During the month of March on Playstation Plus, Maquette is making use of a very nice spotlight. A puzzle game with limited resources, but may attract more than one player.
If we talk to you about the puzzle game, some of the unmissable titles automatically jump to mind. We will remember for example the excellent franchise portal or recent Superliminal titles, where space is of particular importance. Indeed, it is imperative to demonstrate dexterity and insidiousness to solve puzzles, using everything presented to you to modify the size or nature of the objects around you.
It’s exactly the same principle that McCitt works on. Developed by Graceful Decay novices, the title is kind of a giant puzzle box around which architectural principles and a beautiful love story revolve. A clever combination that makes the game a relatively good surprise, not without flaws, but very poetic and poignant.
In fact, Maquette’s scenario is what brings us above all. You will follow the love story between Kenzi and Michael. If this is a relative boat and instead, it surprisingly transports us and gives us happiness in the good times, and compassion for our friends’ toughest moments. This love story turns around their shared passion for drawing, which we will feel throughout the adventure, and even allows itself at certain times to surprise us.
In order to progress on this adventure, you will have to solve a large number of puzzles, all of them fairly well. With your environment model in the middle of the room, you’ll need to zoom in or out on certain objects in order to progress. The concept is somewhat fictitious but difficult to understand at first. Only after a few puzzles can one run without difficulty in controlling the gameplay. In order to progress through the levels, it will then be necessary to think about several measures of what can be used for such an object and whether it will increase ten times or get smaller.
However, we are sorry that some of the mechanics spoil the gameplay, so the movements are boring, terribly slow, and poorly designed. Most of the time, we’ll just go from point A to point B without the slightest chance of acceleration. Also, if you get stuck, don’t expect any help. Only the inscriptions on the walls tell you whether or not you are on the right track. Its a complete puzzle, but it’s hard to tell if we’re on the right track.
If we have the pleasure of solving the mysteries that lie before us, we can still expect a longer adventure. Allow a little over 4 hours to complete the story taking your time. The game is currently priced at € 15, so the bill is quite steep if you pay the full price.
As we explore Maquette’s worlds, one thing jumps out on us: the richness of his environment. You won’t always stay around the dome model, sometimes you will have the opportunity to discover a bleak cemetery, and sometimes the possibility to take a stroll through a wonderfully enchanting and colorful garden. Everything works very well, and every environment is a pleasure, with the help of a very successful artistic direction.
Without being pretty, Maquette presents a very successful world with a very noticeable graphic touch, close to graphics. Obviously, we won’t compare it to mass production where the graphics are realistic and gorgeous, but Maquette can boast of being relatively beautiful, especially in very colorful and lively environments.
If there’s one point we can’t get wrong with the title, it’s his soundtrack. It is crafted to perfection and transmits throughout our adventure the various melodies that compose it are simply perfect and perfectly suited to every situation. Thus, we are entitled to enjoy pop / rock music in moments of joy, while moving to more gentle and gentle music in moments of tenderness. However, the soundtrack alone does not make Maket a success. Indeed, a completely successful dubbing is hard to miss. Don’t expect a French version in the title, that’s okay. The pair played Kinsey and Michael as Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, Spider-Man 3) and Seth Gable (Arrow, American Horror Story). Unsurprisingly, the acting is so good, but it’s also very influential.
Unfortunately, Maquette cannot take advantage of large-scale production facilities in terms of quality assurance. It is very unfortunate, because it would have been useful to him. In fact, Graceful Decay misses a lot on its end, with a slew of bugs and display issues. Falls Frame rate Found everywhere, while Snapshot It could have been mitigated. For its part, the French translation was completely lost, especially at the beginning of the adventure. We also get the impression that the developers have used a tool like Google TranslationBecause some translations are so dangerous, even incomprehensible.
conclusion
A puzzle game at its purest core, Maquette presents herself as a very pleasant surprise. Like Superliminal, Maquette plays with POs and is played mostly entirely in first person. The numerous puzzles that the player has to solve are neither too easy nor too complicated, and we are happy to find the solution. Unfortunately, we could have expected more Graceful Decay production, as the title was completed in just 4 hours. In terms of gameplay, the concept is attractive but the moves are a real ordeal and the puzzles will require solving in a very special way. There is no pluralism here in the curriculum by solving puzzles, we discover the touching love story between Michael and Kenzi and enjoy discovering the evolution of their relationship thanks to the narrative that escalates through perfect dubbing and a meticulously crafted soundtrack. It’s extremely unfortunate, however, that Maquette suffers from such a disastrous ending: bugs are numerous, clipping is ubiquitous, and frame rate dips are ubiquitous. VF is also approximate.
Form
+:
- Very magical colorful world
- Fun puzzles to solve
- Quite pretty
- Very nice soundtrack, along with almost perfect dubbing
- Simple yet touching story
The – :
- A French translation completely failed
- Traveling is an ordeal
- Lots of bugs
- Slightly expensive considering the shelf life (15 euros for 4 hours)
“Evil thinker. Music scholar. Hipster-friendly communicator. Bacon geek. Amateur internet enthusiast. Introvert.”