Snaps Fired

Snapshot makes a great first impression. Its core mechanic is an interesting one: photographing special objects will "capture" them into a camera, and these photos can be placed back on top of the level to put said objects in new positions. Photograph a block to get it out of the way, then place it next to a cliff to help jump up. Photograph a door in an unreachable location, so it can be moved to a reachable one. Photograph an elephant to move it under a platform, so as to trampoline-jump on its back (as per standard elephant procedure). There are a ton of cool quirks here, from surfaces that restrict photography and must be disabled, to objects that must be observed from the right "angle" - moving the camera perspective - to capture.

But toward the end of the game's first chapter, its difficulty pacing and mechanical balance start to go awry. It rapidly develops a wicked slant toward execution, rather than deduction. Snapshot becomes pretty much the inverse of Offspring Fling -- figuring out the puzzles isn't too hard, but perfectly placing objects and timing jumps becomes the game's real challenge.

Yeah, I am playing the "too hard" card. But more than Snapshot's difficulty, its lack of mercy has turned me off of it. It's far too easy to lose progress (by e.g. dropping something down a pit) just from placing an object incorrectly. Levels become large enough that having to retry, whether from death or from an item getting stuck in the wrong place, is a serious inconvenience. The game does a poor job of opening multiple playable levels at once; to put a point on this, I'm stuck in a single frustrating stage, and the rest of the game is blocked behind it. I would gladly try to build up my skills on other levels before revisiting this one... but I can't.

Snapshot was really inventive and fun, for the first chapter. But now that I'm stuck in a level that's just too hard for me, I can't help but resent the rest of the game for it.

Better than: Depict1, up until I hit the wall
Not as good as: Offspring Fling!
At least: the graphics and soundtrack are pretty good.

Progress: Stuck in part 2 of Chapter 2, Level 1 "Rolling Snow"