The Master’s Pupil Switch Review

I’ll be the first to admit that I may not be refined or walk the inner circles of the art world, which is why The Masters Pupil flew under my radar until it was launched today. I was fortunate enough to stumble across this bloke called Pat Naoum on Twitter, who turns out lives just up the road (reminding our international readers that “just up the road” can mean anywhere from 5 minutes to 15 hours drive) and I thought I would check out the game on the Eshop.

Let’s have a yarn about it…

In what, to me, is the most single intriguing game description ever, The Master’s Pupil is a game set in the eye of Claude Monet as he struggles to finish his works with the onset of eye disease. You play as a little painted being that runs through a hand-painted and beautifully crafted world solving puzzles and discovering art. These puzzles mainly consist of mixing sprays of colour to reduce growth and progress further through Claude Monet’s career timeline. While all of this may sound simplistic, there were many puzzles that I am ashamed to admit, stumped me, which led to a greater sense of completion when I finally solved it.

There is no dialogue or spoken words, and the story is told through Monet’s art so to speak, as well as enhanced by stellar sound choices and a beautiful musical score. It’s a wonderful world and game to get absolutely absorbed in largely due to the fact you feel like you are playing a painting. On that note, everything was hand painted before being digitally added to the game and it is simply gorgeous, although, I would have loved to see more variation in the level design as it can feel a bit repetitive. There are some large set pieces that do mix up the optical jungle vine-like world, I just guess would have liked to have seen more I suppose.

The game is shorter than most, although I can see myself going back for another play-through when I have gone through my back catalogue as I would like to learn more about Monet to appreciate the artwork even more.

That being said my time with The Master’s Pupil was an engrossing one. A visual delight that kept me enthralled with the setting, challenging puzzles, and a genuinely unique experience.

Pat Naoum Games has come out swinging with a very strong debut for an Aussie game studio, and his story is that of a true blue battler, taking a gamble to deliver one of the most unique games I’ve ever had the joy of playing.

If you want to see more games like this that take risks, for the very reasonable price of $20, I suggest you put your Monet where your mouth is and get yourself a copy of The Master’s Pupil.

So What’s it like?

An afternoon at the art gallery, mixed with Little Big Planet