When it first released in 2014, Framed was declared game of the year by no less than Hideo Kojima. In the years since, this has been the game`s enduring legacy--it`s not just a good game, but one that inspired an industry heavyweight with its inventiveness. It`s a fundamentally robust, unique idea executed well.Framed Collection brings together Framed and its 2017 follow-up Framed 2 (a prequel, although the plot is largely inconsequential) to Nintendo Switch and PC--both were formerly exclusive to iOS and Android. They are essentially puzzle games in which you`re trying to solve a narrative issue--they present comic books where the main characters die or get arrested on every page. Several panels are laid out on each screen, each one depicting different scenes, usually involving one or more of the game`s unnamed protagonists trying to outsmart the police or overcome an obstacle. In the opening stages, all you need to do is switch the panels around so that the character can safely get to the end of the `page` and escape it.Once you have the panels in an order that you think will work, you press `play` and watch what happens. To give an early example, if the first (immovable) panel shows two police firing their guns then you`ll need to move the panel that shows a table into the second slot, so that the man who is being fired at can immediately dive behind it and take cover. If any other panel is placed second, he`ll be shot. All of this is backed by a lovely jazz soundtrack and neat visual style that renders all the characters in silhouette. Framed has a great sense of style, and although some of the backgrounds can be a bit plain (especially in the first game), it`s easy to read the action and figure out what is going to happen in each panel as you enter or exit it.In both games, the puzzles grow more complicated and clever as you progress. Later puzzles will let you rotate panels, sometimes changing the orientation of objects within them, other times shifting a ...
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