Puzzling Places 3D Jigsaw Sim PC Review

Gameplay

Graphics

Audio

Value

Summary: A fantastic 3D puzzle game with relaxing music and beautiful touches of life in many scenes.

4.9

Peaceful Puzzling

Puzzles have been around for hundreds of years and while the main design stayed quite similar for much of that time, a number of years ago now, we started seeing 3D jigsaws. All of that is well and good but there has been a big problem with physical puzzles… the potential for lost pieces (when you are building up as well as outward the chance for a piece to fall and get lost is greater). While there are some attempts to minimise this… puzzle mats to roll up your work when you aren’t actively using them… it’s still a bit fiddly. There are quite a few 2D jigsaw games available these days… but I don’t think I’ve seen a 3D jigsaw game before… until Puzzling Places. Not only is it 3D, but it can be played in VR for the full 3D effect and many of the scenes also include animated elements which add a lovely sense of life to them.

I will say my first impression, whilst good, was a little hesitant as the tutorial makes things seem like they might be a bit too oversimplified… only a few pieces available at a time and visual clues for when you are putting the right pieces together. But this was short‑lived as the game is essentially divided into two playing styles: “Classic Mode” or “Journey Mode”. Classic mode is how you are used to dealing with a puzzle… all the pieces in front of you… get to it! Journey mode provides only a few pieces at a time and allows you to slowly build the model… it’s intended for a more relaxed/casual play. I found Journey mode to be too “guided” so opted to play in Classic mode. But you can adjust it further by selecting how many pieces the puzzle should be broken into. Twenty‑five is the least and provides a bit of a challenge; moving up to 50 or 100 certainly starts adding challenge… then I tried a 400‑piece puzzle… when combined with the fact that some puzzles are internal, multilevel buildings, it can take quite a while to find all the locations for the pieces.

As you play, many of the puzzles have pleasant audio that accompanies them… from simple soothing music to sound effects of whatever event is depicted in the puzzle… that event can also include moving characters if it’s an enhanced puzzle. This has a few benefits, not least of all making the scene extra entertaining to build and watch… but it can also give clues to where pieces fit together, as I built one scene that had a footpath outside a building and I could watch as a character disappeared off the edge of one puzzle piece only to appear on another… giving me the clue that the pieces fit together.

The game does also give a visual clue when you have pieces that go together… on smaller piece‑count puzzles or Journey mode… this can seem a bit too easy… but once you get to higher numbers it becomes much more appreciated. The clue starts as a little sparkle and when you find the right orientation it becomes bigger sparkles… but you have to have the pieces in roughly the right area and roughly the right orientation otherwise it won’t alert you… so it doesn’t quite guide you all the way.

Final Thoughts:

The developers have said they plan to release more levels as DLC in the future… I have no idea what price they are thinking of for extra levels… but I would say that given the base game is very cheap for the enjoyment I got from it… I’d say even if you just buy it for what it has at the moment, it’s worth it! If you enjoy jigsaws or dioramas… definitely pick up a copy (I mean, you can watch Beetlejuice dancing at a nightclub!)

About the Author

Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.

Puzzling Places 3D Jigsaw Sim PC Review