Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery Review

Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is an interesting game. It is quite short, clocking in at under two hours gametime. Although being a short game the story has a lot to offer. You play as young woman, an artist, living in her apartment. You do mundane stuff such as cooking your breakfast and brewing coffee meanwhilst helping the artist finding her tools of the trade. When you have the necessary tools for creating your art one of the games main puzzles starts – painting.

As the title hints the game is about painting, and a painter’s life. The young woman has a new neighbour in the block on the opposite side of her apartment. He is an old man who paints beautiful paintings which intrigues our protagonist. Trying to get in contact with the old man seems futile, but atleast you get to meet his cat.

This game has a lot to offer. It may be short, but it has it’s strong points. The first thing of notice is the graphics. The game is rather stunning, looking like a game edition of a Studio Ghilbi movie. The cutscenes inbetween gameplay are smooth and sometimes makes you forget that you are playing a game and not watching a movie. The scenery of the game is also quite beautiful, with a lot to look at.

The story of the game is rather sad and beautifully told. You learn about the life of the young artist, and uncover the mystery of the solemn neighbour across the street.

Music within the game is quite standard classical music. It fits the tone of the game, but is rather forgettable and acts like background music. There is nothing inherently bad about the music but it is not something I would look up and listen to after finishing the game.

If you have a couple of hours to kill the game is certainly worth it. The puzzles are not that hard (if you pay attention to the story), some of them are rather interesting. One of ongoing puzzles through the game is painting. You unlock new colors and paint more colorful paintings throughout the story. It is a nice element to the story, and a fitting puzzle for the storytelling of the game.

So if you’re in need of an emotional, short Point and Click Adventure game this should be right up your alley.