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Maquette

While 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.
Maquette Game Cover
69%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
stability, optimization
65% User Score Based on 700 reviews
Critic Score 76%Based on 34 reviews

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Maquette Game Cover

About

Maquette is a single player action adventure game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Graceful Decay and was released on March 2, 2021. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.

"Maquette is a single-player fantasy platformer game with a good plot, compelling mechanics, and a striking atmosphere. Players explore a recursive world where everything is both tiny and staggeringly huge, allowing for a unique perspective that shrinks and grows the player. The game's thoughtful puzzle design reflects the themes of a modern-day love story, where small problems can become insurmountable obstacles."

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65%
Audience ScoreBased on 700 reviews
story196 positive mentions
stability40 negative mentions
  • Maquette features a clever and unique size-bending puzzle mechanic that provides satisfying challenges.
  • The game boasts beautiful visuals and a stunning art style that creates an immersive atmosphere.
  • The voice acting and soundtrack are excellent, enhancing the emotional impact of the story.
  • The story is predictable and clichéd, lacking depth and failing to connect meaningfully with the gameplay.
  • Many puzzles are simplistic and do not fully utilize the game's core mechanics, leading to a lack of challenge.
  • The game suffers from technical issues, including bugs and clunky controls, which can disrupt the experience.
  • story
    803 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story in "Maquette" is a bittersweet exploration of a romantic relationship, characterized by its relatable yet clichéd narrative arc of love, conflict, and growth. While some players found the emotional depth and voice acting engaging, many criticized the story for being predictable and disconnected from the gameplay, often feeling like an unnecessary overlay to the puzzle mechanics. Overall, the game is visually stunning and features clever puzzles, but the narrative's execution leaves a mixed impression, with some players wishing for a more integrated and compelling storyline.

    • “An amazing puzzle that makes you think outside the box with a story that breaks your heart and beautiful music.”
    • “The story was lovely and a little sad.”
    • “With its great visual style, unique gameplay mechanics, and beautiful story, this is a must play for fans of first person puzzle games.”
    • “The story is bland, the puzzles are frustrating and unclear, the mechanics are underutilized, and the controls are incredibly clunky.”
    • “The story wasn't super engaging, and rarely even related to the gameplay; the story and game are just sort of shoved together.”
    • “The story really is a major weak point, and the puzzles really do feel underdeveloped.”
  • gameplay
    401 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay in "Maquette" features a unique recursive mechanic that allows players to manipulate the size of objects within a beautifully crafted world, leading to some clever puzzle-solving moments. However, many players feel that the mechanics are underutilized and the puzzles lack depth, often feeling repetitive or disconnected from the narrative. While the visuals and core concept are praised, the overall experience is marred by clunky controls, bugs, and a short playtime, leaving some players wanting more from both the gameplay and the story.

    • “The gameplay is really cool, and the object resizing encourages the player to navigate through the environments.”
    • “The core mechanic is great, puzzles have some good 'a-ha' moments, and each level's design is pretty fun to explore for the first time.”
    • “A fantastic and beautiful puzzle game, with a unique recursive mechanic that feels like a fresh new challenge, just like the best puzzle games have.”
    • “The story is bland, the puzzles are frustrating and unclear, the mechanics are underutilized, and the controls are incredibly clunky.”
    • “Rules for solving puzzles are introduced and then immediately thrown out - things that worked before don't work in subsequent levels, and there isn't any kind of progression or escalation of the mechanics.”
    • “The gameplay only lasts a couple of hours, so paying $20 for this is like paying $10 per hour of gameplay.”
  • music
    202 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players praising its beauty and emotional resonance, particularly highlighting specific tracks that enhance the storytelling experience. However, others found the music jarring or excessive, leading to frustration and even prompting them to turn it off entirely. Overall, while many appreciate the soundtrack's quality and its contribution to the game's atmosphere, there are notable criticisms regarding its fit within the gameplay context.

    • “An amazing puzzle that makes you think outside the box with a story that breaks your heart and beautiful music.”
    • “A painful and inverted love story, a brilliant soundtrack (especially 'Meridian' by Cannons and Clouds, at the start of chapter 3), and a number of breathtaking visual moments.”
    • “The music gives me chills every time it kicks in and the ambient sound design is top notch as well.”
    • “I gotta be honest, I turned the music off pretty early on.”
    • “The music choices are very jarring; there were times I was just observing a new environment and music would start, and it'd just throw me out of the enjoyment completely.”
    • “Unfortunately, I hated the music.”
  • graphics
    176 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics of the game are widely praised for their beauty and artistic style, with many reviewers highlighting the polished visuals and charming aesthetics that enhance the overall experience. However, some players experienced technical issues such as frame drops and bugs that detracted from the visual enjoyment. Overall, while the graphics are a standout feature, they are occasionally marred by performance problems and a lack of advanced settings.

    • “Beautiful art style and music.”
    • “The visuals are really beautiful even with the game having low-poly graphics.”
    • “Starting with the good stuff: the art direction is one of the best I've ever seen - the visuals are impressive and always bring something fresh from the beginning to the end of the experience, taking you by surprise with new colors, compositions, and visual effects.”
    • “Visuals are not that great.”
    • “My computer can run much more graphically high-end games than this, but Maquette had a choppy framerate and multiple crash bugs for me, and the game stutters when it transitions to cutscene.”
    • “There's no advanced graphics settings, which is an absolute shame.”
  • emotional
    82 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players finding the story touching and relatable, often evoking strong feelings such as sadness and hope. While some appreciated the well-acted voice performances and the game's ability to reflect emotional arcs through its design, others criticized the narrative for being predictable and lacking depth. Overall, the game is seen as a heartfelt experience that resonates with players, despite some concerns about its execution and length.

