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Black Swan

Black Swan Game Cover
19%Game Brain Score
story, graphics
stability, gameplay
19% User Score Based on 62 reviews

Platforms

PCWindows
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Black Swan Game Cover

About

Black Swan is a single player casual action adventure game. It was developed by Space Monkey International and was released on May 24, 2016. It received negative reviews from players.

Explore the haunted history of a ballet school while guided by spirits from another dimension! Can you help guide these poor souls home? Find out, in Black Swan!

Genres & Tags
Play Modes
Black Swan screenshot
Black Swan screenshot
Black Swan screenshot
Black Swan screenshot
Black Swan screenshot
Black Swan screenshot
Black Swan screenshot
Skip User Reviews

19%
Audience ScoreBased on 62 reviews
story13 positive mentions
stability12 negative mentions
  • The game features beautiful graphics and a captivating atmosphere, enhancing the overall experience.
  • The story has interesting elements and includes a variety of puzzles, providing some engaging gameplay.
  • The game offers a fast travel map and a journal that helps track tasks, making navigation easier.
  • The game is plagued by numerous bugs and crashes, often making it unplayable and forcing players to restart.
  • Hidden object scenes are poorly designed, with many items having inaccurate hitboxes, leading to frustration.
  • Translation errors and illogical puzzle mechanics detract from the overall enjoyment and coherence of the game.
  • story
    40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story of the game is a mixed bag, with some players finding it interesting and well-detailed, particularly in its haunting ballet school setting, while others describe it as confusing and poorly executed, especially as it progresses. Technical issues, such as bugs and unclear quest markers, detract significantly from the narrative experience, leading to frustration and a lack of immersion. Overall, while the visuals and atmosphere are praised, the storytelling suffers from inconsistencies and gameplay problems that hinder enjoyment.

    • “Such detail in the story, finishing without a single word spoken or text shown.”
    • “The storyline has some interesting qualities to it, and I love how they incorporated appropriate classical pieces, making it more of an experience.”
    • “The graphic is beautiful, the story is decent.”
    • “The story starts off when Victoria Bonpartie was invited to a ballet performance, she was handed a strange letter asking for help.”
    • “And if the story seems to be relatively well written in the beginning, it becomes more and more rushed and confusing as we progress.”
    • “The lackluster story did not at all make up for the buggy and nonsensical gameplay.”
  • graphics
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the beautiful and detailed artwork, dreamlike quality, and impressive visuals that enhance the atmosphere. However, some users note issues such as outdated graphics, pixelation, and technical bugs that detract from the overall experience. While the visuals and soundtrack are highlights, the game's execution and stability leave much to be desired.

    • “Graphically, the game just shines, with every scene more beautiful than the last.”
    • “The locations' artwork is beautiful and very detailed; even the journal has all the story details and objectives, the perfect journal for these types of games.”
    • “Beautiful graphics, dream-like quality, semi-dark theme, and a gloomy dreamscape atmosphere, complemented by a really nice soundtrack that I'd recommend you listen to from the bonus section.”
    • “Ignoring the weird graphics (some kind of 2D images puppeted and shifted to look 3D) and the repetitive and nonsensical gameplay that you'd expect from one of these games, it ended up just crashing once you get to one of the early portions of the game near the lake.”
    • “The graphics in some parts seem much older than stated, and sometimes even when you know the right answer, you're stuck clicking the hint button as it's hard to find the exact right place.”
    • “Some objects were pixelated/blurry against a lot of high-quality artwork.”
  • music
    22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is generally praised for its quality, featuring a mix of beautifully rearranged classical pieces and original compositions that enhance the atmosphere. While some players find the soundtrack superb and fitting, others note that the music can become repetitive over time. Overall, the music stands out as a highlight, contributing positively to the game's experience despite some technical issues.

    • “The voice overs were good, and the soundtrack consists of gorgeously rearranged classical pieces that fit the mood of the game perfectly.”
    • “The music is a mixture of original classics and a dark remix of it which I loved!”
    • “Beautiful graphics, dream-like quality, semi-dark theme, and a really nice soundtrack that I'd recommend you listen to from the bonus section where you can hear full soundtracks of pieces in the game.”
    • “Music is fine, but repetitive.”
    • “Sadly, it seems they forgot to include the soundtrack files to download, but you can listen to them in-game after finishing the main story.”
    • “The music and visuals are probably the reason I can recommend this game.”
  • stability
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from significant stability issues, including frequent crashes, bugs, and glitches that disrupt gameplay and progression. Players report frustrating mechanics, poorly designed controls, and inconsistent item interactions, leading to a generally unstable experience. While some enjoy the game, many recommend playing it with caution due to its technical problems.

