A charming, beautifully drawn game set in an intriguing world filled with challenging puzzles!
Genre: Adventure (Point 'n Click)
Platforms: PC, MAC
Developer: Amanita Design
Released: April, 2010
[The Good]
Beautiful, hand-drawn graphics | Great mix of puzzles and classic adventuring | Puzzles are challenging, but never frustrating | Tells a heartfelt story without a word of dialogue.
[The Bad]
Too short | Arcade-styled mini-games are not nearly as good as the regular puzzles.
Machinarium was an unusual purchase for me. Typically I heavily research games before I buy them. I like to know what I'm throwing my hard-earned money at. In this case, however, my eyes were instantly drawn to the charming and unique hand-drawn art work on the front of a box featuring a few robots outside a rustic, steam punk city. It had been years since I had played a good point 'n click and I wasn't going to let this rare opportunity pass me by. You'll be glad to know that, for once, my impulse purchase was definitely not a mistake.
Machinarium throws you into a completely unknown world entirely created of scrap metal. The game begins with the unnamed protagonist-hereafter known as Robot-being dumped out of a strange flying vehicle into a scrap heap. After getting a brief tutorial on controls you have no choice but to solve the first puzzle: finding all your body parts. This effectively shows off the games unique mechanics. Your robot can be moved around by clicking on the screen, as typical of the genre. What isn't typical, however, is that you can change his height. By clicking on him and dragging up and down you can stretch him tall or squash him short. Doing this allows you to access objects and places normally out of reach. It uses this simple, but truly excellent mechanic to invent some puzzles unlike anything I have seen before. This only quirk to this controlling system is movement. Robot can only walk to certain places on the screen and you can't make him stop anywhere. It's never a problem, but sometimes feels a bit restraining.
After making if back to the edge of the city you solve a few more cleverly designed puzzles to return inside. At this stage, the story and goal are rather unclear mainly because no dialogue is spoken during the game. At first, this may seem a hindrance, but you will be surprised as to how much emotion is portrayed simply through the animation and some brief cartoons showing flash backs. These cartoons are worth noting, actually. If you don't interact with the game for ten seconds or so, a little cartoon bubble will appear above Robot's head. Inside will play a brief flashback giving you some insight into Robot's past experiences. It's quite a cute touch. Eventually it becomes apparent that Robot is trying to rescue his friend, or perhaps girlfriend, from a gang of thugs and bullies. The story is heartfelt and sweet, but lacks any real depth. Luckily, the unique way it is told makes up for many of its shortcomings.
This unusual form of storytelling is supported primarily through music. The game has a subtle sound track, but each piece of music does a fantastic job of setting the mood in each part of the game. Most of the tracks fit in well with the metallic, rusty setting of the game. Clanking metal and industrial type sounds are common throughout. They, in turn, are supported by some solid sound effects. These are primarily in the form of noises made by the various robots instead of speech. It's hard to call them good or bad, but they do an excellent job of creating a believable world.
In fact, the world that Machinarium creates is one of the strongest points of the game. You will be constantly intrigued by how their society works and by the vastly different types of robots that exist within the city. Unfortunately, due to the games short length, you'll feel you're only just scratching the surface once the credits roll. The whole game only takes around five hours to complete and has zero replay value. By the time you reach the end, you'll wish you still had hours to go.
The graphics are also a key attraction of the game and give basis for the intriguing world. The hand-drawn style fits the tone of the game brilliantly and feels truly fresh. If you're like me then you'll be stunned when the game begins. Any screenshots you may have seen certainly do not do the game justice. The detail especially is incredible. Everything seems almost real in the way it is portrayed, even if the graphics are rather abstract. I believe that to be a true testament to the love and care put into them. Every area you visit and each robot you meet has a distinct design and style that brings the city and the world to life. Even without dialogue you can see the personality of each robot through its graphical animation and style.
This brings me to an important aspect of the game: puzzle solving. Throughout the game you will move from screen to screen. Each area has at least one unique puzzle to solve to help you move forward. Some of these are environmental puzzles that use the objects and structures around you to your advantage. This usually involves combining multiple items in your inventory to create something useful to your current situation. Others are more classic logic puzzles you might be familiar with such as a sliding tile puzzle or creating complex shapes by connecting a single line. Most of them are brilliant and really fit the world they exist in. Many can be quite challenging to solve, but are never frustrating. What I found particularly enjoyable was the almost open-world style of the game. About half-way through you are given pretty much full access to the rest of the games areas. More often than not you still have to solve certain areas in a set order to open up new ones, but sometimes you can pick and choose the order you want to accomplish things. This gives the illusion of an open world that you can explore freely. At the very least it allows you to try a different puzzle if you get stumped on the current one.
The game also provides you with a unique hint system to use when you're stumped. At any time you can click on a light bulb icon in the menu to give you an idea of the goal within your current area. That's nothing new. What is new, however, is a special book you keep with you. By clicking on the book you begin a strange side-scrolling mini game where you must navigate a key past enemies to unlock the book. Once unlocked, the book gives you detailed diagrams on how to solve the current puzzle. The mini-game is quite annoying, but it at least puts you off using hints all the time.
There are a couple more strange mini-games that aren't all that interesting. One is an old space-invaders style game and another is a 2D maze where you have to kill all the pixel enemies inside. They're quirky and fun, but the latter one especially goes on for a bit too long and is not nearly as good as the adventuring aspects of the game. Unfortunately they are required to be completed to progress the story. Not even being able to set a high-score on them feels like a missed opportunity for some minor replay value.
All-in-all Machinarium is an extremely solid, if quirky, game. The hand-drawn graphics are a treat and the unique sound track really takes you to another world. The story isn't as strong as it could have been and the short length is a bit of a concern. But, more than anything, I just had a really good time playing it. If you're a fan of old-school adventure games then this will be right up your alley. The same can be said for anyone willing to try something unique. For everyone else, I'd still recommend it, but you need to go in being prepared for a slow-to-develop, primarily puzzle based game.
Graphics: 89%
Sound: 84%
Gameplay: 87%
Control: 79%
Story: 77%
Overall: 83%