- Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
- Release Date: Mar 2, 2021
- Also On: PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Mar 1, 2021Maquette is just fascinating. It is a game that has one central mechanic and ties it into a narrative not often told by games and media. That unique blend of challenging, but mind-boggling recursive gameplay, jaw-dropping set-pieces, and heartfelt narrative moments really crafts an experience that mesmerises and stuns at every turn and is another great title from Annapurna.
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Mar 9, 2021Maybe there’s no healthy way to insulate yourself from heartbreak, but there’s still beauty in the retrospective. Maquette casts a rosy lens on a love story softened by time’s eventual passage. It’s an important lesson, that the sorrow of love lost can be soothed and sanded down by the steady movement of the clock. The story’s frequent puzzle breaks mean that you’re eased into the worst of it. You’re given a long runway before the inevitable climax, which might be a blessing in itself. Even if a reflective journey through a complex relationship doesn’t appeal to you, the intricate world and it’s fascinating puzzles will surely have you hooked.
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Mar 8, 2021The first half of Maquette is close to flawless, with its puzzles and narrative sharing a symbiotic relationship that whilst brilliant, makes the flaws of the second half glaringly obvious. Full of character, ambition and love, Maquette is a unique experience. If you enjoy story-driven games, Maquette is a must. Maquette is a wondrous exploration of human relationships and packs an emotional weight that will leave a lasting impression on its players and it'll be interesting to see what Graceful Decay does next.
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Mar 25, 2021It’s not always a perfect combination. A few of the latter puzzles feel needlessly complicated, requiring you to place the objects at pixel-perfect angles to trigger the next area. But that doesn’t take away from how remarkable the game is. Like Portal before it, Maquette redefines what puzzle games are capable of, and I don’t think I’ll be forgetting about these characters any time soon.
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Mar 3, 2021While it misses the chance to transcend the sum of its parts, Maquette tells a beautifully relatable story with a gorgeous presentation, accompanied by a clever and unique size-bending puzzler.
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Mar 1, 2021Maquette is a puzzle game with a lot of silent walking, self-reflection, and a deep storyline. There's no action and its platforming doesn't compare to the mobility of Super Mario or other engaging platformers. Maquette isn't a game for everyone, but it could be an essential game for many. Maquette chooses to be uncompromising in its vision and message, and it challenges players both mentally and emotionally as a result, with a suitable payoff waiting for those willing to sink in the hours to get there.
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Mar 1, 2021A unique, thoughtful narrative puzzler with a mind-bending recursive twist that succeeds by focusing more on evoking its themes than unpacking them. Some minor lapses in polish aside it's a short, sharp hit of emotion and wonder that should be on every indie puzzler fan's list.
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Mar 1, 2021Maquette is a great puzzle game that uses perspective and out of the box thinking very well. The story of Michael and Kenzie is neatly entwined within these puzzle, adding heart and soul to the game as you make your way through the world, big and small.
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Mar 12, 2021Aesthetically pleasing 3D puzzle game with smart mechanics, embedded in a love story. It doesn’t reach its full potential, though.
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Mar 4, 2021An interesting mix between a puzzle game and a narrative adventure.
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Mar 2, 2021Maquette it's an interesting proposal, both in terms of gameplay (recursive worlds), and the way it tells the tale of a relationship. It's not perfect (frame rate issues, some puzzle design maybe are too complex and abstract...), but the precious message and the mark it will leave are, simply, magnificent.
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Mar 1, 2021When Maquette is firing on all cylinders, it is a beautiful journey through a series of ever-larger environments, and Maquette’s love story is poignant and a little heartbreaking. Sadly, my interactions with the puzzles were also full of heartbreak. While Maquette has some missteps, I look back fondly on my time with it. Much like a real-life romance, my affection for this game is complicated.
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Apr 7, 2021Overall, Maquette is a solid and unique puzzle game with a sentimental, well-performed story that may hit a little too close to home for some, while maybe providing some closure for others. If only the developer found a way to intertwine the puzzles and the story together to feel more complete.
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Mar 4, 2021In the end, Maquette is a fair and unique experience, even if tainted by some flaws.
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Mar 2, 2021The stunning world Graceful Decay has built in Maquette is perpetually gorgeous and dream-like throughout its short time, never failing to blind you with its beauty. The puzzles utilise size manipulation to provide you with a satisfying mix of challenges, too.
| This publication does not provide a score for their reviews. | |
| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
| These unscored reviews do not factor into the Metascore calculation. | |
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Mar 9, 2021Maquette is a good puzzle game that does not get rid of some inconsistencies, its control and the design of some of its puzzles have room for improvement, as well as the integration of its narrative with the playable mechanics. However, he knows how to keep his puzzles fresh faithful to his idea of perspective management until the end of the adventure, managing to evoke emotions in the player through the artistic and sound section of him. I have really enjoyed the 3-4 hours that the title lasts, being a very pleasant experience which, despite its possible shortcomings, I have to recommend to those who like the puzzle genre and the more purely narrative adventures.
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Mar 3, 2021What comes as a result is a sense of distraction, above all. Almost a sense that Maquette suffered from too much budget, from misplaced attention to themes or scale. The first half - three hours or so - is a brilliant success, a gorgeous, ingenious, delicately poised construction of spaghetti-brain recursion and latent atmosphere. The time you spend there, submerged deep in focus, is wonderful. The rest is interference.
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Mar 3, 2021The magical world of Maquette never wears off, but the relationship fades. And so the world does shift with it, the colorful fantasy turning gray, the maquette tattered and broken. (At least, for Michael.) This isn’t necessarily a spoiler; it’s something that’s clear from the beginning, an overtone that shades the whole story, even in its happiest moments. The player knows from the beginning that the relationship — no matter how good and perfect it seems — eventually ends.
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Mar 5, 2021Perhaps the style made more sense when the game’s creative director Lemoore conceived Maquette back in the early 2010s, but the world is a different place now, and the game, despite its clear technical achievements, feels like a time capsule.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 35 out of 91
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Mixed: 38 out of 91
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Negative: 18 out of 91
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Mar 6, 2021
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Mar 4, 2021
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Mar 6, 2021