I cannot deny a smile to any love story made with some pampering, and Maquette’s is without a doubt one of them. The classic girl meets a boy with a happy ending -whatever the outcome- sponsored here by Annapurna and dotted with puzzles with the scent of current indie.
What begins as a nod to Superliminal’s mechanics of size and perspective, and seems to point to Florence’s endearing narrative, proves to have a personality of its own and some sublime moments despite remaining hidden in a much more bland and predictable mass.
The keys to Maquette
Like that relationship with ups and downs that you say goodbye to with bitterness and remember with a smile on your lips, Maquette is far from being a perfect game, but it manages to earn a space in your memory with its story and approach.
Right from the beginning, with a beginning with a soundtrack that could well be a reflection of Sundance’s latest success, Maquette makes it very clear that what a story is trying to tell us. That the rest is a mere accompaniment of what he has come to relate.
With a first-person view from which we read snippets of that aforementioned relationship on the walls, and that from time to time gives way to pauses in which the story is expanded with conversations of key moments in the lives of the protagonists, our The role will be to advance the plot by completing the puzzles that surround its central setting.
Growing and shrinking problems
In it, a huge room with a model in the center that, in turn, is a representation of the stage that exists if we move away towards the edges of it. What in the model is a small building, behind us is a normal-size building. What we manipulate inside the model also ends up affecting the outside.
With this simple premise and a model that is modified as the chapters progress, the game will pose different challenges that, despite being related to the story in terms of the backdrop, does not delve too deeply into the union of story and gameplay .
Although there is the relationship between how we make certain problems bigger or smaller depending on the situation and the perspective – getting to face huge abysses that were once mere steps -, you are not still there because they are telling you something with a revolutionary style, and unfortunately not because he is enjoying his puzzles in a special way.
Overcoming Maquette’s Puzzles
Taking the key with which you have just opened a door in the outside world, placing it on the model, and making it appear as something larger creating a bridge, is a play that you can seldom hold on to as a surprise factor. Maquette burns that letter from the beginning and, with timid variations, the initial effect ends up giving way to indifference. To this is added, by finishing curling the curl, a control that leaves a lot to be desired, especially when handling large objects.
With physics that can play good and bad tricks on you, I couldn’t help having the feeling of not knowing if I had solved a puzzle properly or if I had managed to fool the game with a trick.
While I appreciate the freedom in approaching the challenges , I cannot claim to have experienced a eureka moment, but I do have many disdainful approvals. The ” it will be like this ” is something that has resonated in my head on many occasions.
I can’t deny that, despite all the bad things I can say about Maquette , I’ve actually played it from start to finish and have been more than satisfied. Not for being a story that escapes the predictable, but for being hooked on what and how they were telling me their story.
Their puzzles may be late to a party where others have already proven to be far above, but Maquette is one of those games to consider if you want to have a vice marathon on a Sunday afternoon and hopefully , start the week with a smile.
Maquette
| Platforms | PC, PS4 and PS5 (analyzed version) |
|---|---|
| Multiplayer | Not |
| Developer | Graceful decay |
| Company | Annapurna Interactive |
| Launch | March 2, 2021 |
| Price | 17.99 euros (included in PS Plus) |
The best
- A very emotional story.
- The idea is very original.
- It has several surprising moments.
Worst
- His mechanics don’t gain too much depth.
- Quite predictable.
- Pc
- Adventure – Platforms
- Analysis
- PS4
- PS5
