➤ Viewfinder, the review of the puzzle game that plays with the perspective of the observer 🕹

The review of Viewfinder, the peculiar puzzle game from Sad Owl Studios whose puzzles revolve around the player's perspective.

The main marketing events dedicated to video games, if you are a small development studio, can undoubtedly represent an extraordinary opportunity, but they can also be very bloody rings where only those with more personality than others win. Live broadcasts, conferences and showcases usually devote a lot of time to products with a strong independent character, but the public often considers their presence as a fleeting interlude between one blockbuster and another, and ends up only liking those games with something really special to say.

Well, if it can already be very difficult to stand out during the course of an event, doing so with a trailer of just a few seconds released in the middle of a pre-show is a true feat, but sad owl studios, a small debut Scottish team, achieved it with Viewfinder, a puzzle game that managed to gain a large following in the shadow of the Game Awards 2022, appearing briefly in the preamble anticipating the awards.

The title had managed to capture everyone's attention for its ability to play with the observer's perspective, and when the studio made a demo available we rushed to try it, receiving excellent impressions in return.

Now that Sad Owl Studios' creature is gearing up to be released on PlayStation 5 and PC, we've finally explored the full version of the game and we're ready to tell you about it in the Viewfinder Review, a puzzle adventure where all the puzzles are just one point of view.

Change perspective

Viewfinder, the review of the puzzle game that plays with the perspective of the observer — In Viewfinder, perspective is the key to every puzzle

The type of puzzle game It is almost as old as the concept of the video game itself, but experiences that have the perspective of the player as the main protagonist are surprisingly few, to the point that its absence in the digital catalogs of PC and consoles is a real small anomaly. With the exception of Superliminal, which was however significantly less original due to its strong references to the Portal series, Viewfinder is unlike any other puzzle-based adventure, a good start if your goal is to break out of an increasingly competitive market like that of independent video games. .

Sad Owl Studios' effort is truly unique, although looking at its architecture it may seem at first glance indistinguishable from any other puzzle game on the market. The game follows a level structure, in which the only objective is to simply move on to the next, reaching an exit that is here represented by a banal teleportation, usually placed out of reach of the player. To get there we will have to remodel the stage from photographs, printing their content on the stage to create new shapes and useful paths to overcome the obstacles that separate us from the exit.

Is the teleporter out of range due to a rift? Enough photography any surface and put the image into perspective, to transform it into a bridge leading to the exit. We have to reach a high place and there is no sign of a ladder? Here the photo of a wall can be tilted to create a convenient ramp capable of solving the problem. Many puzzles expect to be completed in a specific pattern, but most of them don't assume a single solution, leaving us quite a bit of freedom in interpreting the mechanics.

In the initial stages of the adventure, for example, we will have little freedom to experiment with photographs, since these are located on the stage or are taken from predetermined points in the level. In the middle part of the game, however, you get a small one. Polaroid, and then Viewfinder becomes a real sandbox, where the only limit in finding the solution to a puzzle is the player's creativity. There is also no risk of making a mistake, as it is always possible, at any time, to go back in time and retrace your steps, to try new imaginative answers to the puzzle.

A story in pastel colors

Focusing the entire game on the photo mechanic could have made the puzzles prone to repetitiveness, but Viewfinder does this well too, as in the roughly five hours we spent getting to the end credits, we were faced with constantly evolving puzzle, capable of always offering new situations thanks to the frequent introduction of new rules. If at least initially it is enough to reach a teleporter to exit the level, then we may have to collect batteries to activate it, or have to deal with surfaces that cannot be photographed and on which it is not possible to print an image.

Once you've absorbed the right mindset, it's never too complicated to solve a scenario, but this is a very personal variable and largely depends on how accustomed you are to facing the challenges of a puzzle game, so we don't feel like give too much importance to little difficulty of the puzzles. The good news is that, although they represent the beating heart of Viewfinder, the puzzles compete for the spotlight with exploration, which always manages to reward the player's curiosity.

Exploring a level is essential, not only because the game is full of little secrets, easter eggs and collectibles, but also because only by looking around you can you find those fragments of emerging fiction which together make up the story behind Viewfinder. The story unfolds on the notes of some audio fragments that reveal the nature of the world we visit, through the testimonies of a cast of characters now invisible, but who have left the mark of their passage in every corner. To tell the truth, we will not be entirely alone during the journey towards the final credits, since we will be accompanied by Cait, a cat who assumes the role of narrator and guide throughout the adventure.

La history it has no desire to replace the gameplay and remains marginal for much of the time, however it is actually crucial in acting as a glue between the scenarios, which would otherwise have been alternated in a too antiseptic manner. Having a purpose while solving Viewfinder's puzzles gives a completely different flavor to the progression, and allows you to easily immerse yourself in the pastel colors that characterize the game's environments, created with an exquisite artistic style.

Conclusions

Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam, PlayStation Store Holygamerz.com 8.0 Readers (11) 8.4 your vote

There is no doubt, in its absolute debut the small Scottish team Sad Owl Studios hit the mark, proposing a puzzle like it has rarely been seen, in which the solution to each puzzle is just a matter of point of view. The choice to focus the entire formula on perspective and photographs exposed Viewfinder to several pitfalls, but the studio was able to create a puzzle-based adventure with very few flaws, all centered around the poor longevity and difficulty of the puzzles, which only in some cases really corner us. Give him a chance, because he deserves it.