[darthmaul]

Graphics- great, unique.
Personality- tons, great mini stories, cute characters, well done.
Music- Very unique and mostly fantastic music.. with a little bit too much repetition sometimes.
Puzzles- most are great with the exception of 2.

2 puzzles were terrible imo. The electricity grid slider.. even with the solution, the picture that you had to make made no sense to me. The final puzzle also made absolutely no sense to me... maybe I missed something.

Interface- Problematic. If you want to use an item on something across the screen, you had to walk there, then use the item. If you choose an item and find out you are too far away or it is the wrong item, you can't just right click to put the item back.. you have to manually bring it back to the top left and place it back... this became tiresome fast.

Another problem, which screwed up one puzzle for me(bird puzzle) was the fact that you can't move everywhere.. only previously designated walking locations... I guess when I tried this puzzle once, I wasn't centered enough, but since you have little control of exactly where your guy could walk, I gave up on that avenue.

Decent length. No loading, quick saving.

3.5/5.

[Ursulla]

"The electricity grid slider.. even with the solution, the picture that you had to make made no sense to me"

I also gave up on that one since I didn't have a clue what I'm looking for...But the idea is to connect the two central (bottom and top) electricity junctions using ALL the tiles in such a way the wire is kept connected until it reaches its destination(I was misleaded to look for a certain shape)....There are only one tile fit for the central bottom and only one tile fit for the central top where you should start connecting the tiles....Once you undersrand that concept it is not hard to complete it...

"Another problem, which screwed up one puzzle for me(bird puzzle) was the fact that you can't move everywhere.. only previously designated walking locations... I guess when I tried this puzzle once, I wasn't centered enough, but since you have little control of exactly where your guy could walk, I gave up on that avenue"

I also didn't manage to solve it but once I have seen the solution I was rolling on the floor laughing...That one is one of the best puzzles...

"Interface- Problematic. If you want to use an item on something across the screen, you had to walk there, then use the item. If you choose an item and find out you are too far away or it is the wrong item, you can't just right click to put the item back.. you have to manually bring it back to the top left and place it back... this became tiresome fast"

I agree totally...very annoying interface...

"3.5/5."

No way for me much higher score...

[Fien]

Another problem, which screwed up one puzzle for me(bird puzzle) was the fact that you can't move everywhere..

I'll use spoiler tags, it's been only three days since the game was released and it doesn't say "spoilers" in the title.

Spoiler:

I read at the Machinarium forums that many people had problems with the great bird puzzle. Beats me why. I checked. There are only two places under the wire where your little robot can go and in both places you can break the wire, no problem. It should break after moving it up and down 3 or 4 times.

[darthmaul]

Originally Posted by Fien

I'll use spoiler tags, it's been only three days since the game was released and it doesn't say "spoilers" in the title.

Spoiler:

I read at the Machinarium forums that many people had problems with the great bird puzzle. Beats me why. I checked. There are only two places under the wire where your little robot can go and in both places you can break the wire, no problem. It should break after moving it up and down 3 or 4 times.

Could have been that I tried only 3 times then : ).

Which reminds me... there was one other annoying puzzle.

One puzzle requires you to do the same action 3 times for it to work... I didn't like this kind of puzzle when it was done in Runaway and I definitely don't like it now!

[Fien]

I've been wrecking my brain, don't know which puzzle you're talking about? Unless it's

Spoiler:

using the press to make sunflower oil

[darthmaul]

Originally Posted by Fien

I've been wrecking my brain, don't know which puzzle you're talking about? Unless it's

Spoiler:

using the press to make sunflower oil

Yes, that one.

[Madtentacle]

I didn't find any of the puzzles annoying, and I stumbled onto the bird puzzle by luck. The one puzzle I had to really think about was:

Spoiler:

The fan puzzle where you had to pick the wrong answer to make it angry

but I also found the water puzzle really hard.

[darthmaul]

FOr the fan puzzle, I hit the light bulb icon in the top right.. which gave you direction on what you are supposed to do.

[MladenL]

I had a hard time getting the bird puzzle to work too.
When it didn't work I assumed there had to be another solution so I wasted a bit of time before checking the in-game walkthrough and revealing that my initial solution was correct, I just wasn't doing it right.

Spoiler:

Was hard to get the timing right for some reason, even bouncing like 10 times. Don't know why.

The water pipes one was the only other one I couldn't get.

Otherwise, great game with amazing art & soundtrack. A good concept well executed.

[Melkor]

To be honest, I think this game was perfect.

I didn't have issues with any puzzles, and the ones I used a bit of time on were very satisfying to complete — because they made perfect sense.

I didn't even use the hint/walktrough function. There was no need to, because you could trust that the developers had made puzzles that weren't cheap or illogical.

The interface worked perfectly, and I had no problems whatsoever with having to put items back in the inventory. Since this game had so few items, and was largely based on in-world puzzles, I can't see how anyone would have a problem with that. Unless they went around trying the items on every single hotspot in the game.

I also strongly disagree with the AG review in that the machine puzzles were weak. They simply were not. A claim like that requires arguments, and I want to hear them. Until I do I'm labeling that critique as false.

I do think it was short, though. But that's not really a fault with the game, it's just me wanting it to last forever.

[Jackal]

Originally Posted by Melkor

I also strongly disagree with the AG review in that the machine puzzles were weak. They simply were not. A claim like that requires arguments, and I want to hear them. Until I do I'm labeling that critique as false.

That's not what the review says, so you're arguing nothing.

[dantebk]

I didn't think the electricity grid puzzle was very difficult, but most of the other puzzles gave me problems. I had to use the walkthrough-book to figure out the bird puzzle. Overall I really liked this game but it's one of the hardest I've played in a long time.

