Machinarium

Overview

Players control Josef, a robot, in this point and click adventure game that was initially released for PC, Mac, and Linux on October 16, 2009.

A PlayStation 3 version was released on September 6th, 2012 in Europe, being described as the ultimate version of Machinarium by Amanita Design. New features include a zoom function and trophies, as well as Playstation Move support.

A Nintendo Wii version of Machinarium was cancelled in November 2011. Jakub Dvorský, founder of Amanita design, cited reasons such as the 40MB WiiWare download limit and the Wii's comparatively low resolution as reasons behind the cancellation.

On September 8th, 2011, a tablet version of Machinarium was released on the iPad platform.

The game comes to PlayStation Vita in North America on March 26 at a price of $6.99.

Story

A little robot named Josef is discarded in a scrapyard and must find his way back into the city. Along the way, he'll escape his old tormentors (the Black Cap Brotherhood), foil their bomb plot, and rescue his robotic girlfriend. The plot is divulged through silent animated speech bubbles. If Josef is left idle, he will remember memories that flesh out the plot.

Gameplay

Machinarium is a 2D point and click adventure game. The player uses an inventory system and the world around him (or sometimes his robotic girlfriend) to progress through the game. To solve certain puzzles, the player can combine items in his or her inventory. The game takes place in a mechanical city that is divided into various screens. The screens are sometimes further divided into several smaller screens for dramatic and gameplay-related reasons.

Machinarium differs from other point-and-click adventure games in that Josef has a cone of reach. In most adventure games, the player can simply click on any selectable item in the environment no matter where there character is. Usually, the character will simply walk over to the desired object and interact with it. In Machinarium, the player can only interact with objects within Josef's reach. Josef can alter his height to interact with elements of the environment otherwise out of reach.

Both a simple and in-depth hint system are available: the former offers a single image that suggests the solution; the latter (unlocked after completing a short side-scrolling shooter minigame with a flying key) presents the complete puzzle formula.

Reception

Machinarium won the award for Excellence in Visual Art at the 2009 Independent Games Festival, and was selected for the 'PAX 10', the ten best indie games of the Penny Arcade Expo as decided by a panel of 50 industry experts. Three days after release the game's Metacritic score was 83.

Soundtracks

The original score for Machinarium was composed by Tomas Dvorak and has been divided in two different releases:

• LP - official soundtrack for sale
• EP - official bonus tracks, free for download at the game's official website.

LP

EP

System Requirements

PC requirements

• OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP/Vista/7
• Processor: 1.8 GHz Processor
• RAM Memory: 1 GB
• Hard Drive: 380 MB free space

Mac Requirements

• OS: OS X version Leopard 10.5.8, Snow Leopard 10.6.3, or later
• Processor: Intel Mac 1.8 GHz
• RAM Memory: 1 GB
• Hard Drive: 380 MB free space