Machinarium

Machinarium has delivered one of the most memorable game experiences that will stay with you for years to come. This is a game that would be in my all time favourite indie game list if I had one and here’s why:
Using this type of artwork for a video game was a really good idea. The game’s not new anymore, yet it looks like it could have been made in 2020. It’s artistic in a way that makes it ageless. Every scene looks like a painting - if nothing else, it’s just beautiful to look at. Furthermore, bringing in the theme of a machine city, gives it a very Gigerish feel, if you happen to be familiar with the mastermind behind the Alien movie designs. But where Giger mixed horror with eroticism, Machinarium comes off cute and weird – like steampunk. Machinarium is like steampunk mixed with Giger’s artwork.
Machinarium is first and foremost a puzzle game. The puzzles are strong and tied to logic. I did feel frustrated at times when I was unable to see the solutions, but I always ended up admitting to myself that I had overlooked something of importance and it was not the game designer’s bad choices. The puzzles also help with enhancing the experience in how they’ve been executed. They’re conducted in a makeshift fashion that you would expect from a world that looks like a huge junkyard and solving them feels fun.
Sounds in Machinarium do not carry any articulated messages so any meaningful information is delivered through visual and auditory imagery. They did stumble here a bit with the most obvious case being the usage of the word „Oil”, which did stand out as a failure where it was occurred. I wish they had stayed true to the main principle without any exception. It’s usually tricky to pull off, but if used correctly then the effect is very strong and really helps with putting one’s fantasy to work.
Besides puzzles, game obstacles also came in the form of mini-games and here Machinarium pays homage to many classic games including arcade games. Boy did I have fun with the mini games of Machinarium! The only letdown was the one you had to play if you wanted hints to help you with the puzzles. I wish they had made it more dynamic and interesting. Currently it just feels like chores you have to endure if you wish to see some hints.
To sum things up, I wish to bring out the most important: the game feels and looks iconic. Overall it was a very well executed, emotionally satisfying and challenging experience which will get my highest recommendations.

A charming game that places an indefatigable and likable android protagonist in an overall melancholy and wistful setting of crumbling edifices, broken machines, and seedy robots. (Naturally, as developer of Primordia, I find this a very congenial setup.) The game has no dialogue or text, and it aspires less to high philosophy than to episodic cartoon travails, but this works quite well and doesn't overstay its welcome. Beautiful artwork and excellent music round out the charm.
The puzzles are more in the vein of a Flash game than a traditional point-and-click (frequently they are focused on a single room, and typically they involve minigame logic challenges rather than inventory-based problem solving), but they are fair and in some instances quite clever. I found the integrated hint system, which I used a couple of times, less than fully helpful.
All said, this is a favorite of critics and players alike for good reason -- it is a game with character and integrity, available for a song.

A wonderful small but very creative lovely Point & Click
I love it.
Good for Point & Click Fans & Steam Achievement Hunters.

