Viewfinder features some brilliantly basic Puzzle designs.

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Viewfinder (Reviewed)

Developer: Sad Owl Studios

Publisher: Thunderful Publishing

Released: July 18th, 2023

Price: $25 USD

Viewfinder is a first person puzzle-solver in which you are in search of an answer to your solutions that everyone else before you has failed to find.

It tells the story of a changing environment, human experience, and relationships that could be missed if you don't take the time to sit back and engage with the stories lore scattered around the world as sticky notes and recordings.

The progression in this game is straightforward, relying on the power of images and their memories by placing them in and around the world to bring them to life.

However, until you figure out the solution to some of these challenges, you'll be scratching your head, wondering, until you eventually put the solution together, whether by mistake or by seeing the solution yourself. Many of the riddles and optional puzzles are pretty ingenious if not very simple. The frequent altering of sceneries, visual filters, and features will always have you engaged.

Story

A bit confusing

So the tale I feel like was probably added to the game to give you a sense of mystery. Who are these people you keep hearing about? What is the purpose of a talking AI Cat? Leading up to the game's end, which felt a little bit out of place.

You've come to locate something, but it's not really clear what or why. It's as if they wanted the players to piece together the plot and make it their own, hints here and there as well as how you interacted with the final level.

I believe there might have been a lot more dialogue and possibly additional puzzles along with it, or even more to the out-of-simulation conversations with Jessie, one of the personals assisting you in your quest for answers. It all just feels a bit rushed, which is never a good thing for a story portion of a game.

This was not the games strongest suit.

Gameplay

Engaging

Due to the short length of this game, there isn't much to show without giving away almost all of the solutions to many of the more difficult puzzles, but what we show here is a great example of combining a negative image with a positive , indicating that positive (Red) objects will remain from a negative of that picture.

Vice versa, a positive image will replace a negative image but will also keep a negative (Blue) object for you to pick up after making the placement. There are a plethora of brilliant solutions to many of these simple puzzles, which are only challenging because they require you to think a little bit, but not in a difficult way, more of a thing about what you have learnt up to this point of the game.

During my full playthrough I did not run into any errors, bugs, glitches that impeded my ability to progress through the game in a timely manner. There were some thing like infinity loop glitches, but that was all apart of the game mechanics.

Conclusion

It's way too short

While the story was a little thin, it was the gameplay that kept me going. CAIT's ongoing motivated attempts and the sense of progression after being stumped for a few minutes are things I consider necessary in puzzle games, rather than clearly apparent puzzles or problems that require you to complete a Doctorate to solve. You won't find either of these here, but a moderate level of difficulty.

It does leave me a little disappointed, because the voice acting and character interaction with those around you were excellent, and I would have wanted the game to last a little longer simply to have more content to play and more obvious endings rather than the make-your-own-story finale based off what happens.

It isn't all bad. The game does an excellent job of demonstrating how really enjoyable a puzzle solver can be, even if you're not particularly interested in them. Leading the way for future puzzle games to take note of how to do things and improve on them over time.

This concludes my views of this game; while my opinions may be met with criticism, that is what distinguishes gamers; you don't have to like the same things as others, nor do you have to agree with them.

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- Pawkt