Framed, an indie puzzle game where you rearrange comic panels in order to successfully guide the protagonist through the story, is Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima's game of the year. Last night, I finally got my hands on the game and found out why.
Played "FRAMED" by Liveshack. High sense of gameplay, graphic, & sound. My best game in this year without any doubt. pic.twitter.com/OFy9c9KTHU"
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) November 22, 2014
Instead of directly controlling the silhouetted protagonist, you swipe to rearrange panels in a comic strip, ideally avoiding enemies, pits and other obstacles. Once you feel you've got the right order, you hit play and watch your character make their way through the chaos. It's a fundamentally simple concept, as in all great puzzle games, the design evolves into a devious series of challenges. It manages to stay in a sweet spot, difficulty-wise, between too breezy and too hard.
It doesn't hurt that Framed is also gorgeous, with a silhouetted noir style and dynamic jazz soundtrack. It looks and sounds a bit like playing a Saul Bass title sequence.
Framed is available on iOS.