Machinarium is a must play for fans of puzzle/adventure/point-and-click games
Reasons to play:
Beautiful artstyle
Clever puzzles
Inspired world
Heartwarming story and characters
Innovative hint system
Negatives:
Very short
Not optimal controls and mechanics
Difficult? (this might be a negative)
Review
At this point in time, Machinarium should be revered as a modern classic in the adventure game genre. It stands the test of time as an indie wonder which not only sparked an interest for the minimalist story-telling but brought back puzzle adventure games from the brink of Lucas Arts deathbed. As of writing this review I have replayed the game after not touching it for about 10 years, this time using an iPad. It is not truly an iPad review, neither can I accurately talk about the PC port more than the fact that they are very similar and I can happily recommend both.
I did refer to Lucas Arts, but truly Machinarium does not fully operate in the same space. Instead of dialogue driven adventures, Machinarium is more heavily reliant on puzzles. The inventory and item spamming on any interactive object or character is still there, but so are a good bunch of logic puzzles that take center-stage. This keeps a nice balance of the creative item interactions and the more logic driven brain teasers, without being too farfetched nor high IQ for the everyday player. Interactions with other characters are communicated with what I could describe as "supply and demand" thought bubbles that tells you how to progress or how to help out your fellow robot friend, while solutions are often narrowed down to a small amount of options. Even though you several times after finally finding a solution, smack your head because you should have found that solution earlier than you did. It is fun, satisfying and clever. Sometimes too clever for you, which brings me to a nice point. The hints.
Growing up with the likes of Lucas Arts games, in the time of no walkthroughs available, I think I developed thick skin to the most grueling and downright idiotic puzzles. Therefore I would never be the one to complain when a puzzle gets me really stuck, as I've seen many players do nowadays. Nevertheless the very player friendly hint system at play in Machinarium should be cherished. It consists of a hint button which gives 1 obscure hint (and 1 only) in the screen you're visiting, and a walkthrough book which are unlocked for the specific screen by playing a small minigame. The game thus challenges your patience by a minigame for you to be able to advance, which I think is a cute solution to the hint debacle which plagues present players. Did it have to exist? No. Am I happy it does? Certainly.
What about the game in general? The art is delivered in a warm palette, steampunk charm and rusty robotics. It is a city for the machines, where oil drinking, jazz bands, arcades and robot deities and coppers are prevalent. It is a city of ill-doers and bullies, old and young, lonely and lovely, cats and bugs. Spite it's cold robot heart, it is packed with character and adventure feel. Your protagonist can make himself bigger and smaller like an accordion which is easily accessible and if you idle for too long you will receive a flashback to happier times with your robot love. The sound design is delightful, while the story is just about right. The game could have been expanded upon and been given a more resonating ending, but as it stands, Machinarium is a great effort.
Some nitpicks though. If you want to interact with an object you have to move your character first to the spot to reach, which means traversing the world sometime isn't as smooth. Movement can also not be cancelled, so you might be making a wrong step and do a bunch of back and forth in this game, as movement animations can't be sped up either. But all in all these are minor complaints about time saving, which you won't need as the game is at max 4 hours long anyways.
A must play for adventure/puzzle game enthusiasts, a fringe game for those not familiar and a calming game for those that enjoy art and thought exercises. If not for the PC longplays, buy it for the tablet and just enjoy a soothing evening in the sofa.
8/10

a Unique Masterpiece Of Visual Arts And Music.
This Surely Is a Game a Man Won't Forget.

A little robot man living in a mechanical world must save his friends and neighbors from a group of nefarious local thugs. It has a simplistic yet beautiful art style with a lot of attention to detail. Despite being comprised entirely of robots, the game is quite expressive and has a lot of charm and heart. It's decently varied and somewhat challenging, and would likely appeal to seasoned point and clickers or casual gamers. It's now an old classic of the genre.
I would describe Machinarium's art style as a mix of sketchbook outlines with water color details. Most backgrounds are static paintings with a handful of moving components. It also has a surprising amount of character animation, mainly in the form of simple tweens and hand-drawn animatics. There's not a lot to say here, at least not much more than you could see in the videos and promotional material.
It is worth noting there is no spoken dialogue or text of any kind. Everything is conveyed using pantomime, sound bytes, and visual cues. Characters make occasional grunts of acknowledgement or discontent, but that's about it.
Plot-related details are illustrated using a large thought bubble that appears during significant moments. Usually, these clouds detail something that happened in the past, mainly centered around the bad guys and their continued harassment of the local populace. Despite being very rudimentary, they are extremely effective at conveying the plot.
In fact, you'll likely miss this detail, but if you leave the game idle for long enough, the protagonist will summon little nostalgic memories of him and his girlfriend. There are several of these, which are missable if you didn't know to stop and wait. These little wholesome animatics are adorable, and it's quite unfortunate that they are so easy to overlook.
Which brings us to the story. Josef, the protagonist, begins his journey after being dumped into a landfill. From there, he picks himself back up and puzzles his way back into his home city, while also going toe to toe with the local crime syndicate. You piece the story together using Josef's recollection of what happened before he was ousted.
You meet a colorful cast of characters, many of which who have had run ins with the aforementioned mafia, and subsequently lost something of value as a result. Josef goes around solving people's woes while also undoing much of the damage done by the bad guys.
For a game that is composed entirely of robots, there is an incredible amount of heart woven into this experience. Josef is quite expressive, and his flashbacks are both charming and moving. Each character's body language and actions convey everything from sadness, worry, joy, and terror.
Some games struggle to inject emotion into their story, even with spoken dialogue, music, and complicated choreography. Here, simple animations and sketchy animatics provide immediate emotional feedback and narrative context while also feeling completely natural in presentation. I suppose less is more in this situation.
As stated before, the game features a wide variety of puzzles. Some are based on board games. A few are homages to classic video games. Others might even require pulling out a pencil and paper and drawing out the logic. Most, however, revolve around gathering items and using them in context sensitive situations.
One helpful feature when puzzling would be Josef's pathological need to throw away any item that no longer has a use. This happens rather often, and it's unlikely that you'll ever have more than three items at any given time as a result. This helps cut down on having too many options when solving an item chain. The moment something loses value, it's gone. It has a funny in universe implication, while also serving a gameplay practicality.
I would say the game is between easy and moderately difficult. Due to the varied nature of the puzzles, everyone will have that one puzzle that they get stuck on. Maybe it'll be the connect 5, or the arcade, or the pipe cutoff puzzle. The last puzzle, in particular, I had to look up, because I'm awful when it comes to music notes and audio cues. This makes it hard to really gauge overall difficulty.
It's worth noting that the game has a hint system and a hint book for you to unlock. These systems can be used to help guide you through the tougher spots. If the game gets too vague, you can always crack open a hint.
Finally, the game is roughly 4-5 hours long. For some, that's great, and for others, that's too short. Personally, I don't really think time is a good moniker for judging the quality of a point and click. Case and point, some of the old school Sierra games used to go on for weeks at a time, to the point they became excruciating to beat.
Here, I think Machinarium is just right in its length. A succinct story that doesn't drag its feet or skimp on content.
At this point, I would call Machinarium a classic point and click. Its minimalistic style combined with its expressive characters makes it a joy to explore. Its variety in puzzles is welcoming, while also being decently challenging. If you consider yourself a seasoned adventurer, then you should really pick this up. It might be good for casual gamers as well.
Steam Curator

