Each area generally has four smaller areas that spread out like a compass from the central maquette (model). Maquette consists of seven areas that change up the scenery and continually expand upon the concept of scaling items to solve puzzles. In one part of the game you’ll enter a house and find a model of that same house in the living room, and after getting shrunken down you will then have access to that model, but in order to get to it you will have to traverse the “giant-like” exterior location leading back to it. Later in the game you will also get to change size, much like Alice in Wonderland, and explore these other scaled versions of your surroundings. So you can take a small object within your world and place it within the model to have it reappear back in your world only much larger, or you can drop a large object in your world and retrieve a miniature version from within the model. The world of Maquette is presented in such a way that your environment is just one of three identical locations all nested within each other giving you the opportunity to interact with a scale model of your surroundings that affect changes in the larger reality. Gameplay is a traditional mix of exploration and puzzle-solving with a unique twist, unless you have already played a game called The Fisherman’s Tale, in which case the novelty of the concept is diluted. There is also some severe motion blur going on that actually had me feeling queasy in places. Despite the power of the PS5 I was getting frequent and noticeable framerate dips, especially if you stand in place and spin the camera 360-degrees you’ll probably get 5+ hiccups in the smooth panning. I’m sure load times are better than the PS4 version but I’m guessing a good PC would be the best choice. I found no immediate benefits to playing on the PS5, as the game didn’t make use of the DualSense controller or any of the system’s features. Available on PlayStation and PC, I decided to review the PS5 version simply because there aren’t a lot of games out for that system, and I may have chosen poorly. It's rare in games, or any media really, for a narrative to focus solely on a very human element without resorting to fantasy or entering grim territory.Maquette is the French word for “scale model”, which perfectly fits with Graceful Decay’s new adventure game that blends heavy doses of narrative with casual exploration of magical fantasy environments and some thoughtful puzzle-solving. It's a story of one couple's relationship, but what's remarkable about it is its simplicity. After solving a puzzle, you're usually treated to a short sequence of dialogue, accompanied by some wonderful artwork. As you progress and explore your surroundings, text will appear, keeping you mindful of the narrative throughout. Running in parallel with the puzzle-centric gameplay is a refreshingly "normal" story. This happened to us a couple of times, and while you can hold Triangle to return to the dome at any time - or simply load a previous save - we'd argue you shouldn't be able to wind up stuck at all. Also, while you're messing about trying to figure out a puzzle, it can be all too easy to get yourself stuck. It's a unique mechanic, and some of the puzzles present are great, but it feels like it all comes to an end before the recursive world idea can truly blossom. Having said that, one thing we feel lets the game down is that it doesn't push its core concept far enough. We don't want to spoil too much, but the idea of scale is explored in some brilliant ways. This is a very simple early example, but the concept allows for some properly head-scratching, mind-bending puzzles. You pick it up, drop it somewhere in the courtyard, go inside the dome, and pick up that same key, now much smaller. Say you find a key, but it's too large to fit into a door. What this means in terms of puzzle solving is that you'll need to grow or shrink things to help you reach new areas. It's one of those concepts that's easier to understand with a visual, and the moment you enter the game's main area, it all clicks into place.Īt the centre of each chapter is an ornate dome, and within this dome is a smaller version of the environment you occupy. By extension, that means there are ever-larger worlds beyond your reach. This first-person puzzler is set in a recursive universe - meaning each iteration of the world contains within it a smaller version of itself. Maquette is a tricky game to explain in words, but here goes.
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