Amanita Design has worked tirelessly for 3 years to bring us Machinarium, a point/click adventure game with a unique art style. You begin the game as a trashcan-esque robot being rudely tossed out of the city and into a junk yard. From there your goals go from trying to get back into the city to saving your girlfriend and stopping a gang from blowing up a tower.
Machinarium
Developer: Amanita Design
Price: $20.00
Platform: PC (reviewed) & Mac
The first thing you’ll notice is the art style. Each screen feels like a hand painted portrait and all the characters move with a quirky motion that contemplates the game’s tone. Despite the lack of dialog the robots all give off their own personality and you’re able to understand exactly what they’re meaning to say by their movements. The soundtrack isn’t too shabby either matching every moment well.
Machinarium is a simple point/click game so there’s nothing new here. You collect various items to use in the many puzzles. Your robot actually stores each item in his body by eating them when acquired, and after that item has served it’s purpose he’ll get rid of it in humorous ways. One minor complaint I have is that when you click on an object your robot will actually walk to wherever it is and you can’t stop him until he reaches his destination. I wouldn’t mind as much if it wasn’t for the fact that he’s not the fastest robot in the world. What I will go on to emphasize is how incredibly difficult the game is and can be brutal to it’s players in certain segments. You’re given a handy guide and hint in each area you visit so at least you have a chance at completing the puzzles. In the top right corner you’ll find a light bulb that when clicked will pull a thought bubble from your robot detailing the main goal needed to complete the area. This doesn’t give you anything else other than hint of what you should be working towards. Now at that same corner is a book that when clicked will take you to a short shooter mini-game that when completed will show you a detailed image-
by-image guide of what you need to do. You can’t keep the image on tab though and if you want to look at it again you’ll have to replay the mini-game. You’d think this would soften the difficulty but you’ll be quick to notice that in the guide you might see an item that you don’t already have. It’s simply a guide on how to complete that area with the items required whether you get them from that area or from another. You’ll still have to go out and locate these items hidden in other parts of the city and come back to complete the puzzle. It’s a built-in system to stop players from overusing the guide and still keeping the game difficult. One mini-game had you playing a form of connect four with another robot, problem is that he goes first each time thus you have to rely on setting him up. There’s no simple way of getting past this part except outsmarting the AI into making a move you want him to make.
The Final Word
Machinarium is the kind of game everyone should at the very least check out and see if it tickles their fancy. With a unique art-style not seen in many point/click games, a catchy soundtrack, and challenging puzzles that will keep you thinking for a few hours this game will frustrate yet amaze you at the same time.– MonsterVine Rating: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
