Photographs

Photographs is a narrative game with puzzles serving to advance the plot, rather than an adventure game in a classic sense of the genre. The game is split into five chapters, each of them set in its own time frame and location, and having a separate story. The similarity is that they all have the same setup: show the player a very simple puzzle which would explain the mechanics of this particular story, followed up by narration, which is followed up by another puzzle, and so on. To unlock the next puzzle, the player needs to find the desired picture element on the diorama using a camera interface and let the game to "take a photo" of that thing. As the story unfolds before the player's eyes, the puzzles are getting more and more difficult and time-consuming, while the dioramas get more and more detailed. Eventually, a point will be reached in the story that plainly sunders that protagonist's life in before and after parts, and their choice and its outcome are shown.

The difference between the chapters is that what worked for one story, is utterly useless in another. There're five kinds of puzzles in the game in total - lead characters to a specific spot, make the ball reach the target, fill the playing field with shapes, connect starting point and finish point and match-three kinds of puzzles. All of them are with little quirks and twists making them stand out as unique in the crowd of similar ones. There's a hint system implemented as of the last update, and there's a director's commentary mode available, so you won't be stuck forever if you've no idea how to solve a puzzle. The ending of the game depends purely on your own choice and moral compass. Finally, the game is quite short and takes about four hours at maximum to complete.