“Viewfinder is an ingenious puzzle game that wows at every turn, even if its sci-fi story stretches to find deeper meaning in its mind-bending photo hook.”
Pros
Ingenious puzzle hook
Room for a number of options
Clever gameplay twists
Doesn’t overstay its welcome
Cons
Limited experimentation
Some clumsy storytelling
The first second I held up a 2D photograph in Viewfinder and noticed it seamlessly remodel into a completely traversable 3D area, I felt like I might accomplish the not possible. It’s an unbelievable trick that instantly makes the indie puzzler really feel limitless. I couldn’t cease dreaming up artistic options to each drawback it could throw at me, proving that I used to be at all times good sufficient to sort out even the trickiest conundrums.
That rewarding gameplay loop makes Viewfinder’s story all of the extra tragic. Just exterior the partitions of its sunny check chambers, overflowing with colourful flora, the true world is a wasteland. Decimated by the consequences of local weather change, the planet is awash in a hazy purple veil that makes it look extra like Mars than Earth. When I cease gleefully taking part in round with pictures and begin studying the stacks of sticky notes and analysis logs scattered round me, I uncover the story of a scientist determined to search out the one reply that’ll repair all of it. It’s an not possible drawback looking for an not possible resolution — one which not even a reality-bending magic trick can clear up.
Like Portal, Viewfinder is the type of recreation that instantly wows due to an astonishing central hook that works and not using a hitch. Though its self-serious narrative can really feel solely disconnected from that playful system at instances, it’s the type of ingenious puzzle recreation that encourages gamers to remain curious and at all times sort out each drawback from each perspective they will discover earlier than giving up.
A real magic trick
Even if you happen to haven’t heard the identify Viewfinder, there’s an opportunity you’ve really seen it. The venture sprung out of a viral tweet in 2020, by which developer Matt Stark shared a work-in-progress prototype of its distinctive puzzle system. The video reveals him taking Polaroid pictures of a room in first-person and putting them, immediately turning them into 3D environments. It was attention-grabbing sufficient to earn over 200,000 views, however the jury was out on whether or not or not that concept might transcend gimmick in a full recreation. Be relaxation assured, it does with ease.
A recreation stuffed with surprises that at all times left me questioning what else was attainable.
The first time that you just recreate that trick in one in every of a number of puzzle chambers feels genuinely magical. One easy early puzzle, as an illustration, has me attempting to determine how you can cross a niche between platforms that’s too lengthy to leap over. After rummaging round, I discover a photograph of a bridge. I place myself good in order that it neatly suits between the 2 platforms and place it with the press of my DualSense’s proper set off. With not a lot as a body drop, that flat picture immediately turns into a part of the world, creating a brand new platform I can stroll throughout.
Explaining it in writing, and even watching it in a video, doesn’t do it justice. You must strive it your self to really consider it.
Sad Owl Studios
It’s not only a one-trick pony. Viewfinder finds a number of methods to twist that concept and create a variety of puzzles that play with perspective. The gist of nearly each puzzle is that gamers must discover a teleporter to proceed, which frequently must be powered up with just a few batteries. That’s both completed through the use of particular pictures mendacity across the degree or through the use of a Polaroid digital camera that has restricted pictures. The primary concept mutates in a number of intelligent methods all through the journey, often calling for a singular resolution. One puzzle has me attempting to clone a battery by taking a photograph of it, dragging the battery inside that shot subsequent to the opposite, and taking an image of each to create 4. A extra advanced variation has me taking that shot subsequent to an additional roll of movie for my digital camera, ensuring that I can take a limiteless variety of pictures. No puzzle is simply too troublesome to resolve due to how straightforward it’s to position pictures and rewind time to check one other speculation with out penalty.
Like any good puzzle recreation, additional mechanical twists preserve chambers participating as much as the tip of a compact, four-hour expertise. One set of ranges introduces sound-powered teleporters, which has me taking pictures of noisy radios and putting them subsequent to the sensor. Later, I discover a photocopier, permitting me to clone pictures and join them to an M. C. Escher-like maze of hallways. There isn’t a dud within the batch, as Viewfinder is cautious to not overdo any of its concepts. There’s refreshing self-restraint on show right here, as developer Sad Owl Studios at all times focuses on experiments that really feel enjoyable moderately than advanced for the sake of problem. Though I do want I had extra room to experiment exterior of its handful of tightly constructed puzzle rooms that always signpost a transparent resolution.
Above all else, Viewfinder by no means forgets to have enjoyable. Levels are filled with little Easter eggs which might be largely there for the sake of making purely playful interactions. In one degree, I choose up a screenshot of a pc desktop and begin drawing in a Microsoft Paint-style app. In one other, I place a easy kids’s drawing on the planet and am shocked once I understand I can stroll by the entrance door of the crudely drawn crayon home in it. It’s a recreation stuffed with surprises that at all times left me questioning what else was attainable.
Impossible issues
While I wasn’t anticipating a lot in the way in which of narrative, Viewfinder really does have fairly a bit to say due to a shocking sci-fi twist. I’m not working by random puzzle ranges, however moderately fixing issues in a digital simulation created to check options which may clear up the planet’s extra critical disaster. You might end up asking how the Polaroid photosystem thematically connects to a critical meditation on local weather change. Admittedly, it’s a significant stretch.
Sad Owl Studios
Playing by the narrative, I couldn’t assist however really feel like its big-picture story got here a lot in improvement later than the guiding gameplay hook. The hyperlink between the interactions and worldbuilding feels solely random at instances, with the photosystem barely contextualized in a narrative about researchers attempting to reintroduce flowers to a lifeless planet. Just as these characters got down to clear up a troublesome drawback with no straightforward reply, developer Sad Owl maybe bumped into that very same hurdle when attempting to drag the proper which means out of a enjoyable gameplay gimmick.
That’s to not say that Viewfinder is solely unsuccessful in its narrative ambitions. I discovered myself connecting to the story of a decided researcher battling a mounting sense of hopelessness. That arc, instructed solely by scattered notes and phonograph recordings, dovetails properly with the sport’s personal problem curve, as her frustrations line up with trickier puzzles that had me racking my mind for solutions. The severity of these two experiences is a careless mismatch, nevertheless it’s a considerate solution to characterize an “all hope is lost” construct by puzzle recreation construction.
Viewfinder not less than leaves me hopeful that human ingenuity can at all times discover a solution to win.
Viewfinder is at its greatest when it’s talking in broader phrases in regards to the human expertise. It’s a celebration of our malleability, testing our capability to persevere after we’re prepared to view an issue from each perspective. For each well-designed online game puzzle, there’s not less than one resolution to be discovered. And although that design philosophy might not translate to the overwhelming, existential threats we face in the true world, Viewfinder not less than leaves me hopeful that human ingenuity can at all times discover a solution to win.
And how might I not suppose that after taking part in one thing like Viewfinder? Even after finishing all its puzzles, I’m nonetheless left in awe of how a developer might create such a mind-bending system, turn out to be a viral sensation, and switch that momentum right into a full launch as spectacular as this. If that unlikely success story doesn’t depart you with a little bit of hope, perhaps you’re viewing it from the flawed angle.
Viewfinder was reviewed on a PS5 hooked as much as a TCL 6-Series R635.
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