I’ve finally gotten the chance to play Machinarium and in a world where adventure games are a rare breed, something in this genre has to be really special to be loved, or even noticed. Luckily Amanita Design was up to the task in their latest title. With a beautiful art style, comical and heartwarming characters, and complex yet manageable puzzles, Machinarium stands head and shoulders above other recent adventure game titles.
Machinarium is about a small and weak robot-child searching for a lost friend through an entirely mechanical city, and though the story is touching and brings you closer to the voiceless characters, the presentation is where the game truly shines. The backgrounds contain both a hand painted and distopic presents that makes the world appear to be a crumbling mess of old architecture, barely being held together, and each of the robots looks like it was more assembled with old soup cans than advanced technology. The combination of these aspects brings about a world that feels almost entirely hopeless, yet there is an innocent charm to be had. Every time the player aids someone, their personalities shift from mournful inhabitants of an oppressive world to remarkably joyous. Almost every act to benefit others provokes some kind of freedom of movement or music for the bedraggled, mechanical citizens. Somehow the change in mood never seems contradictory to the original atmosphere created by the dark setting. Instead, without change in palette, the world becomes slightly brighter.
From a gameplay perspective, Machinarium is almost as old-school as old-school can get. You’ll walk around rubbing object A on surface B figuring out what goes where. If you’re not doing that you’ll be working through fairly complex though traditional puzzles, like connecting points to create a star or moving sets of pegs to opposite sides of a board. Though the A to B gameplay tends to work perfectly, the other puzzles can ocassionally be an exercise in extreme levels of frustration (“old-school”). Luckily, there is a helpful hints section that gives less advice and more direct instructions on how to finish a puzzle or area, keeping you from getting stuck. There is a short minigame in the fashion of a sidescrolling shooter that will be required before gaining access to the hints. While it’s incredibly simple, once you’ve grinded your teeth down to the gums, it can be even more irritating to patiently sit through the slow moving minigame.
Other fun little diversions are a space invaders minigame and a overhead, low-graphics shooter through a dungeon maze. These additions add Machinarium more layers of old-school gaming that a lot of us carry as fond memories. The entirety of the gameplay could be considered a love letter to the past, but with a caring eye. Thanks to the hint system the game won’t let itself become too difficult, it wants to be finished as it is mindful of the flaws that made old adventure games inaccessible. The minigames tend to be easy and patient without genuine fear of failure, allowing the player to bask in nostalgia for a periods of time. For as much referencing as Machinarium does, it never quite feels too nostalgic, like I said, it’s aware of the flaws from the past and tries to avoid those pitfalls.
While most adventure games try to skate by on their dialog driven wit, Machinarium refuses to play by the conventions that made titles like Monkey Island and Day of the Tentacle so successful. While it thankfully avoids copying the humor of successful franchises it still manages to have a cute and comedic charm of its own. With no dialog, all story aspects are told through thought bubbles, which somehow pulls out a heartwarming story in the classic point and click gameplay. This adds another memorable and unique element to the experience. It’ll be hard to forget the adorable robot-children after playing through of Machinarium. For voiceless machines, that’s pretty impressive.
Machinarium is a great game that leaves very little to complain about once everything’s been finished. The relatively short length is justified by its twenty dollar asking price and the frustration from the puzzles can be made up for with in-game instruction booklet’s helpful hints. Then the beautiful scenery and lovable characters push the game from satisfying adventure to wonderful experience. I probably wouldn’t advice everyone to buy this game though. If you aren’t a fan of adventure games or the classic arcade/DOS eras of gaming than you’re best to stick with something else. However, if you want something both classic and original then give in to the temptation to buy. Machinarium doesn’t disappoint.
A demo and full version of Machinarium can be found on Steam and its website.
