Maquette Reviews
Maquette is a fascinating puzzle game with a unique central mechanic. This leads to some super clever puzzles that will really test your grey matter. However, we can't help but feel that the concept's potential isn't quite fulfilled. Similarly, the story is pretty unique among games, but the execution just isn't quite there. Overall, it's an enjoyable experience that puzzle lovers should sample - just don't expect it to change the world.
Maquette has a great puzzle mechanic as its central hook, though it sometimes struggles with obtuse implementation and fussy controls. Nonetheless, the narrative arc of the young relationship at the center of the game is well worth a bit of frustration to experience. Some lovely visuals and music make playing Maquette that much more rewarding.
The verdict in this Maquette review is that the game isn’t worth playing. It’s a shame that it isn’t better, because the initial concept of resizing objects with the maquette is truly unique. However, it’s not explored nearly enough, the game’s puzzles aren’t enjoyable to solve, and the game’s story is an enormous load of nothing. The biggest puzzle in Maquette is figuring out why anyone would want to play it.
If you can pick up Maquette from free as March 2021’s PlayStation Plus title, it’s difficult to argue against. But if you’re looking to pay full price for this 3-hour puzzler, you’re money’s better spent elsewhere.
Romantic relationships have their ups and downs, and players will likely go through the same experience with Maquette, which seesaws between satisfying and frustrating. Charming world design and bittersweet relationship observations are offset by a couple of opaque puzzles and patches of gameplay clunkiness (bad enough to force level restarts), which mar the overall sense of enjoyment.
Maquette has something special. It delicately tells a very credible story with some clever puzzles mechanics and brillant emotional moments - thanks to the performance of Bryce Dallas Howard ans Seth Gabel. But it's flawed by some painful pacing issues and some other problems that prevent it from being truly memorable.
Review in French | Read full review
Maquette has a strong narrative bolstered by top-tier voice performances and honest, relatable writing. The puzzle mechanics are unique and exciting, but the game is let down by signposting issues and obtuse design choices.
Maquette is a beautiful puzzle game with a catchy soundtrack that really sets the chill yet heart-breaking vibe of the game. The way it messes around with space and depth keeps things fresh throughout and the game looks damn fine, making it an overall positive experience. However, it had an opportunity to make much stronger links between its puzzle world and its narrative world and it saddens me that this didn’t occur.
While it misses the chance to transcend the sum of its parts, Maquette tells a beautifully relatable story with a gorgeous presentation, accompanied by a clever and unique size-bending puzzler.
The story that should compel us to keep playing instead becomes an annoying digression from what the game does well. These environments, those puzzles, and the size-changing gimmick that lets you solve them comprise a unique and fascinating vision that depends on the kind of esoteric thinking familiar from classic point-and-click adventure games. Instead of pulling us in deeper, though, Michael and Kenzie's romance pushes us away. That's the real tragedy of Maquette.
For a puzzle game exploring altered perspectives within its mechanics and themes on a grand scale, Grateful Decay's debut can be considered a limited success.
A unique, thoughtful narrative puzzler with a mind-bending recursive twist that succeeds by focusing more on evoking its themes than unpacking them. Some minor lapses in polish aside it's a short, sharp hit of emotion and wonder that should be on every indie puzzler fan's list.
The Unfinished Swan meets Marriage Story in this debut game for Graceful Decay, as the developer explores the highs and lows of being in love in this brilliant puzzle game based around resizing objects in a scale model of a couple's relationship.
Maquette's core concept of puzzle solving in recursive environments is undeniably neat. But despite the handful of wow moments it enables, developer Graceful Decay ends up squandering much of the idea's potential due to pacing issues and rough edges.
For a game that's all about finding closure in our lives, Maquette makes it exceptionally difficult to get to its end credits.
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.
However, this story ends up being undercut by uneven gameplay, glitches, and subpar performance. If you can approach it with patience, you might appreciate the mesmerizing set pieces and a story that will surely tug at your heartstrings. But after my experience with Maquette, and encountering one too many shoddy 3D puzzles, I'm inclined to just swipe left.
Overall, Maquette is a solid and unique puzzle game with a sentimental, well-performed story that may hit a little too close to home for some, while maybe providing some closure for others. If only the developer found a way to intertwine the puzzles and the story together to feel more complete.
Maquette toys with interesting ideas and its unique core gameplay mechanic is enough to make it stand out. However, the poorly developed plot and weak conclusion make the game feel like a rough draft of something much stronger.
Indie-folk, bright colors, bittersweet love-story, nice recursive puzzles: this "500 Days of Summer" of gaming really could succeed, but imperfect level design and gap between form and content interferes.
Review in Russian | Read full review