Map Map - A Game About Maps Review

Map Map - A Game About Maps is exactly what it says on the tin. You play as a young cartographer, enlisted by Billie's crew to find the treasure of the Raven King with everyone else. Who is everyone else? Well, there's the aforementioned Billie, Milo, Byte, and Rue. Each brings something new to the table; for example, Milo is essentially the lore keeper. Byte is there because he can translate the glyphs that the Raven King left behind. And Rue? Rue's here to find the ultra-special Raven's flower.

Of course, if you're playing Map Map - A Game About Maps, you'll be here for the cartography aspect. And I? Well, I can be best described as "cartographically challenged", with my sense of direction being a source of pain for all of my friends whenever we play any games involving maps. So, I'm not going to lie to anyone: I was not exceptionally good at Map Map.

When you start, you're given some simple maps to identify certain island landmarks to get to grips with the game. All you need to do is press the Tab key on your keyboard, select where you've identified the landmark on the map, and confirm. It'll then show you where your marker landed, and as long as you get within three feet of your location, it's still accurate. If not, one of the crew will suggest you try again. If you want to count feet, you'll need to press the Q key, and then hold the left mouse button and just walk in the direction of where you want to go.

Admittedly, you can't do that at first. Instead, you'll need to use the power of getting to grips with the area — not too difficult, I admit, especially as the first island is nice and circular. But when you're drawing the map of the location, you'll have a green crayon and a pencil to draw certain landmarks, and just make it pretty. However, this is more of a challenge as the game progresses.

See, there's a lot more to counting how many feet to get to the marker and just learning about the islands you're on. In fact, once you've unlocked counting feet, you'll unlock graphing paper and a handy-dandy compass (including a drawing one) so you can both identify what direction you'll go and how you'll measure your feet on the map. This made my life both easier, yet also made me realise that I didn't know where I was, even when I was confident that I knew.

Additionally, you're not just doing those tasks. There are additional things to do, such as finding lost treasure. Now, the idea of finding lost treasure is fun, but I quickly found that I wasn't that interested in doing this unless it was directly to progress the story. Mostly because you'll need to first identify where you are on the island, orient yourself, and then dig with your shovel to get more stationery and stickers. In fact, I would have found that more of a fun element if I could have been able to track where I was on the map, but once you've used up your marker on one level… well, you won't be able to use it when you go back. Instead, you'll have to use the process of figuring out where the secret treasure is hidden.

After that, there were other tasks, as some maps you would get for certain levels weren't complete. You'd be looking at the map and then learn that these weren't there. So, you need to draw in the land, which makes it more disorienting. After this, you'll have to place certain smaller islands on the map, and it turned into more of a game of guesswork than actual cartography.

I thought my life would be easier with more tools, such as the flag markers that you can place in the world. However, that only works when they would also be drawn on the map automatically, as a sort of marker. That was not the case, and so I had to scribble in a flag where I thought it was. Likewise, I thought the same when I unlocked the camera, but you can't zoom into the photos easily, which means… well, you can put those on the map, however you can't really tell what you took a picture of.

Now, I know I'm making it sound like it was a chore, but I did like a lot of elements of Map Map - A Game About Maps. For example, I loved hearing about the characters and their stories, such as Rue's reason for her desire to find the Raven's flower. After all, her whole goal is to find it in the hopes that her adoptive family will love her more (despite them already do). All of the kids have their own distinct reasons for wanting to find the Lost Raven's treasure, too. Frankly, there's a good air of mystery that fits the childlike atmosphere, and it feels like you're back to being a child again.

I appreciated how you could glide after a certain amount of time. There are some areas that you can only really get to by gliding, especially as you can't swim. It's also a lot of fun, being particularly helpful in the Floor is Lava mini-games, which I enjoyed. After all, in those games, you need to get to the next Floor is Lave pedestal without touching the floor. I'm still not entirely clear on what it unlocks... And I'm bad at it, but the challenge is a lot of fun. I just feel like this is a game for those with an interest in cartography and a creative desire to draw maps.

I'm sure I'll go back to Map Map - A Game About Maps, but I think it would be easier if there was a way to see where the player is on the map (or the option to toggle that on and off for those who don't mind), and where they start. While it's not a problem for the early game, it's a lot easier to get lost as the islands get busier and more landmarks are added to the map. The same for the flags when placed down in the overworld. The music and the animation have a lot of heart to them, and I swear it reminded me a lot of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, which is an art style I've always appreciated.

However, as someone who struggles with directions, this was a challenge for me. While I'm aware that this was more of a personal issue, I know that others may also struggle with this.