How much of that seesawing youвЂ™re willing to endure will depend on your personality, and level of patience. The game may lose its charm during a frustrating stretch, then win you over again at the start of a colourful new stage. Players will likely have a similar relationship with Maquette itself, continually swinging between highs and lows. Just be aware that, like its namesake, itвЂ™s a little rough to handle.ДЄs a final example, at one point in the game, Michael muses that post honeymoon phase, KenzieвЂ™s little quirks became less cute, and more annoying. Still, Maquette is worth attempting if you enjoy puzzle games, or want to play something that forces you to think in very different ways. Maquette is a three-hour game, but the opaque nature of some puzzles, as well as cumbersome object handling, means you could spend double that duration to complete it. A couple of solutions are so obtuse and clunky that you expect to get stuck and have to restart the stage вЂ“ which you should expect to do a few times during playthrough, anyway. Sadly, Maquette does this very inconsistently, creating a frustrating sense of disconnect at times. Gradually and subtly, they prime the playerвЂ™s thinking to overcome upcoming obstacles. Maquette is a game of reflection, so itвЂ™s appropriate then that at a meta-level it prompts the reflection that the best puzzle games never signpost a solution. Failure to notice small shifts in your surroundings means youвЂ™ll take even longer to progress. ItвЂ™s also a game that demands your attention. ItвЂ™s a good thing that MaquetteвЂ™s game world is so stunning, and appreciably diverse, as there is a lot of back and forth to solving puzzles. With changes in the model reflecting instantaneously in reality, that key will suddenly appear super-sized in the regular proportioned universe. As an example, a key from the regular-sized world can be dropped into the small, replica world. Players can resize objects by вЂњfilteringвЂќ them through the repeating, nested environments. It gets a bit more complicated than that. ItвЂ™s a little hard to explain (watch the official gameplay walkthrough below for a better understanding), but, basically, players manipulate miniature building models вЂ“ the maquettes of the title вЂ“ to alter their regular-sized equivalent, and vice versa. People drawn to the game are almost certainly there for the gameвЂ™s striking puzzle component. MaquetteвЂ™s love story still feels like a pleasant bonus, though.

ItвЂ™s just a pity that the game focusses on MichaelвЂ™s development alone, and doesnвЂ™t delve into KenzieвЂ™s side of events. These moments have a real-world tang that lingers, and while Maquette has nothing fresh to say about the nature of love, its observations ring true. That said, the couple are less insufferable when it comes to depicting lulls and lows in their relationship. ItвЂ™s easy to see why they could grate some players. Warning upfront: Michael and Kenzie are divisive characters вЂ“ peak San Fran hipsters who meet over spilled drinks in a coffee shop, and would rather sit painting together in a park rather than going to a friendвЂ™s party. These fanciful creations are what players experience. Tightening the link between story and setting is the fact that Michael and Kenzie bond over dream worlds collaboratively created in MichaelвЂ™s sketchbook. This may sound like a bizarre marriage of ideas, but it actually works well as a way to reflect the evolving relationship of the gameвЂ™s unseen protagonists Michael and Kenzie (voiced by real-life couple Seth Gabel and Bryce Dallas Howard). Think Manifold Garden meets 500 Days of Summer. Like MaquetteвЂ™s primary concept of worlds nested in worlds, embedded in the puzzle game is a hipster millennial romance, complete with an indie-folk soundtrack. What looks from a distance like a stately, emotionally-detached set of cerebral challenges, is actually quite a bit more.

Now, continuing the Annapurna вЂњsurprise and delightвЂќ tradition is first-person recursive puzzler Maquette, the debut title from San Francisco developers Graceful Decay. That family game with a raccoon swallowing up the countryside? Beneath its cute exterior bears a viciously wry heart. With indie games published by Annapurna Interactive, you can almost always expect the unexpected.

Maquette gameplay