A Delightful Scrapbooking Game That Is Free From Papercuts
I have less of a scrapbook, and more of an empty book that contains loose tickets, photos and certificates with the dream that, one day, they might manifest into a scrapbook. It’s a lazy bundle of stuff, and Pieced Together makes me feel better for not having done the manifesting. The main character, Connie, has only gotten round to sticking everything down several years after their associated events happened, which is about where I’m at.
A video game that pretends to be a scrapbook is genius on a small scale. Sure, I’ve placed stickers in books during Paper Mario, but I’ve not physically cut out and glued memories. It is one of those gaming ideas that makes me wonder why it hasn’t been done as the focus of a game before. It’s delightful.
Cut Out Your Cynicism And Chuck It In The Bin
A naysayer might argue that you could get the same effect from popping to Hobbycraft with a tenner. But that’s neglecting some of the things that make Pieced Together special. For one, it’s not your story and memorabilia you are sifting through – it’s Connie’s – and for two, the scrapbooking is an excuse for some lightweight puzzling. You’re not sticking things down waywardly; you’re choosing their position deliberately. Putting scraps in the right places is Pieced Together’s deal.
Connie is reuniting with her estranged friend Beth. They went different ways after college, pursuing families and other distractions. As an act of remembrance, and to get herself in the mood, Connie has pulled the unstuck scrapbook from the shelf and started to work through it chronologically, sticking the tickets and photos in.
We get to witness, through some lovely motion comic-like animations on Polaroid photos, events like Connie meeting Beth, their shared school trips, fantasising over boy bands, exams and the eventual schism that divides them. These photos can also be hovered over, giving additional clues that might help you in the subsequent puzzles.
Making Sense Of Another Person’s Memories
A large proportion of the time, the gameplay follows a pattern. There’s a slide-out tray of loose stickers and offcuts to the right of the scrapbook, and – while they will all get used eventually – there’s more than you need for the double-page spread that you’re on. That double-page will have a theme, and you need to choose the cut-outs that best suit that theme. You place them on the page and, once you’re confident that they’re correctly placed, you will apply the glue. It’s only once everything is secured that you get confirmation from Pieced Together about whether you’re correct.
Some of the pages take some detective work. There might be a generic train ticket with a date on it, but nothing else of note. But that date might match the date of the school trip that you’re on. You’ve made the connection: now you can stick it, alongside the map of the area, and a photo of the girls at a hostel, all on the same page. Ta-da, you now have a page dedicated to the trip, with the reward of a perfect score and a photo that animates to show the moment.
At other times, Pieced Together can be more playful. It focuses less on detective work and more on pattern-matching, as you piece together recipes, a map, constellations or even doodles – matching art styles to the two friends.
Will She Stay Or Will She Go?
There’s a tiny amount of branching to be had, offering you slightly divergent endings depending on your choices. It’s not exactly Disco Elysium, but it’s appreciated that Pieced Together lets you have some control over the narrative. It could easily have told us to buckle up and ride. And there are some opportunities to find collectible stickers that poke from the edges of the sketchbook. They’re fine, and can be applied to pages as you want, but they do awkwardly remind you that, in a game about scrap-booking, you don’t really get to flex your creativity much.
The stakes couldn’t be lower in Pieced Together, which will be a positive or negative according to your tastes. It’s not possible to truly fail, as you get a little sound effect and a jostle of the pieces to show that something needs correcting. The puzzles themselves might make you feel clever, spotting details that connect together like a jigsaw puzzle, but you’d have to be mildly drunk to get some of the sections incorrect. It’s self-evident most of the time. Which might be a negative for some.
We’d argue that the forgiving, gentle nature of Pieced Together means that you can reserve a portion of the brain for the story. That story is authentic and emotive, but also a tiny bit predictable. While I was engrossed in the story of these two girls, and deeply wanted the very best for them, I was never gut-punched or surprised by anything that happened.
A Story-Focused Game That’s Cut Up Into Paper Rectangles
But as a wistful, almost daydream-like tour through two girls’ lives, Pieced Together is as charming and pleasant as it comes. For three hours or so, it felt like Connie’s memories were coalescing not only for me, but for her too. She was remembering these events in real-time. It’s a clever structure to support the scrap-booking, even if the emotional shockwaves were more like ripples than waves.
Pieced Together didn’t burn into the memory like Florence and And Roger did. Pieced Together can’t reach their rarified heights, as nothing in the story or gameplay ever grabbed me by the sides and shook me. But there’s so much that charms in Pieced Together: from the cleverness of the scrapbook premise, to the authenticity of Beth and Connie’s friendship. If you’ve ever thought wistfully about an old relationship, and wondered how it all fell apart, then Pieced Together may even raise a tear.
Pieced Together doesn’t enter the narrative game hall-of-fame, then, but it pays a visit and comes away with a delightful scrapbook of its memories.
Important Links
Pieced Together Brings A Heartfelt Scrapbook Story To Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/pieced-together-brings-a-heartfelt-scrapbook-story-to-xbox/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/pieced-together/9NWQPLP4XMP4/0010
