Game review n°2 - Machinarium

Machinarium

Released - 16 October 2009 by Amanita Design from Czech Republic.
Genre - Puzzle, Point'n'click, Adventure
Multiplayer - No
Engine - Flash
Requirements -

1.8 GHz Processor
1 GB RAM
128 MB graphics card

Price - 14.99 euro on Steam
Demo - Free (also on Steam)
Official website - http://machinarium.net/demo/



 
Description: 
An adventure point'n'click game with hand drawn graphics.
There a two type of hints while you play, first is normal hint recieved once per level, second is a minigame ("space"shooter in a book) after beating which you get hints.
Machinarium is quite difficult honestly - so you'll need them! 
There is no text or voice dialogues - everything is presented visually by drawings in dialogue clouds. Works flawlessly.

A story of a small robot in a future, robot authocratic world. It concentraces on Black Cap Brotherhood who are three thugs trying to do something bad (no spoiling). You must stop them and find your girlfriend!



Story: 7,5 - The story itself is pretty typical (stop the bad guys), but it's the certain feel that makes it memorable. Also, the world is quite well designed too. I really like dystopian/dark stories and this one is rather more sad than dark. Still pretty impressive!

Graphics: 10+/10 - One of the best graphic styles in video game evar. Brillant hand drawn graphics, very detailed and makes the game even more spine chilling. (The game won "Excellence in Visual Art" reward in 2009)

Music, Sound: 9/10 - Great. Great. Great. Composed by Tomáš Dvořák. The music let's you relax, during solving hardcore puzzles and calms you down. Adds so much to this game. Reminds me a little bit of World of Goo. Not many sounds and voices in this game, but even the few are okay.

Levels: 8/10 - The game isn't the longest, if I'm honest, but certainly much longer than most FPS these days (and more enjoyable). But there are quite a few levels (you go back to many of them), they are designed beautifully. The puzzles are really different , so there's no time for boredom!

One of the non easy riddles.

Difficulty: 8/10 - It ranges from mid to hard. Some riddles are a little bit to obvious, but some are so hard, that after many tries you will NEED to look for a guide. I think it's a small problem - to much range in difficulty. But all in all it's a challeging game, and that's very good.

Mechanics, Controls: 7/10- Everything would be perfect, if they would make the robot height changing a little bit less annoying and easier. You drag the head with a cursor up and down and it changes height (to reach some objects for example). You move VERY slowly when high and small, so when you accidently click 'go' you can't stop it and you must wait until the robot will move to it's place. I found it pretty painful.
Everything else is very responsive and easy to learn.

The begining.

Feel, Gameplay: 9/10 - Nothing really to add, I said everything. I take back 1 point because...well it has not much of a replay value. You can play it once, twice, but not many times more.


Price to value: 9/10 - On steam it costs 15 euro or 20 dollars, I think. It's a small, small amount. In addition you could get it on steam during Christmas for like no money at all (1$). Also I found it for added to a video games magazine in Poland.

Oh look it's Jonas Brothers! Nah, these robots play quite nice comapred to them actually.

Overall: 9 - future classic.

If you prefer cool games with a amazing, mysterious feel to it, than ultra realistic boring shooters (looking at you CoD) or another addons for Sims, this is the game for you. Anyways, even if you prefer CoD, go buy it. Don't be an idiot.