Maquette is just fascinating. It is a game that has one central mechanic and ties it into a narrative not often told by games and media. That unique blend of challenging, but mind-boggling recursive gameplay, jaw-dropping set-pieces, and heartfelt narrative moments really crafts an experience that mesmerises and stuns at every turn and is another great title from Annapurna.
Maquette is a great puzzle game that uses perspective and out of the box thinking very well. The story of Michael and Kenzie is neatly entwined within these puzzle, adding heart and soul to the game as you make your way through the world, big and small.
It's a 10 for a puzzle game, perfect for a date night. The wife and I are always looking for a good puzzle game to play together, and this is still our favorite.
Absolutely adored this game for its amazing perspective puzzles, beautiful soundtrack and touching story. A fantastic debut title for the studio, a game that has stuck with me even after finishing it a few weeks ago. Looking forward to the next game from the Graceful Decay studio!
Maquette has its issues, but is still a solid experience. The grievances I have can be fixed if the studio has the manpower and time to do so. If you’re looking specifically for puzzle games there are others I would recommend before this. But it’s free for PS Plus members for March 2021, and it’s hard to say no to free.
Definitely give Maquette a try if you like puzzle games, but be aware that you’re likely to come up against numerous brick walls as you vie to reach its conclusion. The earlier puzzles are truly satisfying to crack but they quickly lose their charm, while later conundrums might leave you scratching your head in frustration. What doesn’t lose its charm, though, is the small yet beautiful narrative that you’ll want to savour every moment of. It’s just a shame there isn’t more of it.
Maquette is a clever game with some original game mechanics. Playing around with the scale of objects is challenging but fun, however the game also suffers from some technical issues and can even cause motion sickness. But even if that doesn’t bother you, you will reach the end soon – too soon, even for an indie game.
Despite what all the other users wrote, I had fun with this game, no stuttering or any kind of technical issues on my PS5. I normally don’t enjoy typical lovestory stuff, but after the first 30 minutes, the game was pretty much done with bad stereotypes.
If you ever had a long relationship you will find patterns, issues, problems and situations you can relate to. At least my relations sometimes contained some stereotypes and that’s the mix that this game hit pretty well. Even days later, I still thought about the Story and im not that much of an emotional person. People may ask for more decisionmaking in some games, but this is a story of which im happy in was told the way it was.(strange sentence, sorry, but I don’t want to spoil what you can and cannot decide)
The puzzle aspect isn’t a Portal, but the game never tried to be something it can’t reach. So for me, puzzles started easy and got harder during the game. Not to easy throuout the game, still no unbeatable obstacles. Of course it’s a relatively short game, but the developers filled it with content, that i wouldn’t want to change.
The visual style of the game is beautiful, and was well thought of. Through the whole game the look and the design supported the Story and the mechanics at the same time. I had no trouble with any mechanics nor a feeling of bulgy or lazy design.
All in all this Game isn’t groundbreaking, It’s smart art. If you can’t enjoy a good book, or a demanding movie, maybe you won’t enjoy it as much as I did. But If you do... you‘d regret missing this game.
Before I say anything about this game, I would like to state that I have NEVER gotten motion sickness from playing ANY video game EVER. Maquette gets the noble title of the first piece of media that made me wanna puke because of the visuals (which are actually quite nice, by the way). Now I’m a bit anxious when I see epilepsy warnings. Thanks, game.
The second point of concern is that Maquette is made with Unity engine, which mostly isn’t something that makes software good and when you see Unity logo on the starting screen… well, expectations go low.
Also, have you heard of those cheap crap Steam games with **** of trophies that exist only to boost your trophy count? Beginning of Maquette feels exactly like this. Trophies dropping like crazy, for minor actions.
So considering all the above, is Maquette a terrible game? Absolutely NO!
The storyline is quite simple, yet heartening for what it is. Protagonists, Mike and Kenzie, are having a complicated relationship and player’s role is to explore their memories through solving a lot of quirky riddles and puzzles. The game bases on the concept of “mind palace”, which means that the levels are visual representations of one’s memory. It has probably been used in video games already but I particularly liked this element of Maquette (it shows nicely how memory works). The story itself is, as I said, ok – but less emotional people might get annoyed by it (as one of Metacritic comments stated, “it’s like a Hallmark movie”). For me it was fine, however some more depth would be greatly appreciated. Good impression was definitely partially based on very well done voice acting.
Puzzles aren’t impossible to solve, yet some of them are real thinkers. Nevertheless, I completed the game in a couple of hours, so don’t expect Portal-like level of difficulty. Almost all of them are based on “level inside the level” concept: usually in the middle of the map there is a miniature version of it that allows you to manipulate the “bigger” reality. There is a lot of puzzles based on changing size of the objects – changing it in one “dimension”, or moving the item, affects what happens in the others. If you get stuck, you can just admire casual-coffeehouse artstyle used to design the game, which is another advantage in my opinion.
Unfortunately, it’s not all I can say about this decent puzzle game. Except for minor inconveniences (clunky controls, occasional FPS drops and possibility of going to outer space because devs forgot to put collisions in some places) the game is a bit too expensive for what it offers. If I didn’t get it for free in PS+, I’d get a bit upset after beating it. Also, motion sickness – there is a possibility to switch off the motion blur but hell, how come did they get away with it? Did none of the testers throw up during the tests? Maybe they did and therefore didn’t notice a huge bug in the last level that prevents you from completing the game (why do these things always happen in the very end?). Also, as far as I know, it hasn’t been patched till now.
I recommend Maquette if you claimed it in PS+ and haven’t tried yet, or if you are really into puzzle games and have a free evening. Other than that, wait for a sale.
Pretty chill game with some innovative puzzles. I applaud the way they made the puzzles, but in a way in became easier since the concept of them remained the same mostly. Didn't run that well on PS5 and got more friends saying it made them dizzy.
Pretty good game for anyone loving a good puzzle game anyway, and would recommend. Takes about 3-5 hours to complete.
Hours Played: 4 Hours
Trophy Completion: 13/23 (60%)
Worth My Time: Only if you like puzzle games.
Worth My Money: No, unless you got it free from PS+.
What I Like: The theme is interesting and the concept unique. It makes good usage of the PS5's game help cards, so you don't have to run to your phone or PC if you get stuck.
What I Dislike: Kind of janky and a bit too much running around in what I would consider boring landscapes. Also runs terrible on the PS5 for what it is.
How It Stacks Up: An early PS+ offering, so can't expect much out of it. It's a bad port that didn't necessitate a PS5 version, considering that it could have run just as fine in backwards compatibility.
SummaryMaquette is a first-person recursive puzzle game that takes you into a world where every building, plant, and object are simultaneously tiny and staggeringly huge.