There are visual clues, and sometimes it is obvious, but other times the solutions seem nonsensical. You are dropped into a scene and it is up to you to work out what to do and where to go. I would say Maquette falls in the middle of a traditional puzzle game and something like The Witness. The puzzles in Maquette are never explained. Others, seem unfair or have their own set of rules which you are not privy to. Some of them are extremely clever and do provide you with immense satisfaction when you finally work them out. I found the puzzles to be quite difficult. It is going to appeal to some people and not to others. Maquette is a bit of a mixed bag and I would say its current mixed rating on Steam is about right. Paying attention to the environment often pays dividends. If something looks out of place or strange then it usually has a purpose.
Maquette game guide professional#
The voice acting is excellent and sounds very professional with feeling and emotion. When you hear a massive key drop in the distance it sounds weighty and satisfying. The object noises as they drop sound awesome. The songs are performed well enough but I’m just not sure they add to the experience. Sometimes, they make sense and add emotional weight to the story but sometimes they feel out of place and distracting.
There are odd sporadic cases of songs bursting into the game. Graphics are very bright and colourful and have a mystic vibe. The look of the game is secondary to the puzzles but is more than adequate for the type of game. I like the idea of watching the scene unravel as it is drawn. These add depth to the story and fill in gaps before the next cutscene. Along the way, you will see comments by Michael or Kenzie in the form of floating sentences, describing their feelings at the time. Mostly, you will just be trying to enter buildings to trigger small cut scenes of relationship moments. Some butterflies flying around a door a coloured gem or colour coded doors are all examples of visual hints.
There are no indicators as to where to go or what to do but there are sometimes subtle hints to guide you in the right direction. The large Maquette means you walk painfully slow sometimes, and some environments are quite big so this can take some time. Walking speeds are affected depending on which model you are in. Colour coded doors can be opened with the corresponding coloured crystal, but how do I get the red crystal inside out of the building? Once you get the general idea, and you are on the same wavelength of the game, the puzzles become easier and you feel less disorientated. It sounds easy but a lot of thought has gone into constructing these puzzles. The game mostly consists of navigating inaccessible areas by making bridges and opening locked doors. So, by placing an object on the stairs in the small or normal Maquette could possibly mean you could climb that object in the large Maquette and get up the stairs you previously could not climb. The objects in the large Maquette are too big to pick up but objects in the normal and small Maquette can be picked up, rotated and dropped almost anywhere. You may no longer be able to climb stairs for example, as they are now too large.
The game is a three dimensional puzzle game where size matters!īy moving in and out of each three-dimensional model it feels like you are getting bigger or smaller, whereas in fact it is just the environment which has changed. The small key but it is too small to open the door.