Jucasaurus

What an abject disappointment. It's starting to feel like Annapurna Interactive is pulling a con job. For every truly great game they put out (Outer WIlds), they release 5 of these half-baked barely-games that tries to hide its shortcomings behind pseudo-profound narrative that's, in truth, bad Netflix drama writing. This formula seems to work on the NPR podcast crowd, who breathlessly fawn over the mere concept of using a game to talk about smaller interpersonal emotions and situations. I'm less impressed. And Maquette feels like the culmination of years of these kind of disappointments from the company I once hoped would be the A24 of gaming. When this was first announced, I was actually quite excited about the recursive gimmick. Just a few minutes into the game and all hope was gone. This game goes out of its way to prevent you from fully exploring the mechanic. Don't come in expecting Portal-levels of freedom to explore the concept of shrinking and solving objects to complete puzzles. Maquette has a SPECIFIC way it wants you to complete each section and if you dare come up with an alternative solution, you can look forward to an invisible wall or clipping to tell you "no, not like that." This particular frustration is compounded by the inconsistent controls and lack of guidance about the rules of play in this recursive universe. At one point toward the end of the game, the button for picking up objects changes with no alert or explanation whatsoever. I'm left to wonder if this was even play-tested at all. I don't expect indie games to be long, but Maquette's seven levels—two or three of which are pretty straight-forward linear runs—total out to just over an hour of core gameplay. From there, the game's length is artificially extended by the player not being given objectives and forced to run around figuring out what to grab or do next, the aforementioned narrow parameters for win states, and the addition of speed-run trophies for chapters. This last one feels like the most cynical attempt at padding as, even after completing the game once, the main menu offers no chapter select to the player. If you want that trophy, you're going to have to start the whole thing over and make lots of saves. You'll also want to hold down O to skip cut scenes, as they count against your time. I'm not really understanding the compliments of Maquette's visuals either. It's just another matte puffy plastic Fisher Price world with lots of repeating assets. Bugsnax had more variety and design ambition. With dull visuals, rudimentary mechanics, and a forced 30fps, I'm scratching my head about how they can call this a "PS5" game with a straight face. Despite getting this as a free PS+ drop, I still feel ripped off and condescended to by Annapurna and questioning my own sanity when I see the adulation reviewers and gamers are heaping on this.