Little bonus touches like this are what give Machinarium such personality, and they help push along the gameplay, too.Īn hour or two into the game, Machinarium suddenly opens up and presents a less linear world for you to explore. Sometimes he'll even give you a clue in the form of a thought bubble if you try and do something that isn't (yet) possible. And, yes, it's really cute when he does so. If the robot can't do something, he'll shake his head "no" when you click. You can't die in Machinarium, so feel free to explore all you like. You also have the ability to change height, a skill you'll need to reach some out-of-the-way objects later on. You have to be next to the hotspots in order to use them, so when your cursor turns into a moving pair of feet, click and our hero will waddle in that direction. Get your cursor ready, you'll need it for this game! Everything is handled with the mouse in Machinarium, all you need to do is click on objects and the robot does the rest. Machinarium is one of those rare games you can't praise enough. Solve puzzles, find and combine items, and encounter loads of creative characters in your quest. Similar to Samorost in style and gameplay, you play a lone robot thrown out of the city working his way through desolate mechanical slums. Machinarium is nothing short of a playable piece of art. Just don’t let those pixelated chunks rot your brain.From Amanita Design, creator of the famously brilliant Samorost series, comes Machinarium, a game so well-conceived and implemented it can confidently launch as one of the best point-and-click adventures of all time. Whatever persuasion you are - hey, maybe video game enthusiasts will be spinning this? - Dvořák’s Machinarium will likely hook you, one way or another, and I haven’t even delved into the lovely artwork enough. The gamut ranges from bloopy, future-sound digital visions to vaguely IDM-ish/Four Tet-laden beatscapes to more organic compositions with the expected range of strings and instruments.Ī lot of the folks going all gummy over instrumental groups like Pink Skull, CFCF, and Gobble Gobble will gush all over this warm, gooey hot-mess, as will many heads in places you wouldn’t expect (enthusiasts of Thundercats, Lindstrøm/Prins Thomas, Ratatat, Rafael Toral, The Team LG, Tuxedomoon, et al.). I can only imagine - as I don’t even own a current-generation video-game console because, you know, I have a lot of TV watching to do - what Machinarium is like to play (perhaps a Sim City-style environment for robots?), because listening to its audio progressions is engrossing, if not all-encompassing. What’s more, at its best moments, it spirals even higher into the stratosphere like a good, solid Warp-sponsored outing or a mechanized reverse-doppelganger to Gorillaz recordings and old-hat trip-hop acts like Tricky, the main difference being that Dvořák’s selections work best when the beatz are minimal when he brings a banger, it often distracts from, nay degrades, the true strength of the compositions (mood, melody, savvy via digital-effects). After years of being relatively chilled by movie soundtracks peddled as full-length albums - anyone remember Zidane? - I’ve come to view the medium as ample enough on its own (by dint of the Fantastic Planet, Once Upon a Time in America, and Brown Bunny scores, among many others), as important to underground/above-ground listeners as proper albums and, occasionally, even more important.īut what about video game soundtracks? In this case, I’d say it’s a big 10-4: Machinarium, by Tomáš Dvořák (now in a third pressing of 500 circa the Czech Republic’s Minority Records), far from representing an assortment of overly subtle sounds meant only as a background accompaniment, reaches the same heights you’d expect from a traditional full-length recording.
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