I reviewed Viewfinder for Polygon
Plus a few extra thoughts for the Backlog crowd
Hey, all! I reviewed the excellent Viewfinder for Polygon. This short but impactful puzzle game is a must-play for fans of Portal. As I wrote for Polygon:
If Portal is about creating apertures by which to traverse the world, Viewfinder is about creating the worlds by which to traverse apertures. By the game’s conclusion, levels go far beyond the simple “make a bridge with a picture of a bridge” and into much more complicated — and satisfying — territory.
It’s out tomorrow on PC and PlayStation.
I played the game on Steam Deck, which felt like a really immersive way to play. The game eventually becomes about taking pictures of your environment in order to manipulate it, which felt especially tactile on a handheld console. It runs great on the system, as well. If you’re split between PlayStation and PC, consider this my recommendation to play it on Valve’s not-so-little handheld wonder. Otherwise, put it up on the big screen and soak in the strange, colorful locales.
If you do end up playing it, I’d love to hear from you in the comments about your thoughts, especially on the game’s ending, which, for obvious reasons, I didn’t touch on in the review. Without spoiling anything, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about where (and how) it landed. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the game, but I’m interested to hear what you all think.
So, go play Viewfinder, come back here, and let’s talk [Spoilers] in the comments!