Maize Reviews
I like to say i'm a straight talking reviewer. I will censor myself here to save Maize any more embarrassment and give it an award of Thumb Culture Trash Award
I've said enough about this in the body of the review. There's nothing I can put here you haven't already read. I'm already wasting my time writing this. It's a bad game.
I wanted to like Maize, I really did. The initial trailers promised precise puzzle solving and surreal Pythonesque humour, yet there is very little here for me to be able to recommend and I find myself being very s-corn-ful. The dull and tedious gameplay and misjudged humour making the limited run time a dreary drudge to the finish line. It simply shucks.
We wish we had more positive things to say about Maize, but unfortunately, it just doesn't have much going for it. The story and writing are atrocious, the characters are forgettable, and the puzzles themselves are too easy. The game is honestly quite boring, despite its bizarre premise, and the attempts at humour are ham-fisted at best and excruciating at worst. If you're after something different, Maize is certainly that, but be warned that it may leave a bad taste in your mouth.
In the end Maize turned out to be kind of a boring mess. I’m pretty sure there will be people out there that absolutely adore this game and it’s comedy and puzzle solving and all that but it just wasn’t for me. I do enjoy games of this genre but this just wasn’t a well executed game. To quote my friend who was playing this with me, “I would rather be doing SAT Math.”
While the ideas presented here were creative, the presentation was corny and the execution left grit in my teeth...
There's not much going on in Maize. As a video game it fails on both the technical and interactive fronts. The gameplay is so simplistic that it may as well not even exist. Breaking the fourth-wall is cute, but never really amounts to anything other than a cheap laugh. The story is a decent experience thanks to its humor, but everything surrounding it drags it down.
Maize has a great idea behind the game, but it failed to actually fulfill the idea behind it. For the first hour, I wandered around aimlessly suffering massive frame-rate drops on the Xbox One with no real guide telling me what I needed to do or any story actually telling me why I was there.
Despite a good sense of humour, Maize failed to convince either as a walking simulator and a graphic adventure. Its progression is based on a linear and recurring process which require to find new objects to solve basic puzzles that feel too much similar to each other.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Surprisingly original but deeply unsatisfying due its difficulty and graphical issues.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
As of now, it feels like a single idea with a strong story connecting it all together. It doesn't live up to that brilliant trailer but if you're after a game to give you a good chuckle, you can't really go wrong here. Just be ready to walk around a hell of a lot to get to the punchline.
Maize is an example of the age-old debate in gaming around gameplay versus story. In this case, it is so hard to discount the gameplay aspect. The great implementation of the plot and the unique story, on top of the brilliant portrayal of the cast and the general charming vibe, is sure to please young and old. What lets it down is that all this is balanced against a rather high cost considering the very modest length of the adventure, which doesn't offer any real replayability. Additionally, the lack of challenge means things feel extremely linear and the length is even further eroded. Maize is a definite pick up… when it is on sale, that is.
Maize is a different experience with an unique style that has small problems to connect and put players into an enjoyable experience. In Maize everything is spinning around a wacky story that for some people may be hard to take. And on the top of that, you got a gameplay that sometimes feels kind of unappealing and disorientating.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Maize could have been quite a pleasant surprise with its clever writing and memorable characters. Unfortunately, it ends up failing both technically and interactively with a few instances of game-breaking bugs and poor optimization for consoles. The story is worth seeing through to the end, but everything around it ends up dragging Maize down.
Maize is a first person adventure, full of humor and nonsense, with talking corn and Russian Teddy Bear. However, the puzzles are very easy to solve and the journey is short and linear.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Maize is an amusing title, it's puzzles don't really require any critical thinking and it is overly linear but it kind of works as a curio with some genuinely funny jokes dotted throughout.
Overall, Maize was a satisfying showcase of cheesy corny goodness, but it’s a ride best experienced only once. For now, it’s best to wait for a Steam sale to pick up on this game. And please, just stop pressing Q.
If you don’t mind thinking outside your own box, then Maize is worth a try. The game’s unique flavor and style might push away some gamers, that’s ok though! They’ll be the ones missing out on this short, enjoyable treat. The game isn’t going to blow you away with its puzzle gameplay or linearity , but the enjoyment you’ll receive from the game’s craziness will reward you with some zany moments to remember
Maize is a pretty rare kind of game. It is very unlikely it will reach cult status the way Deadly Premonition has, but this really is every bit as good and original.