Review:
Machinarium

Back in the day, the video game market was swarmed with point and click adventure games. Gamers loved them regardless if they were short or long, complicated or easy. It was an interactive story, something that you could use to get away from reality and share this parallel dimension of fun with others. Machinarium picks up where those days ended and puts the player back into a interactive world where one can only notice that using your wits is better then using your sword or any other weapon. The world of Machinarium is an awkward sight at first. Lots of robots that do not look particularly happy and go about their business in a robotized world. All of the robots are personificated with characters of bullies, kids, older ladies and such. You, on the other hand, play a helpful little robot that is just looking for his lost friend.

The first thing I noticed when getting in-game is that the graphics are really simple and artistic. It is as if some painted the scenes with crayons, giving it a certain warm touch. The scenes are restricted to a 2D view, but make no mistake, it doesn't reduce the game play experience at all. In fact it sends you back to the good old adventure game days where there was no need for high-end 3D graphics but only a good story.

You start off from a junkyard where you are missing your arm and legs. The controls are simple where you just point and click in order to interact with other objects in the game. The interesting part is that you can't just scroll all over the screen and find the objects you can interact with, because there is an interaction area limit around your character (meaning you can't even see a floating text over objects that are too far away). This way the creators make you think a lot more before trying to do anything.

After you manage to assemble yourself together with the help of a little robot, you leave the junkyard and head toward the robot city. The scene of a city in the distance really amazed me with its great dark atmospheric and mystical design. When trying to enter the city you will be presented with one of the first puzzles in the game.