Welcome to this week’s installment of F2P Friday, where we highlight our favorite Free-2-Play games. The video game market is oversaturated, and sometimes, hidden gems fall through the cracks. This is where we dig for you and feature a new F2P game we know you will enjoy every week. This week we slow down and puzzle out photos in Pixel Restorer.
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Pixel Restorer
As the last pixel restorer in the city, your job is to restore faded photographs that have been sealed away for a long time to their original glory. Repair each photo one quadrant at a time to reveal the hidden image.
The Basics
Let’s get down to the basics. At the core, Pixel Restorer by the developer Catnip Studio is a casual logic-based puzzle game that is a fascinating blend of art and Minesweeper. The gameplay is intuitive so players can jump straight into solving the puzzles. Each image is a different-sized rectangle and starts as a gray, empty grid. Each rectangle must contain one number and the number must equal the total number of cells in that rectangle. Once all regions are correctly filled, the level is complete.
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The puzzle difficulty varies between each new grid even within the same image, keeping the gameplay fresh and interesting. The three buttons on the left side of the screen allow you to refresh the region, get a hint and view the full image. The gameplay is varied enough to support long play sessions but the segmented grids also allow for fast restarts.
Why Should I Play?
So why should you play Pixel Restorer? This game hooked me on the first level. The gameplay is simple to pick up with intuitive click-and-drag controls. The grid shapes add a lot of variation to the puzzle type there are many free levels to choose from. I love how the last image you solve is framed on the wall in the virtual office.
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This game is great, but a few minor quality-of-life updates would make it stand out, like being able to interact with the items in the office menu. The audio is all or nothing, as there is no volume control option. I’d like to mute it on my screen and listen to something else, but the music is relaxing, if a little repetitive.
Ready to puzzle out the faded photos? You can play Pixel Restorer for free on Steam now.
