Viewfinder
Genres: Puzzle, Atmospheric, Thriller, Adventure
Play modes: singleplayer
Release Date: 18-7-2023
Developer: Sad Owl Studios
Our verdict
8/10
- Difficulty: Easy
- Players: 1
- Playtime: 4–6 h
Viewfinder is a first-person puzzle game built around one trick: you take a photo, a painting or a sketch, hold it up, and it becomes real space in the world. Bridges, stairs and whole rooms appear wherever you place the picture. It suits solo players who like Portal or Superliminal and enjoy bending perspective more than grinding through hard logic.
Players love that moment when a picture snaps into place and the level suddenly works differently. Later chapters add new twists, such as using paintings, sketches and screenshots instead of photos, so the core idea stays fresh. A recurring point, though, is that the puzzles stay easy from start to finish, and several reviewers call it relaxing rather than brainy. The story, told through audio logs and notes from a research team, is the most criticised part: many turned the voice-over down, though the cat companion is widely liked.
Most people finish in four to six hours including optional challenges, and reviewers repeatedly say it feels steep at full price. If you want a short, clever and calm puzzle game with a genuinely new mechanic, pick it up on sale. Puzzle veterans looking for a stiff challenge will find it thin.
Pros
- Placing photos to rebuild the world is a genuinely new puzzle mechanic
- Each hub adds a fresh twist instead of repeating itself
- Free rewind and no fail states keep it calm and accessible
Cons
- Puzzles barely get harder; seasoned solvers find it too easy
- Story and voice acting in the audio logs often called weak
- Short for the full price; most finish in about five hours
About
Challenge perception, redefine reality, and reshape the world around you with an instant camera. Viewfinder is a new single player game offering gamers hours of interesting and fun experiences while uncovering the mysteries left behind.
Viewfinder is a mind-bending first person adventure game in which you can bring pictures to life by placing them into the world.
- Reshape Reality: Beyond photographs, bring paintings, sketches, screenshots and postcards to life while reshaping the world
- Exploration is learning: You will learn the secrets of the world, the reason why it exists, and the freedom to create. Explore multiple hub worlds that are all cohesive and encompass similar, but complex, differences
- Experience as much as you want: Viewfinder’s narrative is player driven and will be an approachable experience to someone who just wants to play and solve puzzles, and a rich well thought off world to a player who wants to learn more
- Find the answer to the impossible, once you step in the world of Viewfinder
