Maquette

Maquette is well worth experiencing. The use of recursive puzzles is fresh because so few games use it, and even though you can stumble upon the solution to some puzzles, most of them feel clever — even if they're relatively simple. The game does a great job of setting the player in a dreamlike state, and the story may be simple and lack details, but it still feels relatable. Maquette works perfectly as a palate cleanser for bigger and heavier games.

In its juxtaposition of abstract puzzles with domestic-scale storytelling, Maquette is more familiar, following the tradition of indie games that link high-concept puzzle-solving with romantic introspection. Like the relationship it maps, the game is at its most elegant and pleasing in the early stages, when its challenges are clearly stated and simply solved. Even so, the creative possibilities of this Russian doll world seem to extend beyond this brief, delightful exploration.

Maquette is an excellent look at how these two characters grow — I just wish the puzzles could have evolved in the same way.

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 has enough interesting ideas to push any adventure gamer past the finish line.

An adventure game with fresh puzzle mechanics and a well-expressed love story, which, however, inadequately connects both elements.

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.

Maquette stands out for an excellent love story that affects the aesthetics of the stage. It is very well written and excellently interpreted. It is fresh, natural, credible, and its development makes us want to move forward.

Even with the annoyance of the narrator being so utterly clueless, there’s no question that Maquette is effective at illustrating the pain of a good relationship gone bad. The integration of puzzles and story never gel as it should, with only the setting feeling like it was at all related to the narrated events, but even so the pace of each was strong enough that it never feels like things lag — solve puzzle, get story. Usually just a few lines at a time, hovering over a wall or other piece of environment, but it still felt like a nice way to mark progress as one solution flowed into another. Without the story Maquette would still be a nicely-intriguing puzzler, and the scaling of the environments made for truly enjoyable moments when what seemed like a small irrelevant detail on a prop turned into the solution to a whole area. At this point it should be clear that I’ve got mixed feelings on Maquette, but there’s no question that I’m glad to have played it and won’t be forgetting the game any time soon.

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 is a sort of sketch of a finished sculpture, or an architectural model… is the game saying this relationship was a sketch of better times, a process to go through in order to reach some future ideal? If so, it’s a well-worn narrative, and nothing is added by its puzzles. It ends up feeling like a clumsy mash-up of Synecdoche, New York and 500 Days of Summer, but without the introspection of either. At the very least, its puzzles and environments are captivating, but unlike its lateral thinking solutions, it never brings a new angle to its central narrative.

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.

Maquette is a clever and gorgeous puzzle game, even if it doesn’t push the boundaries of its recursive concept very far past that initial sense of wonder.

It’s got an interesting gameplay construct and some gorgeously animated locations to explore, but some clumsy moments with controls and unclear leaps of puzzle logic mean that Maquette’s tale of whirlwind romance only flutters rather than flies.

Maquette, in many ways, is a delight. Visually it's stunning, and the puzzles you encounter are often nice little brain teasers - I can imagine playing on a sofa with a significant other would elicit some fun conversations in the same way a murder mystery might. It has its problems and it's not perfect, but, as I said, you should think of Maquette as a rom-com of games. Not the highest form of art and not up for an Oscar nomination, but something you can certainly enjoy on a rainy Sunday afternoon.