Despite the numerous other releases in recent months have been muted for as many independent releases, Graceful Decay e Annapurna Interactive they managed to get a pretty good stage. In addition to the PC, in fact, the new MODELS is also available on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, but above all it will be obtainable for free with the subscription PlayStation Plus until the end of the month (and the subsequent renewal of the games). Certainly an honor and a considerable burden, a coin flip that could determine a big success, or a failure on all fronts. In recent days we have therefore had the opportunity to approach this particular and introspective puzzle game, accompanied by an intimate and linear narrative, which strives - like the game itself - to make us see things from different perspectives.
Is the world small… or is it too big?
MODELS: what does it mean? This French term in our language stands for "model", and is used to indicate precisely models, models, or simply drafts. In a certain sense, within the game we can find references to each of these meanings, which fit together in a single work, small but dotted in the right places. How it will do them, we'll explain shortly.
This particular work confronts us with puzzles to solve as we guide our character with the first-person view, but unlike a The Witness, where the puzzles were extremely scattered, complex, and with a narrative that was sometimes silent and to be researched, Maquette translates into genuine simplicity. We will check Michael, and we will live the story of his relationship with Kenzie: their story will be told by Michael himself, in a stream of memories that will advance point by point as we continue through the various chapters. Mind you, narration is one of the main focuses of the game, and we advise you to follow it carefully and not to overshadow it. The story is intimate, pure, and underlines all the important aspects of a relationship, of an affection. We will not go into the merits of the various events, because they are closely linked with the gameplay, and because we would make unwelcome spoilers.
After a first brief introduction that will be a tutorial, we will enter what will be our real game world. It is a very particular dimension, a concentric loop where in each chapter we will find ourselves visiting the same place but at different sizes, which in any case are connected to each other. In the center of the map there will (almost) always be those that it looks like a model, me which is actually the same smaller area, and moving the same object will have repercussions in both "views": this is because the object is always one. For example, taking a human-sized gem and leaving it at point X of the normal-sized map will make it appear in the scale model, and therefore smaller. This mechanic works both ways (so to zoom in on objects, etc…), and it will work for ourselves too. By ingeniously shuffling the cards on the table from time to time, all of Maquette's puzzles are intriguing, some more cumbersome than others in the resolution, but never creating an insurmountable gap. As already mentioned, the puzzle phases and the narration go hand in hand, so much so that even the game world, its colors, and even the colors of the narrative interludes, will follow the emotions transmitted hand in hand. Always keep an eye on this factor too, essential to fully enjoy the experience offered by Graceful Decay.
Edges and author's voices
What unfortunately remains heavy is the presence of various technical problems. Although they only show up in some cases, there are gods bug inside of the game - a couple of which are still present despite the corrective patch - which force the player to load a previous save, perhaps due to a scene that did not start automatically or because the player has found a "crossroads" to solve a certain puzzle. Clearly, frustrating as it is, we know the team is hard at work to fix these issues, so they aren't too big of a burden. Maquette's pace is slightly fluctuating, and it also depends on the player's speed of understanding. We wander around the three hours of play to see the credits, three hours that will not see us damn to understand the facts thanks to the localization through subtitles.
The rest of the technical sector gives the player some compositions artistically inspired in low poly within the game, but undoubtedly giving the best in various drawings and drafts that we will see during the various interludes, those that describe the progress of the relationship between Michael and Kenzie. While listening to the story and looking at the drawings (in which the two are metaphorically represented as two birds), it is impossible not to feel empathy, one of the decidedly most important points for a game that is based on narration. The audio sector is undoubtedly important, where certain tracks have been borrowed, also sung to accompany certain moments of the game (narratively and actively), and where nothing less than the voices of the protagonists have been chosen. Bryce Dallas Howard e Seth Gabel, two acting professionals who have been able to give the right colors to a story that lives on them.