What a fabulous game. It is so much above the ordinary! Machinarium is a mixture of pure puzzle (such as solving a moving marble puzzle to open a lock) and inventory-based adventure game (such as picking up a flower stem, which later you will plant in a pot in another building).
SPOILER ALERT : - If you really want to enjoy the game without having any degradation in fun levels and wanna leave it to to your intuitive thinking of solving puzzles, STOP READING and buy this game right away . THE REVIEW BASICALLY ENDS HERE.
You're in a wonderfully drawn and painted world inhabited by robots. There are no words spoken when robots interact. Rather you see thought balloons with a little video that moves the story along, or a pictogram or figure of an item that a robot wants. The way emotions are portrayed without words is inventive. Reminds me of the movie "Wall-E".
The protagonist is just as cute as Wall-E. He's a little robot who's sweet on a little girl robot. Unfortunately, there are bully robots, and their evil plans must be thwarted.
I thought all of the puzzles were pretty challenging and some of them are DIFFICULT. Wow - hurt my brain and I got tired of me muttering to myself, "No, that doesn't work. Maybe if I move it this way." Only one, to defuse a bomb, is timed, and if you don't make it in time, the game dumps you back to right before you started working on the bomb. I "died" the first time, but what was good (for me) is that what you managed to learn the first time still holds true the 2nd time, so the 2nd time I didn't need as much time and defused the bomb.
If you need a hint, there's a little lightbulb over the scene. When you click on it, it gives you a pictogram of what you need to do next. The lightbulb didn't help me much, because I generally knew what I was supposed to do, I just had trouble finding out how to do it. What was much more useful, however, was the booklet, "machinarium walkthrough" that came with this Collector's Edition. The walkthrough is a work of art, itself. The whole thing is in handdrawn pictures/pictograms, such as the thought balloons in the game. It is marvelous! And I had to resort to it more than once, though I'm not sure why I couldn't figure out on my own that bringing bees into the oil pub to distract the bartender was the way to get the barrel out the door.
There was only one "puzzle" that I really didn't like and that was the giant one at the end. It's like a pac-man game where you have lives and after you unlock a gun you have to "get" 33 red evil robots in order to finish the puzzle, including finding the buggers as you go from one screen to another trying to make your way through a maze. I don't like games like that and I'm not good at games like that (latter contributes to the former, of course!). Though I could tell that it was much slower, etc., than real pac-man, I still had trouble (reflexes of a slug) and just got annoyed that I had to do this to proceed. Brain-puzzles I love. Reflex puzzles I don't. BUT - I'm sure most people wouldn't have trouble with it, so there you go. And fortunately for me, the booklet that stays throughout the gameplay on the screen has a map of the maze, so at least I could figure out where I was.
Regards,
A Happy Gamer