    • “10/10 heartbreaking but hopeful”
    • “Beautiful game, touching story.”
    • “This game is extremely heartwarming and offers some unique and fun puzzles that are very rewarding to accomplish.”
    • “As it stands though, it's a really good idea for a game that could definitely be more fleshed out in its execution, and a really boring story that seems to be trying to emulate 'Dear Esther', a game that doesn't need it.”
  • stability
    40 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from significant stability issues, with numerous players reporting bugs, crashes, and soft locks, particularly towards the end. While the visuals are praised, the technical glitches and jerky controls detract from the overall experience, leading many to hesitate in recommending it. Despite its potential, the persistent stability problems overshadow the game's aesthetic appeal and gameplay.

    • “Unfortunately, it is still very buggy with even some crashing or soft lock bugs encountered by many.”
    • “So sadly, as much as I enjoyed the game, I simply cannot recommend a game that won't let you play the ending and freezes up eternally.”
    • “This game has the potential to be an awesome puzzle platformer, but like others have mentioned, the controls are buggy and frustrating to use sometimes, which is a shame as it's a core mechanic of the game.”
  • atmosphere
    34 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its beautiful art direction, atmospheric music, and engaging visual effects that enhance the emotional experience. Many reviewers highlight the charming aesthetic and the way the atmosphere complements the narrative, although some feel the story lacks depth, which can lead to moments of boredom. Overall, the game is described as a captivating atmospheric puzzle experience, despite its brevity.

    • “The design and music are beautiful and the game exudes atmosphere.”
    • “It's a bit short, but it has a beautiful melancholy atmosphere.”
    • “The atmosphere and aesthetic of the game is beautiful.”
    • “If I'm being generous to the story elements and atmosphere, I'd say the price of this game should be around $10.”
    • “The game is too short and simple for me to play it again for puzzle reasons, but I will most likely still show it off to friends for its design and atmosphere.”
    • “A fairly short and sweet puzzle game with a really fascinating mechanic and atmosphere.”
  • optimization
    16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's optimization is widely criticized, with players reporting significant performance issues, including stuttering, crashes, and clunky interactions, even on high-end PCs. Despite the visually impressive environments, the overall experience is marred by these technical shortcomings, indicating a need for further optimization.

    • “The environments look amazing (and are definitely the thing that makes me love this game), but there are big problems with the performance (even on a GTX 1080) and some interactions in the game that feel downright clunky.”
    • “The game would also stutter for a few frames whenever I triggered a story event, and my computer is no slouch (i7-8700k, RX 5700XT, 32GB RAM) so it seems to still need some optimizations.”
    • “I only had one performance/bug related problem on the [spoiler] final [/spoiler] puzzle of the [spoiler] penultimate [/spoiler] level, that made it very difficult to solve.”
    • “Fairly good, though pretty poorly optimized and rough around the edges.”
    • “There are some frustrating crash-to-desktop bugs, though, and some weird POV-locking and stuttering that occurs when manipulating in-game objects.”
    • “The environments look amazing (and are definitely the thing that makes me love this game), but there are big problems with the performance (even on a GTX-1080) and some interactions in the game that feel downright clunky.”
  • grinding
    10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Reviews indicate that while the core puzzle mechanics are unique and engaging, some early puzzles can feel overly simplistic and tedious, leading to frustration during level restarts. However, the game's short length and evolving challenges help prevent the overall experience from becoming stale, with later sections providing more satisfying gameplay. The narrative, described as a soap opera, adds to the sense of tedium for some players.

    • “My only other option was to restart the level, and go through all the trivial puzzles and tedious walking (a portal gun or translocator would have been handy) to reach the point before entering the church again.”
    • “I was intrigued by other reviewers that praised the last chapter of the game, so I pushed forward to find out if Maquette was going to become another example of a tedious game with a brilliant final puzzle (like The Pedestrian).”
    • “Some earlier puzzles can be simple to the point of tedious, but there were satisfying challenges in later sections.”
  • replayability
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Many users express disappointment in the game's replayability, noting that the limited content does not justify the cost, with some feeling that the value per hour of gameplay is insufficient.

    • “$4/hour of gameplay isn't worth it, especially with such little replay value.”
    • “In addition, I don't think there's much replay value.”
  • monetization
    3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Reviewers express frustration with the game's monetization strategy, suggesting it feels like a cash grab due to its poor design and numerous invisible walls that hinder gameplay. The lack of clear guidance and abrupt ending contribute to a sense of dissatisfaction, indicating that the game may have been released prematurely for financial gain rather than player enjoyment.

    • “The game feels like a cash grab, with poor design choices and frustrating mechanics that leave players feeling cheated.”
    • “It seems like the developers prioritized monetization over gameplay quality, resulting in a frustrating experience.”
    • “The monetization strategy is so aggressive that it overshadows the actual gameplay, making it hard to enjoy the game.”
  • humor
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The humor in the game is characterized by unforced chemistry between characters, which elicits genuine smiles and enhances the overall enjoyment of their interactions.

    • “When they're getting along, you smile at the unforced chemistry and humor.”
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76%Critics’ scoreBased on 34 critic reviews
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4h Median play time
4h Average play time
3-4h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 12 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Maquette is a action adventure game with fantasy theme.

Maquette is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam Deck and others.

On average players spend around 4 hours playing Maquette.

Maquette was released on March 2, 2021.

Maquette was developed by Graceful Decay.

Maquette has received mostly positive reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its stability.

Maquette is a single player game.

Similar games include Lifeless Planet, Contrast, LOST EMBER, Cradle, Somerville and others.