Review: Machinarium (Amanita Design)
The setting: a world full of robots - some wise, some musical, some addicted to oil. Our hero: The underdog, kicked out of his home town by bullies, his girlfriend kidnapped. The plan: Save the town, rescue the girlfriend, have fun doing so.
Machinarium is an adventure puzzle outing which, as I'm sure you're very much aware, is insanely beautiful. There's also plenty of humour abound, clever puzzles to decipher and situations to solve. This is a world you're going to want to visit.
Everything about the animation and the atmosphere is just astounding. It hits you when you first start playing and by the end, that feeling of awe still won't have left. That an indie team can create something so gorgeous, something that can easily rival so many of the AAA releases of recent times is such a credit to them. Amanita Design have clearly pumped their artistic heart and soul into this wonderful little world of metal.
Initially I was worried that the beauty would only be able to carry the gameplay so far. During the first hour of play, I encountered a number of bugs - a couple of which meant I had to quit and restart the game to continue. Items disappearing, buttons not working - for a moment it did take the edge off of how polished the whole package felt.
The controls, too, felt rather fiddly to begin with. Our robotic friend can only interact with items which he is standing next to, so finding objects which I could touch was a case of shuffling slowly along until the mouse pointer became a hand. You could argue that it forces the player to explore a little more, but it just feels like a strange design choice to me.
Animations are, for the most part, unskippable. If I tell the robot to walk across to the other side of the screen, then change my mind, I have to wait until he has completed his trip before he will listen to my orders. This is normally not a big deal - however, if I've previously stretched or squashed him (by grabbing his body and pulling up or down), he will walk considerably slower, meaning it can take a good 20 seconds for this animation to end.
Bear with me, I only have one more gripe, I promise. Some of the puzzles are a little too trial and error for my liking. There will be certain situations where you need to set up an array of different objects in the correct positions before hitting go, then you'll have a few seconds in which to act on any movement. If you mess up, you may have to set it all up again and try once more, remembering what happened last time. While these puzzles do give a great sense of satisfaction on completion, I still found a couple a little tedious.
All these issues, however, were soon lost in a sea of excellent, challenging puzzles, wonderful animation and clever humour. There is no dialogue throughout the game - instead, robots make a variety of grunting, whistle and animal noises at each other to get their points across. Think WALL·E and you've got the right idea. However, for those instances when chirps simply cannot do the conversation justice, thought bubbles will appear, conveying exactly what is it the robot is trying to say.
These thought animations are used to tell the main story which turns out to be incredibly charming and witty. It's hard to believe that a game can cause you to build up hate for characters who don't even have voices and are made of metal. Finally giving them their just desserts is incredibly satisfying.
There are a series of smaller puzzles in each area which are usually combined to give passage to the next part of town, but every now and again you'll encounter a larger conundrum, the majority of which are popular/famous games taken from the past and given the metallic treatment - some proving very difficult to beat. Take the '5 in a row' game, for example. I eventually found myself booting my web browser up and searching for tactics for winning '5 in a row'. That could just be me being dense, of course.
No matter which puzzle you navigate, however, the game will always give you a great feeling of progression and reward. Finally solving one of the trickier parts which may or may not have rendered you completely stuck for a while results in elation rather than relief. Every puzzle is completely logical, too, so every time I found myself not sure what to do next, having a good think about the situation usually brought the answer to the surface.
I'm coming to the end of this analysis, yet I've still not mentioned my favourite aspect of it all. For me, it was all the tiny intricate details that made this glorious world of moving metal such a joy to behold. Amanita Design have gone to great lengths to make sure all those 'little things' are just as important as everything else. When it comes time for our hero to discard an item, it doesn't simply disappear from his inventory - there will be some lovely interaction in which he loses it. Animations are not simply recycled throughout the game - every time he reaches out to grab something, he'll do it in a different way to every other time. Our robot doesn't walk down every set of stairs - sometimes he slides down the rail. All this gives him so much more character and creates such a loveable adventurer for us to follow.
With around 6 hours of fantastic play (bar the first hour) and some of the most staggeringly beautiful visuals and animations we've seen from an indie game in a good long while, Machinarium is most definitely worth your time, especially if you enjoyed Amanita's past work (see: The Samorost games). Grab a copy from Steam, Impulse, Direct2Drive, Gamersgate or from the official Machinarium website. There's also a demo (both downloadable and playable in a browser) available.
[Tim has also written a brilliantly detailed walkthrough for the whole adventure which can be found here. Just remember, try to only use it as a last resort - it's far more rewarding to work things out for yourself.]
Comments
Also recommended for those who love this kind of adventures: Full Pipe (http://store.steampowered.com/app/4600/)
Posted by: Ilya Chentsov | October 17, 2009 3:33 PM
Thanks for that detailed review. I'm considering buying it now. Usually I won't pay for PC games, but this one has such beautiful art, that alone might be worth the price.
Posted by: garsh | October 17, 2009 4:05 PM
I never encountered the bugs that you described, but maybe I'm just not that good at finding bugs...
Also, I disagree with your complaint about the inability to "Scene Search" for the clickable items. Only being able to click on things next to your Robot not only made sense, but it made for a lot less of "Let me just run my mouse over everything till I find the answer." And it was easy to tell if an item was useful or not just by looking.
