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A fresh perspective on first-person puzzles - Viewfinder Quick Review

5K View2023-07-17

Viewfinder

9.0

AbstractRetroPsychologicalFirst-PersonAdventureSingleplayerPuzzleExploration

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PLAY IT OR SKIP IT?

Play it! Viewfinder is the kind of game that doesn’t come around very often, the kind that makes you rethink what’s possible in games. While it isn’t very long, it’s packed with fun puzzles that gave me complete freedom to solve them the way I wanted to. Each one felt like watching a magic trick performed right before my eyes, and I could step directly into the illusion the next moment. It’s a game about perspective, and if you’ve ever pored over a book of M.C. Escher’s impossible architecture, you’ll love Viewfinder’s weird journey.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve played almost six hours of Viewfinder, which has taken me up to what I believe is the final puzzle. The game is divided into a handful of hub areas, each of which contains portals to a selection of puzzles and puzzle sequences. There are a few I’d like to go back and revisit, and some collectibles to discover in each zone, but all told, I imagine six to seven hours is what the average player can expect to spend playing Viewfinder from beginning to end.

WHAT’S AWESOME

• Unique puzzle mechanics. As its name suggests, Viewfinder is about cameras and pictures, and the way these are used as the basis for puzzles is nothing short of amazing. As I explored each area in Viewfinder, I found photos that I could hold up in front of me. By clicking a button, I would then transpose that photo’s contents onto the world behind it. Later in the game, I found a Polaroid-style camera that allowed me to take my own photos and copy parts of the environment. Each new zone introduced new wrinkles to this formula, like a photocopier and purple “infected” elements of the environment that couldn’t be photographed. It’s like no other puzzle game I’ve ever played.

• Freedom to create solutions. Unlike many puzzle games, Viewfinder let me figure out how to solve things the way I wanted to. Often, there’s no “set” solution to a given scenario, and I hacked together pictures of staircases and doors until I found my way to the next portal. That made figuring out some of the game’s tougher puzzles even more rewarding, since the solutions always feel organic and original.

• Chill vibes. Up until the final level, everything in Viewfinder is extremely peaceful and calm, from the gentle color palette to the soothing music. I had as much time as I wanted—again, with the exception of the final level—to complete puzzles, and if I screwed something up or fell off a ledge, holding the B button would simply rewind time as far back as I wanted, Forza Horizon-style.

• Explorable classic artwork. Scattered throughout Viewfinder I found famous art that I could hold up and transpose onto the scene just like I did with the photographs. Piet Mondrian’s iconic Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow became a multistory jazz club, and I ventured over the bridge in Edvard Munch’s The Scream. It’s another way that Viewfinder plays with perspective, and I found it delightful every time.

• You can pet the cat. And you should, frequently.

WHAT SUCKS

• It’s over pretty quickly. As I mentioned earlier, Viewfinder took me about six hours to get through, and while there are still a few collectibles left to find, there aren’t many compelling reasons to revisit levels I’ve already cleared. I’m not complaining about Viewfinder’s length, mind you—I think it’s fine when games don’t overstay their welcome. If you’re looking for something that’s going to keep you occupied for a couple weeks, though, this isn’t it.

• Some ideas feel under-explored. I just got done saying that I don’t think it’s a problem when games are short, but I do think Viewfinder has space to be bigger than it is. Some mechanics introduced in the latter half of the game feel underutilized, like the timed cameras that let me photograph myself and use the resulting image to teleport myself around a level.

• The final level. I’ve mentioned Viewfinder’s final level a couple times now without explaining why that’s where I’ve stopped. The reason is that it’s quite a bit harder than anything that leads up to it, mainly because, unlike any other level in the entire game, the entire thing has to be completed in a fixed amount of time. I had five minutes to complete a surprisingly lengthy sequence of tricky puzzles. Because the rest of the game is so relaxed, this felt unpleasantly jarring—it’s at odds with everything Viewfinder had been setting up until that point.

[Review written by TapTap editor @Ian Boudreau]

💬 Are you ready to give Viewfinder a look, or do you *shutter* at the thought of a chilled-out puzzle game? Let me know what you think in the comments.