Maquette
Graceful Decay wants to bend your mind and break your heart with its ambitious debut; you may or may not want to play along
Maquette is like one of those quirky romantic dramas that Sundance critics rave about, only disguised as a first-person puzzler. That sentence alone should tell you whether you’ll adore or despise this grandiose playable metaphor, which seeks to offer a window into the lives of others.
It’s hard not to sound reductive when describing Maquette, which at its core is a series of intricate puzzle-boxes designed to push you from one emotionally charged vignette to another. Here, the world itself is the conundrum: an endless Escher-esque plaything that must be manipulated to unearth narrative nuggets.
As players head to the centre of the dome that houses each infinite level, objects and buildings begin to appear smaller. The giant cube blocking your path earlier? Now it can be picked up and tossed aside. Venture outwards, however, and everything repeats and scales at an alarming pace.
A carefully placed key becomes a vital bridge, stairways turn into towering slopes and pavement cracks become chasms, all while our protagonists stumble through their relationship – savouring that new-love bliss but nurturing resentments as the smallest of niggles morph into giant obstacles. Told you it was a metaphor.
Can it seem trite at times? Sure. After all, most of us have heard this yarn before – think of the game Florence or the film 500 Days of Summer – but there’s no denying Maquette has heart. It also helps that it’s elevated by a lush soundtrack, captivating visuals and a core mechanic that verges on genius.
If that all sounds a little heavy coming out of what’s been a pretty bleak year or so – or you simply loathe self-indulgent love stories – then this probably isn’t the game for you. If, however, you want to spend some time with an innovative puzzler that does its very best to push the genre forward, then we suspect you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this melancholy morsel.
Chris Kerr