Maquette
Developer-Graceful Decay
Publisher-Annapurna Interactive
Format-PC, PS4, PS5 (tested)
Release-Out now
The perfect couples game? At times, when you’re looking around the nested worlds of Graceful Decay’s debut – mesmerising in both their imposing size and clever intricacy – you’ll certainly feel like you could use an extra pair of eyes. You might sense a touch of romance in the air, too, as you wander through a pastel-hued moonlit garden to the strains of San Franciscan Nights by Gábor Szabó and the California Dreamers. At once gently trippy and sentimental, it’s the perfect tone-setter, the line “walls move, minds do too” feeling particularly apposite in light of what comes next. Yet it’s clear from the symmetry of the place – the forking paths, the twin stairways – that there’s something (or rather someone) missing. And there’s a rueful tone to the words overlaid on these beautiful environments: a reflection on a relationship that appears to have run its course. If you do have a partner in tow when you start playing, then, you’d do well to prepare for a few moments that might just have you both shifting uncomfortably in your seat.