Maize

That question arises very soon in the game and is always lurking in the back of your head for the rest of this awesome ride. I'd say, this is a more or less linear adventure with easy puzzles. I completed the game within 6 hours and never had to look something up in a walkthrough for the entire playthrough. A fact, that I don't mind, because the game captivated me from the beginning. I was always eager what to discover around the next corner. An awesome atmosphere, when you explore this abondened farm/facility. The not so secret star is of course Vlad, the grumpy bear. But he is not the only remarkable character in this play. And as crazy as the story might sound, as good it is! For the major part I played this game at once, because I always wanted to know, how it all ends... I recommend you to read every note, every folio item and every inventory Item description... with this and when Vlad tells you for the first of a dozen times, why you don't speak, you might start wondering, why this is so... Enjoy the enlightment, enjoy the game! My surprise hit of this winter!

Maize is a fun "walking simulator" with puzzle elements, and while it can get corny at times I did have a great time with it! The game actually looks really good, the soundtrack is great and the voice acting is very much top notch. Gameplay-wise it's best played with a gamepad imo, most of it contains of walking around, picking up items and using them at specific locations or with other items. It's simple and easy to get into. The story and setting are interesting, you start out exploring this abandoned facility that after a little while seems... less abandoned... There's both your storyline and the background lore of the place, so lots to take in and to explore. Every room and area is different, unique and you can walk around for a while to find little details everywhere. I definitely recommend this game so seat up, get some popcorn and start playing it!

Maize is... sigh... If there ever was a game to encapsulate the bad whimsical kind of horror themed comedies of the 80s, this game is exactly that. Nonsensical plot about mad scientists, soviet intelligent teddy bear spitting gibberish "Russian" as a companion and words like "stupid", "imbecile", "idiot" and variations being about 70% of words in the script. Now, the whole concept could actually work, and that is exactly what is the saddest thing about the game is that it fails so miserably, mostly due to the fact that it recreates that vibe down to the "bad" part. Because it's bad. Not so bad it's good bad, but just bad as a comedy game. And as an adventure game it seems to want to be it's even worse, since you just run back and forth and put items on other items and paths open and close in a very linear fashion so you never "solve" anything as much as you just "do stuff". What's also surprising is how ugly the game often looks, despite the use of UE4, some stunning models and good animations. You can be in a very pretty looking location to just turn the corner and find yourself in a terrible "my first UE SDK map" room that looks sickeningly bad. It's a game that could've been, but went very-very wrong and really isn't worth the time.

I loved the story, but the gameplay is centered around puzzles and... gues what? The item descriptions tell you almost exactly what to do and the items you need are HIGHLIGHTED and GLOWING as if they were once touched by GOD HIMSELF. So this pretty much kills it and leaves this game as a walking+pickup-errand simulator. Vladdy is good (the bear) but gets old FAST and the ending pretty much destroys everything you achieved and hopes you take it as a good joke. I was rather pist to be honest.

Let's get straight to the point, Maize is actually not that much of an adventure game, and even much less of a sci-fi one. Think of it as of some kind of retro sci-fi comic show, with all kinds of time-proven cliches, "totally unexpected" script turns and a (* spoiler removed! *) as a protagonist. The "adventure" part is basically just responsible for setting the mood, making you attached to the rest of the actors and ensuring that you will visit all the important spotlights of the stage in the more or less proper order - and that's it. Now, when we've tossed the "adventure game" part out of the way - the show is totally enjoyable per se, the story is weird (and fun!) enough, and the final song deserves its own five stars. So, in a nutshell... a) if you came here for some serious A[A[A]] adventure - move along b) if you came here for an epic A[A[A]] sci-fi story - move along c) if you came here just to have some fun, have a knack for reckless mix of the "retro", "sci-fi" and "comic" words on a single stage and don't care for being called "stupid" by your right-hand NPC for the rest of the gameplay - you should give it a try, definitely. Mind the price, though, as regional pricing on GOG makes it impossible to address this aspect in the review.