Reality Sleights

Greetings, and welcome to one of the least informative reviews I have for you. I’m still going to give you most of what you want, but this game deserves a treatment which provides the fewest spoilers possible. It’s called Viewfinder, and it’s one of the more interesting puzzle games I have played in a long time.

With most puzzle games, you wander around and figure stuff out. The puzzle is figuring out what to do or in what order to do the things. These are all OK, and I have played several with various levels of enjoyment.

Viewfinder, however, uses photographs, paintings, screenshots, etc. within the game world to create new elements within the game world. If you hold up a picture of a bridge and lock it in with the L button, the image becomes part of the reality of the game; you simply walk into the picture. This was an unexpected and creative twist.

When you start the game, you find yourself in a 3D world with buildings, mountains, and fluffy clouds. You will notice quickly that the buildings are rather high up and there is a lot of empty sky beneath you, so don’t fall off the ledge (don’t worry; if you do fall, the game has another interesting surprise to keep you playing without having to start everything over). The mechanics for getting around in the game are probably familiar to most players—left joystick moves you around, right joystick changes where you are looking (or, where the camera is pointed). There are also the standard A button to use a thing, B button to jump, and so on. There is another spoiler here with the Y button, but I’ll let the game tell you how to use it (it’s very handy).

The pace of the game is a bit sedate. After all, it is an open 3D environment where you need to wander around and find stuff and figure things out. So, no monsters or combat sequences. The game has a way to re-try an unsuccessful attempt at performing tasks, but that is another spoiler not included in this review. I will tell you that you should be wary of taking things at face value. Be ready to use a little lateral thinking when solving the puzzles—keep your mind open in this world. There are some interesting surprises about the nature of the world which add dimension to the story, but that is another spoiler you don’t want.

As mentioned above, there are buildings, mountains, and fluffy clouds. You also get the sounds of insects (bees and crickets) to add some ambiance. The game will also include a few elements of whimsy, just because it can. The buildings provide the impression that the occupants were artists. There are some points at which the game will provide narration or a note you can read to get some of the backstory. Information comes in small and infrequent doses, so a good memory helps. The visuals are quite nice, and background music is pleasant and subtle. Their combined effect is actually a bit soothing.

This is helpful because the game doesn’t give you many hints (it is a puzzle, after all) and it may take a few passes at a level to get everything just right. Once you do get things right and complete a level, the teleporter station will unlock and allow you to proceed to the next level.

The game also provides some hidden gems—bonus levels and collectible items to find. These are still in keeping with the overall theme of the game, so it isn’t like a different type of game-within-a-game. The bonus levels are just a diversion from the normal level progression, but you have to either be diligent searching the main level or stumble upon the entry to the bonus level.

As promised, there is not a lot of information about what you need to do or how exactly to do it in Viewfinder. Most of the games I have reviewed follow known paths and use familiar means to get from point A to point B. I can happily report that this is one of the very few games which provided me with a surprise with the gameplay.