![]() ![]() 10 years later, Maquette is finally available and unfortunately, it becomes quite apparent that the game simply does not have the same legs as other hit first-person puzzle games of recent years. The game was originally shown at GDC 2011, where it immediately drew comparisons to Portal for being a first-person game with an innovative mechanic for puzzle-solving. Relationships are a series of shifting perspectives.Maquette has come a long way. In the early courtship stages, even the smallest details become grand romantic gestures that feel larger than life. On the flipside, big red flags can look like minor issues … that is, until they pile up to form a mountain of irreconcilable differences. Maquette is about reliving that journey with a bird’s-eye view of the situation that only comes after it’s over. Published by Annapurna Interactive, the new indie tells a familiar break-up story through mind-bending puzzle mechanics, Hollywood voice acting, and a splash of moody indie folk. While its romantic sob story feels a bit boilerplate and it doesn’t fully commit to some of its most intriguing gameplay ideas, Maquette is a short, sincere game that captures the puzzling road to closure in the wake of a messy break-up. Maquette’s story is a familiar relationship saga. There’s a coffee shop meet-cute, an awkward ‘I love you’ exchange, a slow stream of communication issues, and a ceremonial break-up to cap it all off. It all feels a little paint-by-numbers by the end, though I suppose most doomed relationships fall into that same routine as well. It also helps that developer Source Decay locked down some Hollywood talent to bring its lovers to life through voice-over. Bryce Dallas Howard is the project’s big name and she properly dials up her annoyance level as pet peeves morph into full on shouting matches. Fringe star Seth Gabel plays his part too as the quiet, “sensitive” guy who just can’t figure out the right way to communicate. The timeline of events is too compressed to give the characters full depth, but the voice work helps fill in some of the emotional gaps that the four-hour story rushes through. The central mechanic, and most eye-catching feature, is the perspective shifting gameplay. For the first half of the game, players are placed in a recursive, circular world contained within a dome. In the center of each level, players find a scale model of the very dome they are in that contains a miniature sculpture of the buildings outside of it. Interacting with the tiny version of the location causes something to change outside the dome. ![]() See something blocking a doorway? Find it in the scale model and pick it up to move it. The scale model dome featured in Maquette. Annapurna InteractiveĪs one might expect, that creates brain-bending scenarios where players have to figure out how they can use tiny items to change the landscape around them, and sometimes vice versa. One standout puzzle had me racking my brain to figure out how I could turn a gigantic golden ticket into something I could fit into a tiny slot, prompting a lovely eureka moment. It’s a mind-boggling puzzler that requires smart spatial reasoning. Maquette is careful to make sure none of its ideas overstay their welcome, which has its pros and cons. ![]() Players will rarely repeat the same puzzle, which makes every solution feel distinct and satisfying. On the other side of the coin, it leaves a few mechanics feeling underdeveloped. ![]() I left some chapters wishing the game would iterate on a good idea just a while longer so I could see just how far the recursive setting could take it. ![]()
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