Maquette is a recursive puzzle game was free as part of March 2021’s PlayStation Plus game subscription.
It was clear right from the start this game has somethng unique to offer - starting with a song and teasers about a relationship. At present the story is involving me in recollections about the initial stage of the relationship.
The world you navigate has a smaller replica within it, and a larger one outside of it. And if you look deep into the horizon, you can see the edges of a bigger, completely identical world, conveying that this place repeats itself into infinity. It’s a difficult concept to explain, and much easier to understand in action. The concept makes for ingenious, though at times frustrating, level design and puzzles, with a love story that progresses through narration and text.1
The above quote summaries beautifully my experience so far. There is no clue to the mechanic of the game other than the Size Manipulator trophy and its sudden appearance as a pop-up notification took my attention away from what I’d accidentally done. So that meant pretty soon I was hitting the search engines trying to solve my first puzzle.
Manipulating a bridge
The recursive nature of the game is such that if you pick up a key in one area, the same key, but of a suitable size, is picked up in both the smaller and bigger areas. Walk the key from the “normal” area and drop it in the smaller area means a bigger key appears in the normal area where you just dropped it. This size manipulation is the key to all the puzzles I’ve seen so far.
I’m enjoying the game so far. If only it didn’t make me feel nauseous. I’m still getting used to the 60fps speed of the PlayStation 5.