Viewfinder is a puzzle game that I was very excited to play ever since I saw the initial premise. It has an incredibly novel mechanic of allowing you to take pictures and place them anywhere in the world, becoming tangible, physical 3D spaces. I'd also been upset since its release that Vinny from Vinesauce, a person I really admire, unintentionally caused catastrophic damage to the game's reputation through a viral clip of himself muting the game's narration shortly after a cringe-y line was spoken by a character. I wanted to pay my respect and make a purchase on behalf of the devs who were affected by a loss of sales due to one viral meme. Sadly, although Viewfinder is a game that is indeed quite novel and jaw-dropping at times, it's short-lived and very much doesn't settle at one particularly bad line of dialogue. After the exact line that went viral from the game played in the tutorial, it was followed up by many more that were almost equally insufferable. The story of the game isn't all that complex, and the annoying character of Jessie is made absent for most of the game after the tutorial in exchange for a fun little spectral cat named Cait, but it's just not a very gripping narrative at all, and is told mostly through optional voice memos and text logs. While the puzzle elements of the game are quite fun and unique, the game spends very little time on new mechanics that it introduces, often dropping them after only one or two steps of iteration. Batteries are an item used throughout maybe half of the game's levels as a means to an end, but there is only a singular puzzle using a watermelon, as an example. There are also portraits that change the space around you and open/close barriers, but those are used only 2-3x total in a game with over 70 levels. The game has tons of fun little one-off photos that lead you into retro game worlds, or bring you to cartoon landscapes, but these are basically never used for anything except optional achievements for messing with them. The final level is inexplicably about 9 different levels stitched together on a 5 minute timer, letting you carry over pictures between them for a sort of grand puzzle. The premise of this stage is great, but none of the mandatory OR optional levels beforehand made use of this type of structure at all, so it feels totally out of left field, and probably annoyed quite a few players who don't like such strict timers. It took me about 3 tries to get the hang of the final stage and complete it, but the rest of the game was almost frustratingly easy, very rarely requiring me to stop and think about what I had to do. With all of that said, Steam says it took me about 6 hours to 100% with every achievement, but it felt closer to 3-4h in reality, having played mostly on my steam deck as I went to bed, which is notorious for inflating play times in sleep mode (and I definitely passed out mid-game multiple times because I was tired, not because the game was boring). Overall, Viewfinder is a GREAT experience just to see all of the unique mechanics, but it's over far too fast, and is actually hurt by its clumsy attempt to tell a story until much later in the game. I would be super interested in a sequel to Viewfinder where most of these issues can be ironed out, with more meat on its bones!