Machinarium

Some people say adventure gaming is dead. These people are wrong. The hey-day of Lucasarts point and click titles is over; good old Guybrush Threepwood has been usurped by the good looking likes of Mass Effect’s Commander Shepherd. It’s a sad tale, the early adventure games laid the foundations of narrative based gaming. Now these lost gems are few and far between. But all is not lost, some titles prove small games can still be great games. So if you’re looking for substance and charm over multimillion dollar development then Machinarium is definitely for you. In fact, I’m here to tell you it’s practically the Holy Grail of indie gaming.

The Independent Czech studio Amanita Design are the developers of Machinarium. Considering their team consists of a dozen people their achievement is astounding. I’m just not sure where to begin; I adore almost everything about their product from beginning to end.

I suppose I’ll have to start at the beginning then. Your character is an (I hate to use the word) adorable goggle-eyed robot who begins his story abandoned, in pieces and scattered across a dumping ground. With the first few clicks he will shuffle across the floor, tentatively screw on his own head, and offer the screen a look of wide eyed innocence. Anyone who doesn’t fall in love with him is made of stone.

Very quickly you’ll find yourself captivated by him as he makes friends, solves puzzles, and even stops a terrorist plot in search of his robot girlfriend. Each character along the way is fascinating to watch: be it the flashing robot policeman, or billiard ball robot gangsters. Credit must be given to all the artists and animators involved for producing a host of characters that ooze charisma. A personal favourite is the robo-rabbi you’ll meet in the town square who is fully equipped with curls, hat, and a religious gait.

These characters are unified by the most ingenious innovation of Machinarium; there is no spoken or written dialogue. Instead, characters communicate through wonderfully drawn thought bubbles that mimic the conversations of traditional adventure games. These thought bubbles also allow characters to explain their back-story, including your own little robot hero. Meeting a character that’s familiar to him prompts a thought bubble to appear that shows their back-story. It’s a system that is elegantly implemented and provides a welcome change to environmental storytelling or dull expositional dialogue. Importantly, it also prevents the translation problems many studios encounter during international distribution; anyone, regardless of their native tongue can enjoy Machinarium.

Other genres have tried lifting the puzzle-solving mantle that adventure games once proudly owned, most RPG and FPS games contain the odd mini game or brain tease. However, the vast majority end up playing like badly implemented filler. Not so for Machinarium, this is a return to adventuring proper; each carefully crafted puzzle requires you to think long, hard, and laterally. As a gamer, it’s nice to be treated like I have a brain for once, and the huge variety of conundrums you encounter will test, frustrate and amaze your intellect in equal measure. These challenges vary from more traditional ‘combine this item with that item’ to mini games that involve playing connect 4 with screws and washers. The breadth of imaginative thinking is genuinely impressive.

However, as is the bugbear with all adventure games, you may get stuck. Amanita’s solution to this is a handy hint system; click on your little hero and a thought bubble will appear above his head. This bubble gives you a general idea of what needs to be accomplished in that area. It doesn’t give you the answer, but usually it’s enough to get your mental cogs spinning in the right direction. If that doesn’t help you, there is also a built in walkthrough. However, in order to prevent abuse a 2 minute mini-game must be completed before it can be viewed. It’s a nice trick that keeps temptation at bay. Even better is Amanita Design’s acknowledgement that everyone looks at walkthroughs, but rather than making you feel like a cheater, they legitimise the experience.

However, if you’re anything like me you’ll be so mesmerised by the incredible aesthetic of Machinarium that puzzle solving will only occur between long periods of gawping at the screen. The hand drawn backgrounds are some of the most luscious game artwork you will ever encounter. The city lives and breathes, its vivid atmosphere brought together by the incomprehensibly perfect mixture of Giger-esque organic shapes and junkyard chic. It’s an Eastern European metropolis that just had a mechanical makeover and I really, really want to live there.
The perfect complement to the grimy world of Machinarium is its evocative score. One particular track struck me with its brilliance: while standing on the edge of an open air lift with the enchanting cityscape behind, the music took a sombre turn, a fusion of Brian Eno with Boards of Canada transformed the scene into something magical. I felt like a child again, totally absorbed in another world. At other times the score becomes cheekily energetic and is scattered with bleeps, whirrs and squeaks that perfectly harmonize with the environment and characters that surround you. Underpinned by an electronic eccentricity, this is some of the best music you will ever hear in a game.

The production standards are so consistently high across the board that it’s difficult to understand how something so polished was made using Adobe Flash. Amanita Design have produced the most charming adventure game in years and proven that it can still be an enchanting experience. So, if you’ve ever wanted a robot of your own, if you appreciate visual and aural artistry, if you have a head for bamboozling puzzles, if you want to support the amazing achievement of an aspiring development studio, then go out and buy Machinarium NOW.