Machinarium, a puzzler/adventure game

[Venetia]

Machinarium
By Amanita Design, makers of Samarost & Samarost II

Demo Link: http://machinarium.net/demo/
Buy ($19.95US): http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-MACHIN/machinarium

Machinarium is a single-player puzzler/adventure game by the Czech independent game maker, Amanita. It features about 4-5 hours (or more, if you have a hard time with the puzzles) of gameplay, along with stunning artwork, ingenious puzzles, and a beautiful soundtrack.

Everything, from the backgrounds to the characters, is done in a carefully-painted way. The scenery alone is worth the price--every screen is eye candy. It's all very gritty and oil-stained, and yet it's adorable in its own strange way.

You play as a little unnamed boy robot, who finds himself kicked out of the robot city. Using the environment and little visual cues, you sneak your way back into the city, to right the wrongs that've been done to you and your robot girlfriend by several mean little bullybots.

There is no speech or written text in the game; you figure everything out using pictures and visual cues. There's no hand-holding, you're supposed to figure it all out on your own. If you get stuck, hints are always available, and you can even access a storyboard-like walkthrough at any time if you play a little minigame for it.

It follows a typical puzzler/adventure strategy: come to an area, find things, then use those things to figure out the path to the next area or scene. But the ways you solve these puzzles is always fun and interesting, forcing you to often look at the problems in the simplest of terms, and all the while you're overthinking them. It features several fun minigames and a slew of very interesting ambience recordings.

The main negative thing about the game is the plot: it's shockingly simple, kinda leaving you wanting more. That's hardly a deterrent however, as everything else is totally enjoyable. It is also a little on the short side, if you figure things out quickly. IMO though it's definitely worth the price, and it's a gem of its genre.

Try it out
(Also thanks to Etheon for telling me & Soph about it :kiss: )

 

[Guest]

;D

 

[Venetia]

I haven't played disc world but yeah it's fairly reminiscent of Oddworld.

 

[e]

Also I don't think it's his girlfriend, more like his pal

 

[Venetia]

really? idk i mean it's a boybot and a girlbot and he goes after her, so it's easy to assume it's a girlfriendbot. but yeah i guess it could just be courtly botlove or botplatonic

 

[e]

or brotlove

 

[mawk]

I wouldn't rule out botomy

yeah this whole thing looks intense. I just love the art direction to death and back.

 

[gumbo]

At the start in the robot junk bit, surely he could of made himself into a giant robot with all the spare parts, thats what you normally see in robot graveyards!

 

[Venetia]

p.s.: there is a jewbot with wires for jewcurls
if that's not reason enough to play it then you have a heart of ice

 

[Toams]

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=65553&p=684252

awesome game though
gets a bit tricky at the end

Spoiler

I used the walktrough three times, one time I couldn't figure out where I had to go, it was after I got out of the herbarium(?), and had to glide down the pipe, but i couldn't find itttt.. getting into the herbarium, or whatever the word is for such a thing, that you had to upset the airconditioning, was also pretty fun.. I thought of it, but I thought 'naah, that can't be', until I checked the walktrough

also it's his pal
i don't know for sure, but we kan make a bet on it, until part two comes out
maybe it features hot steamy robot sex.. then I'll gladly lose

 

[Twirly]

It's a good game.
I bought it along with samorost 2 and the ost :3

 

[gumbo]

I reckon there childhood friends but probably do have feelings for each other, like in movies, normally they don't go out until the end!

 

[Acezon]

I really like this game because it makes my mind think faster..
But those stupid puzzles really hinder me...
But at the end... I finished... (I just realized that I can use the walkthrough book when I am having problems with the big-headed bot on top of the machinarium)..

The robot love story is very cute!

 

[moog]

mannnn tomas showed me this shit on irc and i find it amazing

the ost is beastly (specially the gameboy tune and the robot song)

 

[Anne Noise]

Amanita are such phenomenal designers, everything they do is touched with the most insane brand of genius. The details on every screen, their ability to convey emotions with both grandiose and subtle graphical touches, the fact that Samorost might be the best thing I've ever seen... I'll try anything they do.

Oh, and free gets seven thumbs up.

 

[Toams]

i just wanted to let you all know
there are some FREE songs released which are NOT on the original OST :D
like the robot band song for example

check it out here:
http://machinarium.net/blog/2009/11/22/ ... -bonus-ep/