Game: Master of Pieces Jigsaw Puzzle Early Access
Genre: Jigsaw Puzzle, Casual, Indie
System: Steam (Windows & macOS)
Developers | Publishers: Graphium Studio
Controller Support: None
Price: US Free | UK Free | EU Free
Early Access Release Date: December 17th, 2021
Review code used, with many thanks to Graphium Studio.
Master of Pieces is a digital jigsaw puzzle game. Players can select from a variety of colorful puzzles to put together in this free-to-play title.
Gameplay
The gameplay of Master of Pieces allows for a massive number of options. Players can select from a variety of different piece counts, making every picture available from kid-sized, 6-piece puzzle to 1000-pieces and everything in between.
Players can also choose if they wish to be able to rotate the pieces or not, adding yet another layer of difficultly to every one of these pretty puzzles.
Once a puzzle picture and pieces are selected, the choices continue inside the game. The center of the board is cleared for the puzzle to be built and the pieces arranged out around the center. You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel, click and drag the right mouse button to move, then pick up one piece or several pieces with the left mouse click. The game has soothing music in the background of each puzzle, and the game sounds and music volumes can be adjusted independently.
There is a menu that allows you to change the color of the background, to turn the picture of the puzzle on and off, and more. Regardless of how you like to put your jigsaws together, this game will have some settings you will most likely love.
The Pros of Master of Pieces
This game is free to play! While the DLC looks like it will be paid, there are a lot of pictures currently in the game for free. Master of Pieces also has events, like currently there is a Christmas-themed free puzzle event for players. There is also a winter-wonderland DLC that is available for $0.99 USD in the shop.
That being said, the game is still in early access. It looks like there will be many more paid and free puzzles in the future. So anyone getting into the game right now will be somewhat limited with the number of pictures that are available to play, but more will be coming soon.
Master of Pieces is ingenious. It takes what is both an expensive and messy hobby and makes it easy to do whenever you have a spare moment. It’s nice to be able to put a puzzle together without the “help” of my cat, who usually insists on laying right down in the middle of the table the moment I start to try to put anything together.
The photos, paintings, and other artworks that have been chosen to be made into the Master of Pieces‘ puzzles are all unique, interesting, colorful, and fun. I had a difficult time picking which to do first because they were all so pretty!
I even picked up the DLC and played through a delightful watercolor of a snow-covered house. The dollar I spent nearly doubled the number of puzzles I have available to me, too. There were so many to choose from.
The Cons of Master of Pieces
The UI needs a little bit of work. Since it’s an early access game, it’s hard to judge just how the final product will end up, but at the moment it’s fairly good.
There is an issue of puzzle pieces getting stuck behind the puzzle. I had to pick it up and move the whole thing around to find some parts that had hidden themselves under the puzzle itself. There is no in-game notification that a piece is under there, either; I knew I was missing something, I just couldn’t find it.
It’s also very easy to click and drag several jigsaw puzzle pieces when you just mean to grab one; I’m not sure how exactly to fix something like this. But it was a minor annoyance in my overall enjoyment of the game.
Conclusion
If you like jigsaw puzzles at all, grab Master of Pieces. It’s super fun, easy to get going, and free. What’s not to like?
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot.
