Maquette has a very unique concept for a puzzle game that I wish would have been capitalized on more. The narrative that it tells is great and I love the visual metaphors that the game uses to accent the story of two characters falling in love and the aftermath that plays out. It's a very bittersweet game but one I enjoyed nonetheless from a narrative and visual perspective. However, in terms of gameplay I feel that the puzzles could have been fleshed out a bit more. This is a very short game even on a first playthrough, which left me feeling ultimately disappointed once I realized it was over because I was hoping to get more out of the puzzle-solving aspect.

Basically, if you're playing this game for the story you'll probably enjoy it, but if you're looking for an invigorating puzzle game that challenges you, then you might not get into it as much.

This is probably the worst Annapurna published game I've played, but that's notable because Maquette still sets a pretty high bar.

The writing and voice acting is superb, if predictable. The visual metaphors are superb, and the story structure too sort of mimics the idea of a recursive environment.

Unfortunately, the gameplay aspect itself, the act of puzzling out the puzzles, often doesn't connect to the themes and metaphors of the rest of the game. The puzzles all have one simple step to solve, and although I sometimes found it tricky to figure out, I often found them either too easy or too hard. The walking speed is far too fast for a game about looking at environments, and worst of all, the central mechanic of moving and placing objects is far from as polished as a game's central mechanic ought to be

However, I can forgive it of all these flaws, because the simple act of walking through these spaces, reading the accompanying words, and experiencing the cutscenes is enough for the experience to be impactful, memorable, and beautiful.

A great premise, that sadly falls a bit short of its potential. I liked the recursive environment and the way it tied back to the game's themes, but I wish some elements were used more. There's hardly ever a reason to venture out into the large world, for example. Multiple times I was disappointed to find that a puzzle's solution was a lot less creative than what I was expecting it to be. Surprisingly glitchy as well, there were a couple of instances where I couldn't get what I needed to progress and had to reload a save that I had thankfully made only a few steps earlier.

I liked the story of Kenzie and Michael, and their performances are excellent. There are a few moments where this game really sings, and those moments are strong enough to mostly carry the not so great moments. Still though, I can't help but feel a little remorse at what could have been.

There are a handful of moments in Maquette that feel truly magical, but they are overshadowed by game-breakingly bad puzzle design and cumbersome controls. I wanted to like this game but the difficulty is incredibly inconsistent. Certain puzzles are borderline unsolvable without a guide, while others are so easy they left me second guessing myself. The "story" follows a couple through the various stages of their relationship, although the game itself takes place within an abstract representation of the main character's emotions and memories during key moments of this relationship. The story is undoubtedly cliche but the voice acting and visuals did a good job of placing me in the same headspace as the protagonist. The soundtrack is also stellar. If you are a fan of The Witness, it's worth a shot but don't feel guilty about looking up solutions when you're stuck.

Maquette is a puzzle game in which you find yourself in an area within a similar, larger version of said area and also overlooking a similar, smaller version of said area in the middle of the area you start in as if the areas were matryoshka dolls. You solve puzzle by, for example, dropping items into the smaller area after which they appear in your current area as larger versions of themselves. It's fun to goof around with the mechanics and enlarge and shrink various items, which sometimes even get you to places where you're not supposed to go to.

The game also tells a story of a relationship. Sometimes the story and the gameplay form parallels with each other, which is satisfying. The ending is left open to interpretation, and certain things in the game allow the player to draw their own conclusions as to what it all means. Personally, I like to think that a happy ending is implied even if the game throws some gut-punches your way.

Fun puzzle game with unique mechanic around a recursive world, where if you affect a small model of the world it affects the world you're in and then the bigger world outside of you too. Doesn't go crazy in depth with this mechanic but keeps it short and sweet and explores lots of different simple puzzles that can come from it.

Bittersweet breakup story as it's narrative that is well written and makes you feel for characters but ultimately although both the narrative and gameplay are good, they are relatively seperate and don't reinforce each other.

Controls can be a bit clunky on occasion. Good soundtrack. Pretty visuals.

Boring/annoying characters/narrative

Boring and annoying storytelling

Boring puzzles

Extremely easy to softlock the game, leading to believe it was barely tested.

Music feels like the developer wanted to add their favorite playlist to the game, and some piano for filler.

Disappointing relative to the initial reveal trailer, and I am extremely glad I didn't pay for this, so thank you Sony. If you want a fun version of a similar concept, play Superliminal.

This game is beautiful in alot of ways. The story resonated with me in a way that I wasn't anticipating and made me genuinely emotional. I love the animated vignettes, the voice acting is phenomenal, and the ending left me heartbroken and sad. The puzzles in this game are also pretty top notch, with a really cool mechanic that encourages you to think recursively. There are some pretty clever puzzles but running around some of the bigger spaces can be tedious at times. Unfortunately what bugs me is the fact that this games best aspects are almost entirely disconnected. There are some moments where you can bridge the gap but otherwise it's just a pretty puzzle game with a story happening in the background. I love the separate parts of this game, but as a whole it left me feeling underwhelmed.