Viewfinder review: puzzle game heaven in the veins of Portal

Perhaps you, like me, have someone in your life who is not familiar with video games. Maybe you could try giving them a controller sometime after they’ve expressed an interest in what you’re playing. Suddenly, the problem arose. Mainly with camera controls. They don’t know how to look where they should look while moving to where they should be moving. The camera points to the sky, and then, suddenly, to the ground. They call for help, and you try to explain, fighting for metaphors. The bar, uh, the left side is the body? And the stick on the right is the head? This did not help. They pass the controller back to you. In your hands, the game is like a movie, not a historical movie aimed at causing motion sickness.

After a while, the basics of controlling a first-person game, shooter or otherwise, will feel as natural as riding a bicycle. It’s not something you’re actively thinking about. (It’s certainly not something you mentioned in your introduction to Polygon dot com.) But while playing viewfinderThe first game from developer Sad Owl Studios, details on first-person camera controls are all I can think of.

viewfinder is a first-person puzzle game that tasks you with placing photographs over existing geographies to modify your terrain, allowing you to reach the exit of the stage.

Like all great puzzle games, it starts out simple: It gives you a snapshot of a bridge and takes you to where a bridge might cross. You lift the picture up, sort it roughly where you want it, then, wham, quick-shift-o, you’ve got a real bridge, out of the picture and into the world with can go through by pressing a button. button.

Image: Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful via Polygon

Image: Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful via Polygon

Quickly, of course, viewfinder introduce complications. The exit now requires a battery. Simple enough: Here’s a photo of the battery. Put it in the frame, and now it’s yours. Ah, well, now you need two batteries. Easy. Having a conveniently placed copier allows you to make a copy of a similar photo conveniently with just one battery. Finally, you own a camera, so unlock viewfinderThe real potential of the game: the focus of the game is on the act of observing, looking for what needs to be copied in order to continue.

[Ed. note: Early game spoilers for Viewfinder follow.]

Compare with Portal arise, especially when the game shows its narrative hand. In the first place, you inadvertently created an error in the simulation that exposed the real settings. Gone are the warm locales dotted with sofas and snacks. When you exit the simulation, you now find yourself wandering in a cold, brutal structure, overlooking the city skyline covered with red dust air. The game is set in a future where the Earth is besieged by the effects of climate change. For this East Coast writer, the choice of red-tinged skies has become all the more haunting because of the ongoing wildfires in Canada and their downstream effects on air quality across the East Coast. . Also brought to mind are images of the day the sky turns orange in San Francisco in 2020. This is all to say: viewfinder is science fiction, but closer to realism than one might want to admit.

Image: Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful via Polygon

You quickly fix the problem that knocks you out of the simulation and back into the world of shots and bridges. However, you do not participate in VR for escapist reasons. Somewhere in this digital world, you are told, is the solution to the climate crisis.

It’s a rather dramatic setup, reinforced by plenty of notebooks to read and audio logs to listen to, which is typical of this type of game. There’s also a talking cat named Cait, a Cheshire-like figure, that chats with you throughout your journey. (Yes, you can pet the cat.) It was a compelling enough narrative shell, but it was the puzzles that pulled me through.

Image: Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful via Polygon

If Portal is to create holes to travel around the world, viewfinder is about creating worlds to traverse the aperture. According to the game’s conclusion, the levels go beyond the simple goal of “making a bridge in the image of a bridge” and into much more complex — and satisfying — territory.

I’m confused by a puzzle involving spheres, some geographies that can’t be photographed, and a slope. I stared at it for 10 minutes, completely confused, when at last I laughed as the light bulb went out in my head. Without spoiling anything, the solution involves turning what is usually an error of photo placement into a solution. It’s a clever game that teaches you to play it not only through your successes but also your mistakes.

Image: Sad Owl Studios/Thunderful via Polygon

viewfinder leaves you want more. I was hoping, when the credits rolled out, that there might be some extra challenge levels unlocked, but alas, I did all that needed to be done. However, I suspect there are many hidden in the game. Beyond the original forced simulation break, in which you explore the red sky world you call home, I found another opportunity to break out of the game’s intended boundaries. What I encountered was strange, magical, and physically impossible. It made me grin stupidly. Immediately, I wanted to go back and play it all again, certain that there must be other such geometries waiting for me to ask, “What if I try? this?”

viewfinder is puzzle game paradise. You will never look at the Polaroid the same way again, if you ever look at the Polaroid.

viewfinder will be released on July 18 on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. The game has been evaluated on PC using a pre-release download code provided by Thunderful. Vox Media has an affiliate partnership. These do not affect editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find Additional information on Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.