Before I begin, it’s pretty much impossible to do this review using game play footage
and not have some spoilers.
So if you don’t want to see the solutions to many puzzles, I’ll give you the 10 second
cliff notes.
This is a really well done point and click adventure with incredible artwork and a really
cool style.
And there are lots of robots.
This is Machinarium for PC.
Developed by Amanita Design, the makers of the web game Samorost, another point and click
adventure with an interesting surrealist style.
Machinarium takes place in a land inhabited only by robots.
You are one such robot, Josef and you’ve been thrown out with the trash.
You’re not given much more than that to go off of at first, but mystery and the unknown
in Machinarium is one of the things that I really like.
Little by little the story unfolds and keeps you wanting to solve the next puzzle to see
what happens next and who you’ll meet in this strange, robotic world.
Machinarium functions like most point and click games, find and interact with objects,
explore and so on.
There a couple of unique things, like Josef’s ability to stretch and shrink in order to
reach certain places.
The other thing is a bit of a departure from similar games, you can only interact with
things that are within your reach which makes sense in a way, but does make for a bit more
walking around as you try and figure out what to do next.
The game also offers two different hint systems.
One is a clue for each area giving you an idea of the solution, but not typicaly the
steps in order to accomplish that.
If you are really stuck on a part there is actually an in-game walk through, but you
don’t get it for nothing, you have to play a little mini-game in order to get the info.
Throughout your adventure you will find more traditional puzzles too.
This is usually the part that take the most time to figure myself but does change things
up a bit.
So that’s the game’s mechanics, decent for the most part, but that’s not really
where this title shines.
It’s definitely in its presentation.
Each area is an incredibly detailed picture and further draws you into the world.
Machinarium is as much a piece of art as it is a game.
Even the way the game is presented to you.
Not a single word of dialogue is spoken and besides a few tutorial sentences at the beginning
nothing is written.
Instead, you’ll get little thought bubble sketch animations revealing back story or
explaining things to our hero.
I think it’s really interesting and adds to its uniqueness and the whole surreal experience.
The music is also really well done, the sound and visuals make for quite the aesthetic adventure
and I like that in a game when it’s genuine.
You can make a person look as real as you want and have a full orchestral score and
that’s great and all but I really enjoy games that try something different and pull
it off well.
Luckily for all of you, if you want to give Machinarium a try you’ve got a few options.
It’s available on Windows, Mac, even Linux, the PlayStation Network, iPad 2, Blackberry
Playbook, and Android devices.
I’m playing it PC which actually runs off the Adobe Flash engine.
Now I have encountered some problems with this, and this one of my few complaints with
the game, unfortunately it’s kind of big one.
Sometimes I’ll load and all my saved files are gone.
Aside from that Machinarium is an incredible artist indie game and certainly one of the
best I’ve play for under $10.