Machinarium - get back review

I had been following this game ever since I first saw it as one of the finalists of the Independent Games Festival 2009 (it won the Visual Art award). It immediately struck me as a throwback to the old adventure games (it had that Neverhood-sort of charm) and at the same time looking fresh and original. As I had never heard of Amanita Design before, I took the liberty of trying their first two games (Samorost and Samorost 2) which I thoroughly enjoyed and raised my antecipation for Machinarium even more.
Well, in Machinarium you play as a little robot that was often bullied around by bigger robots and must attempt a daring rescue in a most fantastic robo-world. Mind you, the story is nothing to write home about and merely a vehicle for gameplay (as was with both Samorost).
The puzzles are all quite entertaining even if some of them are a bit hard and may be a put-off. The best are environment-based and the hardest require a lot of patience and thinking skills. The first ones are just one-screen puzzles, while later on, as the game opens up, you’ll be trekking back and forth for items, switches and the lot.
I am in no way a fan of puzzles so what made this game for me, shallow as it is, were the technical details. The visuals are tremendous, incredibly defined with a slick and distinct style, great use of colour and light effects and great animation. The cutscenes and some of the talk and thought animations were done in black and white cartoon style. And it’s all done on Flash! Lots of little details abound, from the animations when your mouse goes untouched for a while, to the hint mechanisms (original), some minigames (including little hommages to Adventure and Space Invaders)… It all shows a great attention to detail and a very high production value, that we normally don’t associate with independent production.
The soundtrack is another great plus, a really fantastic score, very ethereal, very dynamic, very coherent with the visuals. Tomas Dvorak (rising to the legacy of his name) is certainly establishing himself as one of the most interesting videogame soundtrack composers around.
In the end, while it was a great game (let’s face it, how many games like this have come out… not even this year, but this decade?!), I admit that it was a little bit too much puzzle-heavy at times, and even, while absolutely charming from a technical point-of-view, I personally preferred the iconography of the Samorost games (more up my alley).

Originally published December 8, 2009

Link to picture gallery of the Collector's Edition:
http://img257.imageshack.us/g/dsc073460.jpg/