I remember looking at the trailer for Viewfinder and was immediately intrigued. It's the kind of game where I'm not only interested in its mechanics' technology but also curious about the kind of levels they are going to make.

This curiosity isn't the same kind of curiosity I had with portals, time reversal, or Splatoon's swimming thing. It's more of a "ok this is a troublesome mechnic to give players so how are they going to make a game out of it" kind of curiosity.

First of all, I'm not going to comment much about the story. I understand the kind of vibe they were going for but I didn't think the story is as "deep" as they presented. I'm not sure how the story is related to the mechanic. It's like yeah the scientists kind of need to create this virtual world for their research and happen to birth to the mechanisms of the game. Ok sure, you tried. I much prefer that they do not have a narrative like that but I acknowledge that it feels like a requirement nowadays for games like these.

I haven't talked about the main mechanic. It looks complicated at first because it is presented in many different forms but it is generally having the ability to override parts of the environment using a copy of a part of another environment. I would say that 90% of the time it a game of copy pasting 3d environment in some shape or form.

I love the different ways they presented and used this mechanic. Having cameras with films (ammo), stationary cameras, photocopying are all great. Taking a photo of yourself and pasting yourself was a peak moment for me.

The puzzles were novel at first but I felt that they were running out of ideas. Typically, it was getting from point A to point B, except that you can do cool stuff like copying point B towards you. That was cool. Then they added the usual suspects: timed triggers, triggers that trigger triggers (the sound thing), walls that gives a hard restriction what you can take (kinda like how in a game like splatoon there are walls you cannot paint), and to top it off, the last level is somehow a race. Suddenly it went from "what can I do" to "what did the devs NOT want me to do". Well at least there isn't keys and doors!

This is what, to me, sets the game far far apart from Antimatter, Braid and The Witness. I understand why they added those puzzle elements, having designed some games myself. it could be the product of the mechanic being too powerful...? I don't know. I'm not exactly a creative person but having seen how a really creative person work, I feel that it's possible to avoid those kinds of puzzle elements.

Oh yes there was the other 10% of the game where is mechanic/puzzle element is you changing the shading of the whole environment by walking through a 'door'. I loved it but it felt like a filler to the entire game. I believe it did not span more than 2-3 levels? It felt like the tech side of the development had too much fun but the design couldn't really make good use of it.

Overall, the game is a good play. Starts strong but falls off a little midway. Tech felt awesome. Aesthetics are great. Design tried. 7/10 would recommend. No extra point for having a pat-able talking cat.