Machinarium (PC)

Im not usually a fan of point and click games, but a friend recommended this to me and after seeing the artwork for it, I just had to try it.

What is it?
Machinarium is a one player 'point and click' puzzle game developed by Amanita design and was released in 2009. The aim of the game is to solze a series of puzzles and problems through beautiful landscapes playing as a mute little metal robot character, who has been exhiled to the scrap heap. The aim of the game is to help the little robot to solve puzzles to enable him to get back to the city of Machinarium and rescue his robot girlfriend.

Whats special about it?
The backgrounds are beautiful hand drawn works of art, and the animation is intensly detailed with an excellent soundtrack. The puzzles that you have to work through can be quite tricky at times, others quite easy - so this is not a continuousy frustrating game - which is nice. If you do get stuck however there are little hints to help you along the way. Failing that there are walkthroughs available online for free. It balances the right amount of complexity to ensure you feel satisfaction when finishing the game. The little robot chap you control throughout the game is incredibly cuteand endearing and makes you laugh out loud at his thought bubbles and movements. There is no dialogue or speech throughout the game which just adds to its charm. Alot of recent game releases seem to come with a lot of glitches - something that greatly irritates me - this however appears to be glitch free.
Machinarium has won several awards since its release in 2009;
IGF 2009, Excellence in Visual Art Award
Nomination for 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (DICE Awards)
Gamasutra, Best Indie Game Of 2009
VGChartz.com, Best Indie Game Of 2009
PC Gamer, Best Soundtrack of 2009
Which is a testament to how good this game actually is!

Who are Amanita Design?
Amanita Design are a small independant video game studio based in the Czech Republic, established in 2003. As well as video games the company has also produced some music videos, websites, animations and illustrations. Other beautiful games they have created include Botanicula, Samorost and Questionaut among several others. To take a look at their beautiful work you can visit http//www.amanita-designs.net

How much does it cost?
I got mine from amazon for around £11, however at the moment the special collectors edition is up there for around £5 which includes...
Additional CD with the games music and 5 additional bonus sound tracks
Booklet including never seen before concept art
A3 Poster
A printed walkthrough
At this bargain of a price I definitely recommend you give it a try, if you dont like it, you've not spent a fortune on it. To get a taste of the beauty of this game you can visit http://www.machinarium.net which has a free demo for you to try, and you can also download the game from there aswell for $10 if you'd rather download it than buy it and have to wait!

So to summarise, you should definitely go out and buy this game or atleast try the demo - even if you dont enjoy point and click games! Its an absolute gem of a game and is worth playing just for the animation and artwork alone!