger canvas letting the visuals properly wow.

On iPhone, the controls are cramped (use a physical controller if you can), but in widescreen you do have the advantage of additional seconds to spot upcoming obstacles or rare collectables. The first finds you installing huge sails on to your vehicle, which can sometimes be used instead of fuel. Punctuating this journey are various challenges. Fortunately, there are many moments of contemplation as you move through the landscape, taking in its strange sights. The game omits to tell you pretty much anything: it’s down to you to figure out what’s going on and what to do. You leap about its innards like Mario, smashing switches to make the great beast rumble into action. The massive form is reminiscent of an upturned boat, and yet it has two massive wheels on its sides. Your ride is discovered almost immediately, and it’s a beautiful, baffling contraption. What begins as something akin to a needy and squawking digital pet reveals itself as a production with hidden depths, not least when the seasons start to change and everyone grows older. What you might not be ready for is the game’s emotional impact. You’ll get notifications when the bird has something it wants to pick your brains about because these interruptions are infrequent and the episodes endearing, it’s never a chore to return. What the parrot then does with these things is, in roughly equal measure, very touching and mildly concerning.Īlthough you can spend as much time as you’d like chatting with your colourful chum, Bird Alone is designed to be dipped into for a few minutes daily over the course of a few weeks. Over time, you build up something of a rapport, and are invited to partake in additional activities, such as drawing your fears and writing poetry. The parrot will ask basic questions about you, and riff off your responses. Said friend just happens to be feathered – a lively and sweet-natured but lonely parrot aching for company. Really, it’s more a slice of life the creator calls a “journey of growth and loss with a best friend”. Although lumped in with adventures for this roundup, Bird Alone sits slightly awkwardly in that genre.

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