Puzzling Places – Review

I love a great puzzle game, especially when it can introduce a new or unique mechanic that I’m not used to seeing in games. Realities.io Inc has done just that with their 3D puzzle game called Puzzling Places. Whether you are a puzzle enthusiast or just prefer to pick away at a few pieces at a time, you can choose to play Puzzling Places however you like. There are no time limits and no fail states.

There are 2 modes: Classic and Journey. In Classic mode, you get all the puzzle pieces at once to sort through freely, like a standard physical puzzle. In this mode, you also get a selection of reference cards that come in handy when you look at the puzzle from different angles. That’s right, it’s a 3D puzzle, so you will also have to manually rotate the puzzle pieces and the whole puzzle when trying to find the correct placement as well.

In Journey Mode, you start with a single piece of the puzzle and 6 pieces that attach to it. After you connect those 6, you’ll be given more. It’s a much calmer, more guided experience. This is great for short sessions or if you don’t want to feel overwhelmed. In this mode, you don’t need to rotate the puzzle or the pieces either; the game will do it for you.

There are 18 of the 3D puzzles available, and each puzzle not only gives you a choice of the mode to play but also how many pieces are in each puzzle. You can choose 25, 50, 100, 200, 400…some even have 800 or 1000 pieces. Pieces are smaller when you select a higher number of them to play with. This is a highly customizable experience.

The puzzles take place in a variety of locations around the world, such as a colourful graffiti-filled alley in London, a gorgeous canyon in Arizona, or a beautiful European church, for example. Not only is the 3D art gorgeous, but some of the puzzles create dioramas where, as you progress through the puzzle, people start moving and recreating a scene. That church I just mentioned, there is a wedding in there, and you can see people dancing.

I spent most of my time in Journey mode as I prefer the cozy and relaxed experience. This game is also available in VR, but I didn’t try that out at all.

Puzzling Places is a nice, cozy puzzle experience with a lot of replayability. If you enjoy jigsaw puzzles, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Until next time…be good to yourself and be good to each other.

**Thank you, Future Friends Games. Realities.io Inc and Press Engine, for providing the review code**