Maquette, the striking “recursive” first-person puzzle adventure from developer Graceful Decay and publisher Annapurna Interactive, is making its way to Switch next week, on 25th May.
Originally released for PlayStation and PC back in 2021, Maquette builds an ingenious series of spatial challenges inspired by the small-scale sculptors’ models that give the game its name.
Maquettes are sculptures crafted before embarking on a full-scale project, and in Graceful Decay’s puzzler, that’s reflected in environments that contain smaller versions of themselves. Crucially in Maquette, changes made to one environment affect the other – so if you were to, say, place a cube in a tiny courtyard in front of you, it would then materialise in the full-size courtyard you stand in, giving you a means to progress to the next area – and on it goes.
These kind of challenges form the meat of Maquette, but it also incorporates a story of “love, loss, and acceptance” centring on Kenzie and Michael, a fictional couple – played by Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World, Black Mirror) and Seth Gabel (Fringe, Nip/Tuck) – as they look back on their relationship.
Unfortunately, it’s this aspect of the game that somewhat lets things down amid otherwise wonderfully clever puzzling. Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell called Maquette’s story “soppy and weightless”, and blighted by “soggy writing”, in his review back in 2021.
Still, if you’re a curious Switch owner yet to delve into Maquette’s cursive world, it’ll be available to purchase from Nintendo’s eShop next Thursday, 25th May.
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