Machinarium

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a game by Amanita Design s.r.o
Platform: PC (2009)
Editor Rating: 9.5/10, based on 1 review, 2 reviews are shown
User Rating: 8.5/10 - 4 votes
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See also: Cute Games, Family Friendly Games, Point-and-Click Quests, Steampunk Games
Machinarium
Machinarium
Machinarium

If point-and-click style adventure games are your jam and you have not played Machinarium before…, what are you doing??? This was released in 2009 and it was a game that I fell in love with pretty much right away. This was clearly made by people who grew up enjoying these kinds of games and as a result, it has a bit of an old-school charm to the gameplay that it is offering.

In The Junkyard

The story that Machinarium is one that is charming, depressing, and haunting all at the same time. The main character that we play as is a little robot called Josef who has awoken in the junkyard, in pieces and no idea what has happened to him. The story is about Josef piecing together what happened to him.

I loved it; I really did. The story just oozes charm and the way it is told without any voice acting or even text is just remarkable. You become attached to these characters even though they do not actually talk.

If Tim Burton And Tim Schafer Teamed Up

The visual style of Machinarium is perhaps its most outstanding feature. The whole game is set in a world that is populated by robots so everything has a rather unique style to it. This world feels like it is in decay and the color pallet used is dark and depressing, but it works and works so incredibly well. This is one of those games that if it was in a gaming mag back in the 90s and you were flipping through the pages, it would grab your attention and make you want to know all there is to know about it.

Charming Without Speaking

I already talked about how the game has no actual dialogue. Instead, the story is told through these bubbles that pop up and you get these crude drawings that give you backstory as well as letting you know more about Josef and the other robots that he comes across. You feel like you really get to know Josef and when he does stuff like dance, it will make you smile and become even more attached to him.

Just Like The Classics

I feel that Machinarium has more in common with point-and-click adventure games that were around in the 90s and early 00s than it does modern ones. It features many different challenging puzzles. You will have to find items, figure out where and how to use them, solve slide-type puzzles, deal with other characters, and so on. Josef also has a couple of extra abilities that make the game stand out from other similar games. He can stretch and he can also shrink which both come in handy for some of the puzzles.

A Helping Robot Hand

This is a very challenging game. It is a rather short game, but it is not one you will be beating quickly. Some of the puzzles are very challenging, but not to the point of frustration. However, if you do get very stuck, the game has two hint systems. One will cause a little drawing to pop up which gives you the basic idea of what to do. The other is very interesting in that it pretty much gives you a walkthrough, but it makes you work for it. You have to play this little mini-game before it will teach you how to solve a puzzle.

9.5

I first played Machinarium back in 2010 and I loved it. I played it again to refresh the memory for this review and I think that I like it even more now than I did back then. It is just such a fantastic point-and-click adventure game that has a unique style and a unique way of conveying its story to the player.

Pros:

  • I loved Josef as a character
  • The art in the game is just amazing
  • The way the story unfolds is very clever
  • The hint systems are fun too!

Cons:

  • Some puzzles may be a tad too challenging
  • This game really needs some kind of remaster

Download Machinarium

PC

System requirements:

  • PC compatible
  • Operating systems: Windows 10/Windows 8/Windows 7/2000/Vista/WinXP

Game Reviews

This little ROBOT charmer is cute. The way you drag his head up and down so that his body elongates and then shortens again until his little spindly little arms poke straight out from his shiny tin can body, immediately marks Machinarium as a labour of love.

Every pixel is painstakingly crafted to create an atmosphere similar to Wall'E and like that animated masterpiece, the lead character steals the show. Every nuance from the way he hitches up his belly to the flip-top action of his head when he stores an item is beguiling. Eventually though you have to point 'n' click and that's where the complications start Machinarium is a robot city full of contraptions and mechanical puzzles. The hint system ushers you through the first screen without any trouble.

After that your metallic meanderings get downright frustrating due to one of the genre's oldest problems - badly labelled objects and interaction points. The imperceptible wobble of the ladder rungs at the city gate takes a while to notice and by that time you're wondering whether the charm of the visuals and regular seeking of the hint icon is enough to keep you interested.

Perseverance does reveal more beautiful locations tempered with puzzling frustrations that you know could be avoided. Old hands at this genre interface wrestling will dismiss these frustrations as normal. However, a modern, mollycoddled audience may not be so forgiving.

Machinarium deserves praise for artistic flair, but when it comes to gameplay approach with caution.

Snapshots and Media

PC Screenshots

See Also

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