Publisher Annapurna Interactive has a tendency toward presenting thoughtful and artistic games,
and Maquette is no exception.
It introduces inventive fundamentals, and builds a range of puzzles around those core ideas.
Meanwhile, linking it all together is a romantic tale that’s heartfelt and relatable.
At the center of Maquette is the concept of a recursive world,
meaning that like a hall of mirrors or a Russian nesting doll,
the environment essentially exists inside copies of itself.
It gets infinitely smaller as you move inwards,
and infinitely larger as you move outwards, with a dome structure defining the boundaries of each layer.
The easiest way to think about this is to imagine that the dome contains a model
that perfectly matches the buildings around it,
and inside that model is a smaller dome with a smaller model,
and so on.
The puzzles come into play when you take interactive objects
and place them on one of these layers.
If a massive cube is blocking your path,
you can move it by picking up an identical miniature cube from the model.
If you grab a life-size set of stairs and drop it into the model,
a gigantic version of those stairs will come crashing out of the sky behind you.
By taking items from one layer to another,
you can essentially make them smaller or larger,
and most of the game’s puzzles play with this sense of scale.
As you progress through the course of 4 to 5 hours,
each chapter replaces the buildings around the dome with new environments,
bringing their own twists to these mechanics.
By using tools, exploring, and thinking about your surroundings,
you can intuitively work your way through the game by finding key objects, building bridges,
and unlocking doors in various forms.
A lot of it relies on careful observation,
and in particular, you need to look at environments at different scales
to see things you might otherwise miss.
Some solutions come easily,
but we did have to turn to a guide a few times after getting stuck.
A couple of these cases were simply a matter of us getting too focused on one idea
and not noticing other clues.
However, one puzzle involving a set of stairs
does feel like it’s specifically designed to thwart players’ creative attempts,
forcing you into a single “correct” answer instead of rewarding multiple approaches.
Getting stuck in a puzzle game due to your own short-sightedness
can naturally cause some frustration on its own,
but Maquette does have some mechanical issues that can be a hindrance as well.
At times, objects can become awkward to manipulate
or pop out of place unexpectedly,
and in one instance, we found ourselves unable to drop a gem
until we returned to the place we picked it up.
If you’re having a hard time in an area where you’re tiny, walking back and forth to try different things
can feel a bit slow.
Plus, it’s possible to get yourself trapped in spots and need to reload.
These abstract, incomplete, and dreamlike environments
do fit well with the game’s story, which is all about reliving memories.
You play as Kenzie who has found a sketchbook
that she and her lover Michael drew in together.
As she thumbs through the pages, she recalls when their love first began
and all the significant moments along the way.
You never see either of these characters on screen.
Instead, the story is experienced by reading messages written on the walls
and by listening to the couple interact while artwork from the sketchbook is drawn before you.
Voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard and Seth Gabel,
their relationship is believable and charismatic,
pulling you in to Kenzie’s shoes from the very first scene.
There are also moments when specific songs start to play,
and these also feel like they communicate a strong sense of significance and connection
as Kenzie relives her past.
It’s an emotional journey overall, but
there are times when the mood can feel interrupted
by the frustration of trying to solve a puzzle that you just can’t wrap your head around.
Maquette never quite delivers that sense of mind-boggling euphoria
you might expect.
Finicky mechanics sometimes get in the way,
and it would help if there were more rewards for experimentation.
That said, it’s still a fascinating premise
that’s fleshed out in ways that keep pushing you to think outside the box.
Paired with a love story that feels personal and authentic,
it’s both intellectually and emotionally worth exploring.
Final score: 7 out of 10.
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