

But first you must figure out that this is what the game wants you to do. The opening puzzle requires you to disguise yourself as a guard robot to gain access to the city. Success is about exploration and experimentation. In many ways, it’s a traditional point and click adventure.Īnd one of those traditions is quite how hard it can be. Once in the city you have a hub area with many directions to head in, puzzles solved in one vital for progress in another. But a third of the way through Machinarium blossoms out into a much larger world.
#Games similar to machinarium series
Much of it is about puzzle solving, either collecting and combining objects and using them in the correct place, or literal puzzles: lever challenges, a board game, even some arcade challenges.Įarly stages play out as a series of scenes, each to be solved until you can access the next. These might be aiding a group of busking robots to restore their instruments, or helping an elderly robot to oil his broken wheelchair, each contributing toward the next, making a path to your final goal. Any other goals grow organically once you’re inside. He has been thrown out of the city, and your task is to get him back in again. The protagonist is a small, adorable robot. Elaborate rooms bursting with intricate detail, alive with charm, ready to be explored. Each location is breath-taking – as in, every time I walked to a new scene I sharply drew in breath in wonder. Where those games combined his adorable cartoons with organic real-world collage, Machinarium’s point and click adventuring is entirely hand-created. If you’ve played Samorost 1 or 2 you’ll already know something of the worlds creator Jakub Dvorský designs.

But Machinarium’s scratchy, hand-drawn robot world is beautiful. The gorgeous graphics of games like the recent Prince of Persia or the forthcoming Borderlands are artistic works, imaginative and fresh. The awesome panoramas of a Crysis or a Far Cry 2 can be remarkable, but it’s always technically remarkable. It’s a sort of beauty that games are almost never graced with. Machinarium is an extraordinarily beautiful creation. After staring in wonder at the artwork and trailers for months I was able to play through a finished version this week in order that I could tell you Wot I Think. The long awaited adventure Machinarium is finally available today.