    • “Not only did the game crash right at the end, making the inventory disappear once I restarted it and therefore preventing me from actually finishing the game, but the game is generally buggy, filled with confusion about when you can pick/use an item and when not, badly designed hidden object scenes, and fairly annoying minigames.”
    • “It's a good game but has technical problems; it runs at 4:3, and if you want a widescreen experience, the game is just stretched on the screen. What is worse is that it has stability issues and glitches here and there, which can even lead to breaking the game and stopping progression.”
    • “I lost six hours starting the game from the beginning each time, only to end with different glitches in the middle of the story.”
  • gameplay
    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay has received largely negative feedback, with users citing convoluted mechanics, buggy controls, and a nonsensical progression system. While some appreciate the game's length and beauty, many find the experience tedious and exhausting, often leading to crashes and the need to restart. Overall, the gameplay is considered lackluster and frustrating, overshadowing any positive aspects.

    • “The story is great, the mechanics are fun, and there is a lot of beauty in the game.”
    • “Long gameplay time (3 and a half hours for the main story and almost 40 minutes for the bonus chapter).”
    • “[b]gameplay[/b]:”
    • “Ignoring the weird graphics (some kind of 2D images puppeted and shifted to look 3D) and the repetitive and nonsensical gameplay that you'd expect from one of these games, it ended up just crashing once you get to one of the early portions of the game near the lake.”
    • “The mechanics are convoluted and unexplained, the controls buggy and the progression system makes no sense.”
    • “The lackluster story did not at all make up for the buggy and nonsensical gameplay.”
  • atmosphere
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is praised for its beautiful, detailed visuals and a dreamlike, semi-dark theme complemented by a captivating soundtrack. However, numerous bugs and game-breaking issues detract from the overall experience, leaving players frustrated despite the strong atmospheric elements. If these technical problems were resolved, many believe the game could stand out as a favorite for its immersive atmosphere.

    • “Beautiful graphics, dream-like quality, semi-dark theme, and a gloomy dreamscape atmosphere, complemented by a really nice soundtrack that I'd recommend you listen to from the bonus section where you can hear full soundtracks of pieces in the game.”
    • “On one hand, I like the story, and the soundtrack and atmosphere are great, but on the other, the game has plenty of bugs that range from frustrating (like puzzles not working as intended) to ones that make the game crash (and pray you don't get stuck).”
    • “I think there may be a few bugs, and if the developers would fix these, this game would be one of my favorites for atmosphere, graphics, music, and I love hidden object games where you have a lot of places to explore.”
    • “I think there may be a few bugs, and if the developers would fix these, this game could actually be one of my favorites for atmosphere, graphics, and music. I love games where you have a lot of places to explore.”
  • replayability
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers strong replayability with 20 hidden object scenes and 11 mini-games that can be played multiple times, providing players with ample opportunities to revisit and enjoy the content.

    • “20 replayable hidden object scenes”
    • “11 replayable mini-games”
    • “The game features only 20 replayable hidden object scenes, which quickly become repetitive.”
    • “With just 11 replayable mini-games, the lack of variety makes it hard to stay engaged.”
    • “The limited number of replayable elements really diminishes the overall replayability of the game.”
  • grinding
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, with a juvenile storyline and puzzles that lack clear guidance, leading to a frustrating experience.

    • “The storyline was juvenile and the gameplay was tedious.”
    • “The puzzles vary from pretty easy to very tedious, where 'tedious' means that they don't provide very good guidelines on what the expected end result is for the player.”
  • character development
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The character development is highlighted by the unique design of the ghosts, which draws inspiration from "The Nightmare Before Christmas," adding a whimsical and enjoyable aesthetic to the characters.

    • “The character design of the ghosts was reminiscent of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', but I enjoyed that.”
  • optimization
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The reviews do not provide specific feedback on the game's optimization, focusing instead on the narrative setup involving the character Victoria Bonpartie and a mysterious letter. Therefore, no conclusions about optimization can be drawn from the provided text.

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7h Median play time
7h Average play time
7-7h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Skip FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Black Swan is a casual action adventure game.

Black Swan is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 7 hours playing Black Swan.

Black Swan was released on May 24, 2016.

Black Swan was developed by Space Monkey International.

Black Swan has received negative reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its stability.

Black Swan is a single player game.

Similar games include Hope Lake, Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek, Sacra Terra: Kiss of Death Collector’s Edition, Demon Hunter: Chronicles from Beyond, Frankenstein Master of Death and others.