A funny adventure. The setting is promising, the humor got me laughing often enough and the visuals are gorgeous. The only problem is the optimization. The wonderful graphics are not wonderful enough to justify the rather bad performance. But if your pc is good enough to run this game on good graphics (as the gameplay is "walking" for a good amount of time, so then great graphics are the one thing which keeps you away from being bored to death), I can really just recommend you this game.
I played this game and I can say it was one of the best narrative experiences (walking simulator) that I met.
It's a funny puzzle game that makes you feel smart even if you're probably not so smart. The graphics are stunning, offering the mystery and the intrigue of the farm and the lab, and even if the game is linear it gives you the feeling of the open world through all the details and funny descriptions that make the game even better .
And the most important and best part of the game Vladdy (a Russian robot bear) is the best comrade of all the games because it's fun and loyal even if he insults you all the time .
The game is fun and intriguing with a well-structured and funny story and for 20 euros it's worth all the money
Bizarre, unsettling, and mystical all describe this one-of-a-kind adventure about a group of sentient corn who outsmart man, who stood as both their creator and captor. This 3-hour indie game offers a very select style of humor that not all may enjoy, offers little to no challenge, and contains a few areas where players can get "stuck" quite literally, as in you need to reload the game.
But despite these shortcomings, this game is produced by an indie-developer and should be reviewed as such. For what it's worth, Maize lives up to what it set out to prove. It is, in fact, a puzzle game that will mystify you and offers a story that holds through to the end, which quite handsomely becomes the punchline to this entire game, or more closely put, this entire gag.
I enjoyed my time with the game, enjoyed the comedy, and enjoyed the story. There were a few hiccups within the game-play, but for me, this is something I would wholeheartedly recommend if you're looking for something different!
I don’t know what I expected out of Maize when I started it but I’m sure it wasn’t anywhere close to what I got. I mean that in a very positive way. It first hooked me with two words: “sentient corn”. The idea of sentient corn being involved in the game somehow made me very interested. You wake up in a field not knowing why you’re there and you see corn stalks run off when you awake. This begins your exploration of the farm. Along the way you also meet a cast of equally lovable crazy characters such as a Russian teddy bear with a robotic arm coming out of a backpack who can’t help but insult you at any given opportunity; a white corn stalk who is possibly crazy; a smart ruby corn stalk and more. If you pay close attention to notes left behind you can uncover the back story as to what this facility is and what went on here. I recommend doing so because it is equal parts hilarious; crazy and realistic for anyone who has dealt with incompetent middle management. The story and humor of the game really stand out. I was always amused and wanting to know what happens next. The puzzle parts of the game are a mixed bag. The puzzles are typically well thought out but many times I found myself not seeing items because what I needed was really tiny and while items are highlighted when needed I still didn’t see them. The map design isn’t great either. Some parts of Maize felt like a maze (i’ll see myself out). Seriously though some kind of map system would have been appreciated. Sadly the last part of the game really made me angry and frustrated. It involves a rhythm game you have to complete to continue and I despise rhythm games with all of my being.
I played Maize on Linux using Valve’s Proton. It never crashed on me when it worked but was temperamental. When I first bought the game it worked on Proton 4.2-9 and I put it on my backlog and then went to play it on Proton 5.0-2 and the game crashed at launch. Luckily when Proton 5.0-3 was released it was back to working. The game has a toggle for Vsync; 4 settings for AA; and 4 graphics options to tinker with. There is no manual saving, just checkpoint saves. The main issue there is the game doesn’t tell you when it saves. I believe it is whenever you find a new object or complete a task but I’m not sure. The games graphics are overall a mixed bag but decent. The flowers are fantastic; as is the detail on characters faces; sun rays; lighting and artwork around levels. Other objects such as fences; pots; and cars are average to below average. There are some flickering textures once in a while as well. The game uses 10.58GB of disk space. The game uses the Unreal engine. It has a 60 FPS lock. Alt-Tab doesn’t work. The game has some performance issues. I played the game on Epic settings at 1080P and the game would often drop to the 40’s and 50’s, especially at the beginning of the game, and would stutter often to the point it would pause for a few seconds when it did. During game play my GPU usage was 42-100%; my VRAM usage was 3131-4368MB; my CPU usage was 9-20%; my RAM usage was 5.8-6.1GB and my frame rate was 29-60 FPS. I played version 1312 of Maize.
If you can get past some of the shortcomings there is a fantastic game underneath. The humor and the story are worth it alone. It isn’t a punishing puzzle game, common sense will solve them easily. I finished Maize in 4 hours. I paid $5.49 CAD for the game and it is well worth that. I would pay as much as $15 for it overall and even more if they remove that damn rhythm game.
My Score: 7.5/10
My System:
AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 19.3.4 | Samsung 850 Evo 250GB | Manjaro 19.0.2 | Mate 1.24 | Kernel 5.5.7-1-MANJARO | Proton 5.0-3
Five Word Review: A fun game about corn.
Favorite Thing: A decent, dry sense of humor and a rather unique story.
Least Favorite Thing: I found the store's screenshots deceptive. No matter your settings it's not going to look as good.
Date Completed: 2017-05-06
Playtime: ~ 3h
Enjoyment: 7/10
Recommendation: Yeah, sure. If you're looking for a quick and enjoyable jaunt.
Not more than 4/10. Mystifying and intriguing in the beginning and completely uninteresting after 40-50 minutes of gameplay.
NOT FUNNY at all! Extremely bad optimisation, very poor sounds, pathetic story. Devs, do you think, that permanent insults from teddy bear with russian accent and idiotic stickers will make this game funny?! Just running simulator with "move that object" puzzles. Not even close to good games, like Stanley Parable, Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Dear Esther.
SummaryMaize is a first-person adventure game about what happens when two scientists misinterpret a memo from the U.S. Government and create sentient corn. And that last sentence is pretty much the least ridiculous thing about the game.