I just finished Viewfinder on Steam, and wanted to make a discussion thread for anyone else who might have here. My super light review/thoughts: I really like the main mechanic of this puzzle...
I just finished Viewfinder on Steam, and wanted to make a discussion thread for anyone else who might have here.
My super light review/thoughts:
I really like the main mechanic of this puzzle game! Slicing out and projecting new geometry into the world is an awesome concept, and using it in perspective puzzles is really smart. I was excited about this game when I first saw the trailer for it, and this mechanic of seamlessly dropping in new environments worked elegantly. No hitches or stutters as huge parts of the level get replaced, it was an impressive technical feat.
The additional puzzle mechanics were also interesting, the violet architecture, slicing wires by accident, the portals, were all really cool ideas, but are only used a couple times each in their respective introductions? I was expecting something akin to a Portal progression, where elements are introduced and then combined into more complex puzzles. A lot of these felt like it was introduced -> simple puzzle ->final puzzle and then you never saw the mechanic again. My personal favorite was the perspective maze, and there were only 2 or 3 of them. The very final level was probably my favorite conceptually, as it required actually combining concepts to succeed, but it was only once and had a time pressure.
As for the story/writing, I didn't like it. There were these ideas I felt like they were trying to convey "it's about the journey not the destination" or "the destructive nature of obsession" but none of these are explored, they're just stated at you in the hope you find it meaningful. I liked listening to the founders in a slice of life sense, but the never had anything particularly interesting to say, and in a world with so many audio log narrative games, this one is one of the most useless and bland. There was a lot of potential for exploring what it means to live in a digital space of possibility, but again, only mentioned, never discussed. The actual lines of dialogue I found very poorly written and amateurishly voice-acted, which I wouldn't mind so much for an indie game if listening to dialogue wasn't like 40% of your total time.
As for the ending, I'm not really sure where you get the plant from. Maybe it symbolizes hope built on the endeavors of others. Not getting a weather machine at the end and then deleting everything felt like it was trying to be poignant, but was way worse of a payoff than just getting a weather machine. It's the future in a fictional world, you can have a happy ending, it's allowed.
Overall, took me between 6-7 hours to beat every level and get most collectables, usually ~$25 would be steep for a game this short, but it has some really cool mechanical ideas, and it's visually gorgeous. Despite my feelings about the story and characters, the rest of the experience is really tightly designed and very polished.
I want to know all of your thoughts! What did you think of:
-The core mechanic
-The story
-The visuals
-The watermelon
-The meme achievements
or anything else
edit: thank you to whoever cleaned up the tags on this post
I just finished Viewfinder on Steam, and wanted to make a discussion thread for anyone else who might have here.
My super light review/thoughts:
I really like the main mechanic of this puzzle game! Slicing out and projecting new geometry into the world is an awesome concept, and using it in perspective puzzles is really smart. I was excited about this game when I first saw the trailer for it, and this mechanic of seamlessly dropping in new environments worked elegantly. No hitches or stutters as huge parts of the level get replaced, it was an impressive technical feat.
The additional puzzle mechanics were also interesting, the violet architecture, slicing wires by accident, the portals, were all really cool ideas, but are only used a couple times each in their respective introductions? I was expecting something akin to a Portal progression, where elements are introduced and then combined into more complex puzzles. A lot of these felt like it was introduced -> simple puzzle ->final puzzle and then you never saw the mechanic again. My personal favorite was the perspective maze, and there were only 2 or 3 of them. The very final level was probably my favorite conceptually, as it required actually combining concepts to succeed, but it was only once and had a time pressure.
As for the story/writing, I didn't like it. There were these ideas I felt like they were trying to convey "it's about the journey not the destination" or "the destructive nature of obsession" but none of these are explored, they're just stated at you in the hope you find it meaningful. I liked listening to the founders in a slice of life sense, but the never had anything particularly interesting to say, and in a world with so many audio log narrative games, this one is one of the most useless and bland. There was a lot of potential for exploring what it means to live in a digital space of possibility, but again, only mentioned, never discussed. The actual lines of dialogue I found very poorly written and amateurishly voice-acted, which I wouldn't mind so much for an indie game if listening to dialogue wasn't like 40% of your total time.
As for the ending, I'm not really sure where you get the plant from. Maybe it symbolizes hope built on the endeavors of others. Not getting a weather machine at the end and then deleting everything felt like it was trying to be poignant, but was way worse of a payoff than just getting a weather machine. It's the future in a fictional world, you can have a happy ending, it's allowed.
Overall, took me between 6-7 hours to beat every level and get most collectables, usually ~$25 would be steep for a game this short, but it has some really cool mechanical ideas, and it's visually gorgeous. Despite my feelings about the story and characters, the rest of the experience is really tightly designed and very polished.
I want to know all of your thoughts! What did you think of:
-The core mechanic
-The story
-The visuals
-The watermelon
-The meme achievements
or anything else
edit: thank you to whoever cleaned up the tags on this post