Machinarium: Steampunk Excellence in Robotic Romp

Machinarium by Amanita Design

Okay, here’s Amanita Design’s first full video game. Launched in 2009, Machinarium was something of an instant adventure game classic.

It also set the beloved Amanita style for titles ahead, with that distinctive steampunk artwork, otherworldly concepts, humour, and a brilliant Floex soundtrack. Oh yes. We took severe delight in this one.

Stop The Black Cap Brotherhood as a Heroic Bot in Machinarium

Okay, you can get this game on everything these days. The list of platforms it’s available on is as vast as the day is long. Mobile, tablet, or PC? Sorted. Consoles? Sorted.

Good! With that out of the way, let’s have a look at the plot.

Set in the city of Machinarium we discover the plight of the robot Josef. Dumped into a scrapheap, it pieces itself together and sets off back for urban life.

However, it soon discovers the criminal Black Cap Brotherhood who plan to DETONATE the city’s tower. Plucky Josef must go forth, solve puzzles, and locate its robot friend Berta to save the day.

In classic point-and-click adventure game action you launch into various settings and solve puzzles. Amanita Design’s distinct take on this aspect is to ramp up the abstract—the brain teasers are bizarre and require much experimentation.

Here’s a demonstration from an early section of the game. Note the awesome art style! Plus the use of atmospherics and unconventional puzzle solving.

Machinarium certainly isn’t an overly serious game as there are many elements of humour and wit. These are clever, thoughtful additions that happen constantly.

The world is very alive, too, with lots of little animations of robots busily buzzing around in the background as you solve puzzles.

If anything may put certain gamers off it’s the cryptic nature of the puzzles.

They’re abstract, come thick and fast, and act as a blockade to gameplay until you clear them. Adventure game fans will rejoice at all this—it’s nothing the likes of The Secret of Monkey Island didn’t do in 1990.

If you have the perseverance to slog away at that (with happy rewards when you complete each brain teaser), then you’ll probably love this game.

Reviews from 2009 were strong. Kotaku awarded it PC Game of the Year Runner-Up (although, ironically, the UK’s PC Gamer magazine gave it 73%). But Amanita has definitely improved its craft since Machinarium.

The indie dev has launched point-and-click classics like Samorost 3 (2016) and all manner of other titles. These range from the cutesy and accessible to hellish and terrifying.

But for fans of the studio Machinarium is kind of where it all began.

It launched at a time when indie games were coming to the fore of gaming, showing AAA developers up with their creativity and homage to classic gameplay. Amanita did that with real panache and it still holds true.

Machinarium’s Magnificent Music ⚡Bzzzzt⚡

As we covered in our recent best indie game soundtracks guide, we’re quite the fan of Czech composer Floex.

Well, it’s not surprising he was on fine form for Machinarium. This was his second soundtrack for Amanita Design, the first having been work on Samorost 2 (2006).

There’s the usual trademark ambiance from electronic music, which sets the scene for this alien world rather magnificently.

It’s mood music for robots. But to the tune of great originality at a time when indie games were really starting to find their feet.

That was 2009 and this creativity really helped indie developers understand just what they could achieve with their backing music.

As, to be clear, we’ve always maintained a game’s music is an utmost priority to the gameplay experience. Every bit as vital (if not more so) than graphics in developing a player’s emotional connection to a title.

Here Floex’s atmospherics are met with the clattering of robotic parts, hinting at a world that’s technologically advanced… just in a crumbling, ramshackle kind of way.