All in all, this is one of the greatest Independent games I've ever played. I recommend it to everyone, even if you're not a fan of point and click.
Posted by: Coded One | October 17, 2009 4:11 PM
Totally agree with Coded One, about the game I can't say anything because word can't just do it, you have to buy it, it's one of the best games in centuries.
Posted by: Nikica | October 17, 2009 7:37 PM
This looks absolutely stunning and I'm really glad to hear that there's a good adventure underneath the wonderful aesthetics. I really didn't enjoy the random clicking on Samorost but it was utterly charming.
@Ilya: I thought Full Pipe looked really nice but it was so illogical and tedious.
Posted by: Gregg | October 17, 2009 8:57 PM
@Ilya: thanks for that one, love this kind of games!
Posted by: Kiritsu Games | October 17, 2009 9:58 PM
The game is pretty easy once you realize you can shoot. Just spam your way through the enemies and dont hit the walls. Like the generated levels, although they are a bit short.
But after paying 20 bucks I feel ripped off.
Posted by: Bleagle | October 18, 2009 3:25 AM
Full Pipe is made by animator Ivan Maximov. Checkout some of his cartoons on YouTube, in particular Wind Along the Coast and Slow Bistro.
Posted by: Archagon | October 18, 2009 8:23 AM
@Bleagle: The beauty of most adventure games is figuring out the puzzle yourself rather than looking for a walkthrough, or in this case playing that minigame.
Posted by: Anonymous | October 18, 2009 12:00 PM
While the arts is impressible but finally this game is just another "pixel hunt".
Posted by: magallanes | October 18, 2009 3:58 PM
Are you sure you know what "pixel hunting" means? Because I don't remember any occasion where player would have hard time finding active objects.
Posted by: Adam Kolar | October 18, 2009 4:56 PM
Really great game!
Posted by: Kalle | October 18, 2009 9:18 PM
cool game! very nice.
Posted by: Elvis Brevi | October 18, 2009 10:00 PM
@Gregg: I wonder if that's a cultural thing. Though the game takes place in a fantasy world, underneath it can still be influenced by Russian/Soviet way of thinking. So foreigners may have more trouble understanding its logic.
Posted by: Ilya Chentsov | October 18, 2009 10:11 PM
I played through the game, and I was very impressed. I'm glad I pre-ordered and got the soundtrack, too--I especially like "Clockwork Operetta."
I like that the puzzles have reasonable solutions, rather than requiring random trial-and error as some adventure games do.
Posted by: c5 | October 19, 2009 2:00 AM
@Anon: I was not serious..
I love the game, its wonderful. But I think its the first game I ever played that contains a walkthrough. I hate it if you need walkthroughs or other information not provided by the game itself. I dont play these kind of games often, therefor I appreciate any help by the game itself.
Posted by: Bleagle | October 19, 2009 3:34 AM
Thanks to those who mentioned Ivan Maximov and Full Pipe. I really like Maximov's style.
Posted by: c5 | October 19, 2009 8:02 PM
Finished the game the first day I got, and have just one thing to say about the experience, amazing! The main character is so singular and charming that makes you root for him and you can feel when the game is finishing at the first time you play it (played twice by now) that's so amazing. Some puzzles I was already familiar, and some others were too intuitive but that don't mess with the metal shining polish this game has. Congrats for Amanita Designs and hope more of it, wonder were those bullies got in the end of that sewer pipe. Apodemus from Brasil.
Posted by: Apodemus | October 20, 2009 7:02 PM
Today (October 24, 2009)
I paid for a full version of Machinarium game (20,00$) for Mac computer.
The downloaded game I received was like a demo version! I cannot reach the Amenita Store Company to complain about this.
Can someone help me with my problem?
Gislaine Cloutier
Posted by: Gislaine Cloutier | October 25, 2009 1:10 AM
@Gislaine:
I looked at their webpage quick and it looks like you can contact them at contact@amanitadesign.com
Good luck, I'm sure they can help you out.
Posted by: A Developer | October 25, 2009 10:39 PM
I paid for it as a digital download and got not one but three versions - linux, mac and PC so I do not know what the previous person meant about only getting MAC version. It installed and played perfectly and was the BEST game I have played in YEARS. The music, the sounds, the puzzles, the look and the FEEL and HUMOUR of this game all combine to provide a perfect game. WELL DONE AMENITA you were brave and it paid off. This took me back to the neverhood except it was better, and it will go down in history as a classic, I can tell. Buy it now, folks! I got mine from the amenita store and it came with a free soundtrack of the game too.
Posted by: vicky | November 14, 2009 11:39 PM
Hello,
those of you who enjoyed Machinarium soundtrack might be interested in hearing that Machinarium 14 song soundtrack will be released in February by Minority Records (www.minorityrecords.com) in an edition of 555 hand-numbered LPs, 405 copies on black and 150 on clear yellow copies. Minor changes have been made in the track list: in comparsion to the official OST, there is new song "By the Wall" included, and the samba song (Prague radio) was left out.
Each copy is signed by the author himself and contains three art reproductions by Adolf Lachman and coupon with a code to download both FLAC and MP3 versions of the songs, including the bonus EP.
You can pre-order your copy now at Minority Records website (http://www.minorityrecords.com) and your copy will ship on February 20th.
Posted by: Minority Records | January 26, 2010 9:43 PM