Noir puzzle series Framed coming to Steam next year

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Comic book-style puzzler jumps from mobile to mouse after four years.

Framed, a two-part series of noir puzzles games built around rearranging comic book-like panels to change the flow of scenes, is coming to Steam next year with the release of the Framed Collection. Developer Loveshack Entertainment says it will release in early 2018, but an exact release date has not been confirmed, nor has a price.  For reference, Framed and Framed 2 currently cost $8 on mobile platforms, so it's reasonable to expect the Framed collection to cost $10 to $20.  

Framed and its sequel, Framed 2, were originally mobile games available on iOS and Android devices. The original Framed released in 2014 to glowing reviews. As it happens, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima was particularly enamored with the game, going so far as to call it his "best game this year, without any doubt."

"Thanks to our previous success we are now able to bring the collected compilation of the classic panel-switching games, along with some new, unique features to Steam," Loveshack says. "The games have been completely overhauled and redesigned for Steam, and given that extra love and care needed that we know connoisseurs of great taste demand."

The Framed collection sports full mouse and controller support, Steam achievements and trading cards, and cloud saving. Otherwise, the experience remains largely unchanged. It's the same intriguing mix of smooth jazz, stylized silhouetted characters and action-based puzzles. 

Simply put, Framed's puzzles are about rearranging and replaying events, hence the series' mantra, "change the order, change the outcome." If your character falls because a jump in one panel is too treacherous, for example, you can slot a smoother landing in its place. Likewise, if a character is shot in one panel, you can manipulate perspective so that they're safely away by the time the would-be shooter arrives. It sounds like an intuitive little system, and it's a perfect fit for mouse controls. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.