Maze: Subject 360

 
Developer: Mad Head Games
Steam Release: Apr 2016
Hours Played: ~5 (Not played on Steam)
Similar To: Enigmatis 2 / Nightmares from the Deep: Cursed Heart /  Weird Park Trilogy
Rating: 5/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Developer Artifex Mundi may arguably take the lion's share of what is good about adventure and hidden object games but to my knowledge such games published by Viva Media and Big Fish Games (on Steam at least) take most of the rest. Maze is a great antidote for all those jaded with the garish look of those overly cute and colourful titles such as Grim Legends and Nearwood. Much like The Cube or the Saw series you begin with the need to escape from a deeply disturbing and unfamiliar room. An equally disturbing young girl of perhaps eight or nine tells you over the phone that you're involved in some sort of test and, like the character of Jigsaw, proceeds to taunt and mock you. Later, a flashback reveals that you crashed your car nearby and needed to stay at the motel. Like an Artifex Mundi title you enter rooms and locations in fixed first-person view.

BALANCE & PACE
You'll move the pointer in an effort to find objects to interact with or to put in your inventory for later use. A useful caption will often accompany an action to serve as a further clue. Often, the camera will zoom in and you'll need to solve a further puzzle or complete a hidden object scene. Everything is done with the ultimate purpose of finding your escape. A little trial and error and a large amount of common sense is enough to solve the issues and unlike throwing complicated or confusing puzzles at you, I found the difficulty in Maze: Subject 360 to be spot-on. Most have the correct ingredients to be decent head-scratchers but never so obscure that you'll lose heart or scurry off to look at solutions every five minutes. Additionally, there is ample variety and intrigue to help the game move at an excellent pace.   

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Production values seem to be in line with the Artifex Mundi games and all leading Big Fish adventure titles such as the Drawn, Nevertales and Dark Parables' series. (G5 are also a company big on this style of game.) The clicks of the excellent UI and the rewarding animations all greatly enhance the experience but it's the creepy vibe and the sinister menace that's constantly in the air which really grabs you. Of course it throws in a few cheap jump-scares here and there but, helped by a decent ambient soundtrack as well, if nothing else, it is an extremely atmospheric game. The real star of the show though is the sadistic and evil little girl who pops up to taunt you. Sure, there are far too many cutesy female American voices in hidden object games these days but this is one of the few occasions where it works really well. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Unless you look at the very clear and well designed guide that gives you solutions to everything, there is no where in the game that actually tells you how far you've got. Despite this, there is a journal to be found in the bottom right corner that will list your objectives with ticks showing those that have been successfully carried out. There is a bit of backtracking but I never found this to be annoying or indeed anywhere near the deal-breaker it can be in other games. Be that as it may, the game is divided into four lengthy chapters that might take about 2 hours each to complete - again, a little peak at the guide will always answer your questions regarding progress.  As mentioned for me, the pacing, balance and difficulty of the game were excellent. 
 

CONCLUSION

To be honest, I was on a playthrough of Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride while writing this review and it was on realising how complicated and obscure some of the puzzles were - and a subsequent overabundant use of the hint system - that led me to appreciate the pitch of difficulty in Maze. Sure, it requires a small degree of backtracking and, yes, the jump-scares can be a tad tiresome but it does get a hell of a lot right. Not least the non-garish art-style, the eerie lighting and that sinister atmosphere that makes you feel like you're trapped in some kind of lunatic asylum or haunted house. With violent horror conventions aplenty and not one annoyingly cute kitten in sight, it's definitely not a game you'll want to play with your six year old son or daughter.