Last updated on January 16th, 2026 at 04:35 pm
Photographs – Puzzle Stories – Word Game Review
Photographs – Puzzle Stories is a Word/Entertainment/Puzzle game from EightyEight Games LTD, first launched in 3rd April 2019.
It’s rated 12+ and currently has 64+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Photographs – Puzzle Stories Stand Out
I think you should play Photographs.
I tried to make it a little bit different from most games. It sort of mixes puzzle and narrative in a ( hopefully ) interesting way. You might get stuck on some puzzles, but you should never not know what you need to do to proceed.
So what do you actually do? Well, you search around and solve puzzles, and as you do so you'll be developing a scene in front of you and hearing a story. I want to the story to really stand out, so the game has got really beautiful pixel art and top notch music, combined with gameplay and narrative beats that individually would do a pretty good job of telling that story, but come together to really make something special.
It's a pretty short game too. I would say about three hours. There are loads of games these days and who has time to play them all? I've tried to keep things as condensed as possible rather than add filler, to be as respectful for your time as I can be.
Each story is in a different setting and has completely different gameplay mechanics. It ended up being a LOT of work, but It's kind of necessary: The gameplay itself has a hand in telling the story, so what works for one tale wouldn't work for another.
I don't think there's anything else like it out there, so if nothing else, It should give you a unique experience.
So yeah. That's my pitch, If that sounds interesting to you, give it a shot!
This Word game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Photographs – Puzzle Stories is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 15th October 2019
Recent improvements include:
- Added Hints and Skips
- Bug fixes: Fixed lots of them
Download & Availability
Photographs – Puzzle Stories is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get Photographs – Puzzle Stories on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Although Im much more a fan of match-3 battling RPGs like #ymbab rather than somewhat level repetitive hit n miss/trial and error puzzling type games…this one is just nothing less than spectacularly good! Occasionally new levels/stories would be appreciated though.
We really like this developers previous apps so we gave this one a try. The story, sound effects and originality are all great. We think this was a successful attempt to go outside their comfort zone and try something different. That being said, the puzzles were too frustrating. Some made sense and were more or less simple. But others required too much time to figure out the weird puzzle mechanics being introduced. We could have handled it better if we could willingly skip puzzles whenever we wanted but instead the app forces you to try some arbitrary number of times. We spent too long purposefully trying to fail the puzzle so that we could skip and see the story. Eventually we just stopped playing cause it was frustrating.
We wish we had read the reviews that these stories are so depressing and macabre! We regret buying these. It looked so whimsical but its sooo depressing and the other puzzles arent interesting or fun.
This game is truly a masterpiece for mobile gaming. The stories draw you in, getting you emotionally involved, while the puzzles challenge you and help to unfold the story line. We had to look up one puzzle to help us solve it, it can be difficult at times. But its an offline game so is great to take on a long plane ride, and the commentary feature is incredible. Coming from a game development background, its so cool to hear how the developer chose to do certain things to advance the story or craft puzzles. Highly recommend playing the second time around with commentary on. Great work all around, 5 stars. Warning: can be dark at times.
The puzzles are good but the story telling is what makes this a great game. No complaints.
Very easy puzzles. If you are good at puzzles you will cruise through this game. We only got stuck for a few minutes twice. The stories were depressing but predictable which takes away from the experience. Still it is a unique game and we liked the graphics. If they make a second one we might play it but not for $3.99. This game should be no more than 99.
The 5 vignettes tell deep stories for the very simple mechanics (mini)game mechanics. A game about second chances with redeemable characters.
This was a really unexpected departure from the developer of 10000000 and YMBaB. We played those years ago and they were iOS perfection. We've fallen off playing games since the App Store is no longer like its golden days for original games, but this reminded us of that era while being a unique and fun experience.
We absolutely loved this game. Very original and unique, great graphics and stories. Its the kind of game you dont want to put down. But unfortunately, we had to stop playing when we got to the last story. No matter what we tried, we couldnt get past the odd puzzles. Kind of like a match 3 game combined with Rock Paper Scissors, and as much as we like puzzle games, this part made no sense to us. If there had been any sort of hint or help functionality, we would have given 5 stars for sure.
Ok so we read the reviews about the stories being depressing and thought well what do those people know?!? And the stories are beyond depressing…theyre macabre with blood and awful outcomes. Would have loved to play and would be 5 stars if the stories werent so dark. Loved the concept and pixel photos but believe the creator could have provided a better experience with stories that were not so dark. Ultimately not a winner and not worth the money.
We liked the artwork. This is the best we can say about the game. After reading all those good reviews we were expecting something that didnt involve simplistic, childish stories with no depth or character development to them. And those stories are totally orthogonal to the puzzles, which are uninteresting and, except one, not at all challenging.
This game is pure quality. We wish the the App Store would have more games like Photographs. If you like adventure and puzzles, give this a try.
This is fantastic! Unfortunately, there is currently a bug that re-sets our progress to the beginning of The Preventer every time we close our app or change profiles. Please fix.
This is an interesting if incredibly depressing game in many ways. We do wish there were a way to replay the ending and see the other possible choices, since we disliked some of the puzzles in the last section immensely and dont really want to replay them. We do not recommend this if you cant handle really really depressing storylines, however.
The puzzles are different enough to keep you interested, but we wouldnt call it a fun game. We played it for a half day and deleted it because it quickly became more of a chore than anything else. Plus its rather sad, not great for someone with anxiety/depression.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.1.1346
- Size: 166.54 MB
- iOS: 9.0 or later
- Languages: EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO, RU, ZH, ES, ZH
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes, Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes, Infrequent/Mild Alcohol, Tobacco, or Drug Use or References
- Developer: EightyEight Games LTD
Last updated: 15th October 2019 | Genre: Word, Entertainment | Developer: EightyEight Games LTD