A wonderful clinkety-clank soundtrack enhances the mechanical mood with its alternately tuneful and discordant strains. Aging brown buildings are weathered by jagged cracks and dull stains while distant leaning towers covered with rivets and antennas spew smoke into the atmosphere. Cobwebs stretch between winding pipes that lead to no discernible place and have no discernible purpose. A hulking guard coddles his inoperable teddy bear, seeking out batteries for his friend in front of an orange-hued industrial landscape. This world of rusting robots and intricate machines is drawn in clever, quirky strokes. It won't take you long to be drawn in by Machinarium's beautiful 2D visuals. In spite of a few missteps, such as a painful action-oriented sequence near its conclusion, Machinarium is a great game that makes an age-old genre feel fresh again.Īll these aging robots need is a bit of oil to feel young again. Moreover, the puzzles that provide the bulk of the gameplay are excellent, and a few of the brainteasers are tough and clever enough to tax the noggins of even the most seasoned adventurers.

These delights are further enhanced by enchanting visuals and quirky music that immediately provide a sense of place and personality. Yet in spite of their vocal silence, Machinarium's mechanical inhabitants communicate more effectively than many of the wordiest game characters, using often hysterical gestures and diagrams within speech bubbles to clearly establish their roles in the world. Nor, for that matter, does anyone else in this traditional point-and-click adventure game. Machinarium's robotic hero is one of the year's finest leading men: He's dedicated, resourceful, and oozes charisma-yet he doesn't speak a word of dialogue.

Machinarium characters