The developers didn't have to go the extra mile, but I'm glad they did.Īnother example comes from the protagonist's idle animations. Why? Because it's a more visually arresting, humourous image to see the pair try and sneak past the guard. It would have been just as functional in terms of gameplay to place one robot in the cell. For example, at one point you are able to open a prison cell and solve a puzzle to help the inhabitants escape. Visiting Machinarium is like visiting a place, not a series of backdrops. Backgrounds feel alive: water drips from fountains, lights flicker, vents steam. Whereas many adventures skimp and save in this area, overextending their resources, Amanita packed each scene with dozens of graphic details. The best part of the visuals however, is the sheer wealth of animation. The style creates a surprising sense of depth all the striking colours and layering create a tangible world in high resolution. Machinarium doesn't really look like any other game, except maybe Amanita's own previous Samorost series, but here the "living decoupage" style relies entirely on original drawings, not a hodgepodge of photography and artwork. Any jerkiness or inelegance you might expect from this technique is negated not only by the fact that all characters are robotic, but also by the array of smoothing, motion blur, and distortion effects used by the animators to create a seamless, cohesive world. This is, of course, a rather drastic over-simplification. To animate the characters, these picture-pieces are moved like paper dolls to achieve motion. Graphics are two-dimensional, and created primarily from hand-drawn sketches using a soft, moody palette of de-saturated colours. The game’s distinctive style of art and animation is evident from the opening cutscene. These living pictograms are beautifully rendered, very funny, and one of many highlights in a game that is almost an embarrassment of visual riches. The characters converse telepathically, with scratchily animated thought bubbles for the benefit of the player. There's even a love plot, in which the robot hero must rescue his girlfriend from servitude at the hands of the criminals. Players eventually learn all about who runs the robot city and why our protagonist was in the crash in the first place, plus solve plenty of problems for the city’s inhabitants, a lot of them caused by the thuggish criminal ring. He then must make his way back inside the robot enclave, where he uncovers a heinous plot by a gang of criminals to bomb the tallest tower in the city.ĭespite being entirely wordless, the story achieves a surprising degree of complexity and is never confusing. Our nameless mechanical hero is first seen crashing in the outskirts of the city, expelled for reasons unknown, and starts the game looking for his stray pieces and putting himself back together. Despite the scrappy aesthetic, every decaying detail is carefully orchestrated and designed, resulting in a surreal, beautiful world inhabited by a cast of automatons that make it feel like a robot fairy-tale. The game is set in a city made of pipes, tubes, and rusting metal edifices. Amanita Design, however, grasp this fact instinctually, as displayed by Machinarium, their latest miniature masterpiece which is overflowing with dozens of delightful little robotic characters. I don't know why this scenario generates such a response in us – maybe anthropologists or geneticists have a theory. Robots behaving like humans are cute and funny.
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