izigame.me

Machinarium is an indie game so visually appealing and delightful that I almost feel guilty for not recommending it to other players. That Machinarium's art direction, music, and adorable character design are fantastic draws can't be understated; it's the rare kind of cheeky whimsy that we simply do not see every day. There were times I would boot up the game and be mesmerized by the landscape and the soundtrack on the main menu screen for a moment before starting. Were that the gameplay matched the fun of the game world. What follows is an honest description of my Machinarium experience.
I impulsively bought the game when it went on sale, enamored with the charming art style and fully expecting a short and sweet point-and-click adventure game following a little robot dude who makes lil' noises... emphasis on the pointing and clicking aspect. Instead, I got what can only be described as a tortuous combination of sporadic IQ tests and tedious flash arcade games that make you appreciate how fun Pong and Tetris really are, disguised by the game's friendly art direction, with some good, juicy point-and-click adventuring in between. When I say "IQ tests," I literally mean a series of visual problem-solving questions, with specific solutions, without the luxury of multiple choices. I thought it was going to show me a score of 70 in giant red letters along with the Dark Souls "You Died" sound effect at the end of all that. I have trouble rotating a cube in my mind, so you can imagine how much gamer rage I experienced.
Regarding the infamous tic-tac-toe minigame: The achievement for getting past this oft-maligned segment was tweaked. I know this because the achievement I got back in 2019 was for beating tic-tac-toe 5 times, whereas now, the achievement is only for beating it once. I think you need to place your bolts in a somewhat specific manner to get the algorithm to let you win.
I'll mention here that the reason I didn't get anywhere near finishing the game when I first got it five years ago was due to an unfortunate bug where my save game files were never retained. Luckily, I didn't have that issue this time. Also luckily, there's an immersive and generous in-game walkthrough available with a page for every scene and situation. The walkthrough has to be unlocked every time you use it by playing yet another minigame for a few minutes (an easy one, thankfully) but it's worth it, because I relied on it heavily to finish the game!
It's really too bad that so many people might've been prevented from finishing it, either from from technical difficulties or a lack of interest and enjoyment. Just look at the global achievements. It does not bode well that the vast majority of Steam players haven't finished this approximately 5 to 8 hour-long puzzle game to get the "Escape Machinarium" achievement for a 2009 Steam release. If, however, pop IQ quizzes and the Dark Souls of tic-tac-toe sound like a good time to you, go forth and purchaseth, and happy puzzling.
For those more interested in adventure games than puzzle games, I would not recommend playing this game to experience its story -- it's a simple tale, and being totally nonverbal, there's not much backstory or lore to delve into. Since it's firstly a puzzle game, it's all about the journey rather than the destination. The game ends abruptly, and the adventure is over in an instant. I think it is worth playing, or watching someone play, if you want to experience Machinarium's artistic excellence.