With games like Myst, Portal and The Talos Principle, its brilliant developers showed us that there’s more to first-person games than just combat. They provided immersive story-driven experiences that made players worldwide come to appreciate their masterful approach to delivering entertainment, one that was definitely felt in 2023’s Viewfinder from Sad Owl Studios.
Bringing in a literal fresh perspective to gaming in the way it shifted the way you’d see its world by using 2D photos in order to change the scenery around you in order to solve a number of brain conundrums, Viewfinder was a visually striking game that played with your expectations. And now Switch owners have a chance to see what it’s all about with its arrival to the eShop.
My pal Gareth has already given us the rundown as to what makes this game so special, and given the opportunity to play through it myself, I can say he was right on the money. This is easily one of the most fun concepts I’ve seen in quite a while, and outside of some frame-y performance on Switch 2 which I assume could be addressed with a patch or an actual upgrade to that platform, portably is a very decent way for it to be played.
While it’s a correct summary to say that Viewfinder’s gameplay concept is at its core simple, it would be a disservice to boil it down to just a rehash of an idea copied over and over ad nauseam. What we’ve got here is a very contained puzzle experience with a message to pass along through its environmental and direct storytelling. It’s not as overbearing in this as say, The Witness, which left you to your devices to put it all together, progress in Viewfinder is directly tied to its narrative, and vice-versa.
Ever since the game was first announced, I’ve been chomping at the bit for an opportunity to play it, and I believe for those who were at that same camp, doing so on the Switch isn’t a bad way to do so. If the performance gets tweaked, in fact, I would say that having this on a portable system is the best way to enjoy it given how convenient it is to put it down and pick back up for a quick play when needed.
In that, it’s easy to recommend Viewfinder to anyone with access to a Switch regardless of their experience with first-person or any other form of videogame honestly. It’s the sort of thing you can keep in your hard drive and enjoy for months to come, a puzzle at a time, or devour it in a matter of hours. However you end up solving it, it’s something that will stick with you as one of the best of its kind.
