FRAMED Review – Brilliantly innovative puzzle game

Our rating:

By: Loveshack Entertainment

Version #: 1.0.0

Date Released: 2014-11-13

Developer: Loveshack Entertainment

Price: 4.99

User Rating:

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Ever since I saw the first trailer of Framed I was hooked. Such an awesome and novel concept for a puzzle game! So, it was with lots of anticipation that I hit the purchase button in the App Store. Was I satisfied? Yes. Did I expect something else? No, not really. Is it the best thing since sliced bread? Not completely.

Framed is a puzzle game like no other. In it, you are shown a set of comic vignettes showing the action your character is taking and a play button to animate the story. You can rearrange the pieces, and this is exactly what you need to do: rearrange the story so you can evade cops, the evil guys and whatever else to reach the end of the page.

Novel, interesting, graphically beautiful. And a wonderful jazz soundtrack to boot. The game has gathered endless prizes around, and completely deserved: it is a work of art, not only the concept but the smooth animations and the level execution.

So, what are my complaints? Nitpicking, actually, but it was increasingly bothersome. First, the story was a little hard to follow. I’m not sure if there was some narration (I usually play without volume except for some cases when I turn it on to check music and effects… so I may have missed voiceovers,) but definitely why you are running away is somewhat unclear. The puzzles end up being slightly repetitive. And except for a handful near the end (where you’ll have to rapidly switch vignettes while the movie is playing, a truly brilliant puzzle moment) they are pretty straightforward. A little analysis of the situation usually will give you the answer pretty quickly.

And the game felt a little short. I finished it in a couple sittings. Very enjoyable sittings, but aside from showing it to friends and acquaintances, its replay value (until they issue some IAP with more chapters) is close to 0.

Would I recommend it? Definitely. It is already a first class iOS classic. But the aftertaste was slightly sour.