Every once in a while a game will be released that reaffirms that video games are just as much of an artistic platform as any other. Crow is one of those games. And, surprisingly, Crow is a mobile game. It’s hard enough for a game to distinguish itself as art in the console and PC world, but it’s even more impressive when a game like Crow comes along and distinguishes itself from all of the social games and time-wasters.

In Crow, the player is a crow. The players controls the crow as it roams around collecting trinkets and fulfilling objectives as it progresses through an interesting storyline of spell casting crows, ancient guardians, and scarecrows. At times, the game allows the player to roam about an area and during missions it becomes an on-rail game where the crow needs to dodge various attacks and obstacles while collected power-ups.

The opening cutscene will immediately get players into the game. It’s graphically stunning and made me wonder what exactly this game was about. It threw out words like “fate” and “other worlds” that gave the game a mysterious air.

The music is quite good…epic, in a way. It certainly gives players the feeling that this is a game with no comparison on iOS. The music is unique in the way the game is unique, but it does give off a “questy” quality that let’s players know they’re on a mission.

It seemed that the crow has a sort of moral dilemma in some cases. For example, when I defeated the Scarecrow I was given the option to either curse or spare him. I, of course, picked curse and was rewarded with an ability called “Fury.” I assume if I picked the other choice, I would have been granted another ability (probably one that had to do with protection or healing).

The only problem I noticed with the game was that one time (a completely random time during an on-rail mission) my keyboard popped up on the screen. Obviously, it messed up the mission I was on. I was able to quickly minimize the keyboard before it could distract much. But it was an annoying and absolutely random occurrence.

Unique is the word for this game.

In terms of story, it’s unique. The game is from the perspective of a crow.

In term’s of gameplay, it’s unique. It’s sometimes a free-roaming game and at others an on-rail game…a mix of the most open and most restricting gameplay styles there are.

And there’s something different and interesting about almost every other aspect of the game including music, sound effects, scoring, and more. This is one of those games everyone needs to try.

As a last note, Crow is universal. But owners of the new iPad should definitely choose their iPads over their iPhones to take advantage of the beautiful and strange graphics in the game. Check out the gameplay video below.