Hardest puzzle:

Spoiler:

Maybe the water pipes? That almost drove me insane.

[Ursulla]

I have read that water pipes puzzle is quite vicious...
Here is how I managed to solve it in a heartbeat...

Spoiler:

So long as I tried to follow the pipes from their source ,it didn't get me anywhere...Instead I went directly to the ending point of all pipes and went backwards to see which of the junctions is most likable to control the ending process of water flow. I have seen two major junctions which heavily control the flow of water to the ending point.Once I plugged them both all I needed is to guess which is the third and on my first guess I was succesful...

[Quastro]

"you have to manually bring it back to the top left and place it back"

It has been made in Flash it has this annoying rightclick menu, i think the creators were well aware of the rightmouse cancel 'problem' but couldnt find a solution. It could have been fixed with a simple keypress hotkey like spacebar, maybe there is one i don't know.

[Melkor]

Originally Posted by Jackal

That's not what the review says, so you're arguing nothing.

True, I didn't word my post very well, and I was being overly dismissive.

The review says that they're the weakest part of the gameplay. I disagree entirely. I think they blended very well with the rest of the game because they complimented the setting, the characters and the dynamic of the gameplay.

That they were weaker because they weren't original doesn't really make sense to me. I think the game as a whole would have been a lot weaker without them, because as I said, they complimented (amongst other things) the setting. That they were weaker because of their nature, being confined to a small area of a very minute set of objects and rules, I also disagree with; if that's what Stuart is trying to say. Yes, they are different from in-world puzzles in that they, by their nature, can't be highly inventive, but come on, that's not really a compelling argument for leaving them out, or calling them weaker than the rest if we can agree on them having an overall positive imprint on the game.

If he's saying that they're unoriginal in comparison to similar puzzles (Myst/Rama), then ok, sure, they weren't very elaborate, hard or expansive, but again: I don't think that wouldn't have complimented the setting or the game as a whole.

Of course, Stuart might not agree with me on the puzzles being fitting and working very well within the universe of the game, and adding to the dynamic of the gameplay, but I'd still like to hear what "less original" means, and why he feels they are weaker, because to me, it just seems like he doesn't like those kinds of puzzles in general, and that's a bit unfair to those kinds of puzzles. Within the genre (and in relation to their function in the game as a whole) I think they did very well.

[Keregioz]

I just finished it and I think it was an awesome little game. Way better that samorost.

I didn't have to use a walkthrough but I did solve the two puzzles you're discussing here (water pipe and bird) by chance...kinda.
The water pipe was pure chance, I'll admit, and solved it quite fast without knowing how. For the bird puzzle

Spoiler:

I used the right solution but my intention wasn't to break the wire but to make the bird's antenna touch the antenna which was over the wire on the left side thinking that something would happen if they connected.

[Phod]

I love this game. I really hope a lot of the adventure game community is supporting a title like this. If we want to be playing quality stuff for years, buying games like this goes a long way.

I'm not done yet, and I too wish this game would last forever. I technically haven't looked at a walkthrough yet but the bird puzzle had me peeking. Sadly, like the above poster, I was attempting something else. When I peeked and saw I was on the right track, I laughed and was also sad that I didn't manage to get it beforehand.

Some of the off the wall solutions are awesome. Also, I was sad to see that when I stayed on one screen, the little guy had stories to tell. I don't suppose you can view these in complete after the game? I'm depressed I missed them all

[Fien]

There are only four different memory bubbles which have nothing to do with the specific location. They appear randomly if the little robot has been inactive for a while.

PS: The developer said in an interview that they were happy with the sales or words to that effect. And the first edition of the German retail version was sold out in ten days, that's pretty good.

[Jelena]

I'm also enchanted by Machinarium! The environments are awesome! The colours and the details of this machine world is beautifully made and the puzzles are hard and fun. I've had to peek in the hint book a couple of times, but it's OK. I'm loving every minute of gameplay. It's a true quality game.

[terhardp]

I've purchased "Machinarium" a few days ago, and I've finished it yesterday. At first, I was somewhat sceptical, mainly because of the fact that the whole thing is made in Flash. This is not so much of a problem in the terms of the presentation, but in some practical things. For instance, right-clicking, which is something usual in most of the adventure games, brings out Flash Player options. Even bigger problem is the fact that the savegames are stored in the cache of the Flash Player, so using CCleaner without knowing this wipes out all the savegames.

Despite those technical flaws, I think that "Machinarium" is a beautiful game; I would even call it an art game (like art film). The thing that comes to mind first is the word "charming". Many aspects of the game seem very retro, and this is what drew me to it. For instance, some mini games evoked the late 80-s when I've got my first computer as a kid - ZX Spectrum. Then there is the whole hand-drawing concept that gives the game truly unique and recognizable style. As a composer myself, I'm particulary picky when it comes to music in the games and movies. The soundtrack of the game is very good ambient music that blends beautifully with the game landscapes. The more I think about it, the more I found it logical that you get the game soundtrack in MP3 format when you buy the game. I will most certainly transfer this on my iPod for further studying.

The story and the fact that there is no words, make "Machinarium" even bigger in my eyes, because this makes it timeless and universal, just as the instrumental music. Besides that fact, there are many small details in the game that go beyond the language and ethnic barriers. The puzzles are IMO very good, but since I'm not too good with those personally, I was glad to have that magic book at my disposal. It is also good that it's not so easy to open it.

All in all, the biggest shortcoming of this game is it's shortness. But when I think more about the whole thing, it wouldn't be the same if this is not the case.