If you’ve played Samorost 1 or 2, then you already know, to some extent, what to expect from Amanita Design. In Samorost 1 and 2, Amanita used a combination of photography and cute animated characters to create a collage-like fantasy world. Machinarium, differs mainly in one aspect: It is completely drawn by hand.

A nice extra that comes with the game, is the free 51 minute long soundtrack made by Tomáš Dvořák. I’ve been listening to it, while writing this review to get in the right mood fort his traditional point-and-click adventure game.

Games nowadays have a tendency to go for the mind-blowing, wow-factor with awesome cinematic graphics that make your eyes bleed. Check out Crysis 2 or the new Batman game, or any big title for that matter. They look like freshly polished designer kitchens. But that… is just a whole lot of technical muscle flexing and money-spending by big publishers on big IP’s.

Machinarium says ‘screw that, we are not joining the 3D-cinematic-circus’. It is fully drawn by hand as if it popped straight out of a children’s book. It is set in a rusty, tin-can, tin-man, robot world, and every scene is capable of keeping your attention with its atmosphere and many little intriguing details. If I were still a kid, this is what I would believe a world of robots would look like.

Traditional elements

You are a cute little bugger of a droid, that’s been freshly kicked out of robot town to be dumped on the nearest garbage heap. From there, you’ll have to puzzle your way back into town using the game’s many traditional point-and-click features. This means that you’ll have to collect objects, and use them in the right places, or combine them. However, you’ll also get to deal with some non-traditional elements: board games and old-school console games. Unfortunately the arcade style console games, kinda broke the atmosphere a little bit, though they are clearly meant as an ode to the time that those games were king.

As you puzzle your way through this adventure, you’ll encounter robots that need your help. In return, they’ll provide you with rewards that can help you continue your journey. For example: there is a lady-bot that needs to find her lost dog, that only you can find, or an old-timer in a wheelchair, who is desperately searching for oil for his squeaky wheels. It is within the confines of these rather innocent topics that the robots come alive and show beautiful human characteristics. Yet, before you encounter all this, you have to enter robot town. Only after that will you experience a greater form of flexibility on how you choose to go through this game. Before that, you rather move from scene to scene as you are slowly introduced to how the ‘bully-bots’ are making life miserable for the inhabitants of robo-town. You will also learn more about the game’s mechanics as these scenes will teach you how to solve some of its puzzles. Here’s an example of one of the game’s many puzzles: In order to advance in the game, you need to pose as a police officer. The only way to do this, is to find a traffic cone and paint it in such a fashion that it resembles a police helmet. As you can guess, this means, that during the game you’ll have to experiment, use your imagination and really try to think like a child that knows no limitations. That… or you just need to have a ton of experience with these kind of adventure games ;)

Cheating

If, for whatever reason, you are really stuck in the game, the game uses a 2-step hint-system. Step one allows you to click a light bulb on the top right of the screen, and it will display a simple hint to nudge you in the right direction. Though if this really does not help enough, you can advance to step 2 by clicking on the little book. This will initiate a mini-game that allows you to ‘win’ the walkthrough to your current puzzle. Funny enough, it doesn’t really feel like cheating. After all, it is part of the game, and you did not just go onto the web to google for ‘how do I find the lady’s dog in Machinarium?’. All in all, I only had to resort to this devious form of cheating once, due to the fact that later on in the game, some of the puzzle objects are so far apart (location-wise) that it became hard to make the proper connections between them. As it becomes more difficult to solve the puzzles and find the right objects, I’m sure some people will end up irritated, as you end up walking around in circles in robot town a lot. Still, I found, that it didn’t matter that much as I got to enjoy the beautiful level design over and over :)

Flexible body

One thing to never forget in this game, is that you can only grab or manipulate objects in the game that are within arm’s reach of your little droid. But, the droid has one very nifty droid function: It can stretch it’s body or shrink it so you can reach objects that would have otherwise been too far away, so use it wisely. Another thing I noticed, was that after being afk (ask your favorite World of Warcraft-nerd) for a while, your little droid starts thinking about his robot pal, who he used to hang out with, or showing how his friend is bullied by the bully-bots. It turns out, you are actually trying to rescue your friend from those bully-bots.

Molten heart

The game and its story touched me. It shows sadness and love in a special way. The puzzles and game events are memorable and will leave you with a happy fuzzy feeling when you manage to solve them. Reminds me of the butterfly puzzle… sigh…

Amanita Design

Amanita Design is an independent developer from the Czech republic and they are currently working on a new title. In the past, they’ve worked on a serious game to help kids learn English, math, and chemistry, but now they are working on Botanicula, a game you really oughtta check out if you are curious about Amanita’s next adventure game.

Machinarium:

Botanicula:

My PS2 has earned its place among my consoles quite a while ago and has been a part of my console tower ever since. It is a tower full of memories that has become somewhat sad and lonely, since their kind of food is not made any more. They are all on a strict dust bunny diet.

But… every now and again, I surprise them with some fine caviar to make it up to them, and this time the caviar came in the form of: Shadow of the Colossus

This giant was re-released for the PS3, one month ago, together with that other beautiful classic: Ico. It has been re-mastered with fresh textures and you can now play it on your 3D-television (if you fancy such a thing), but do not worry: If you don’t have one, you can still enjoy the crap out of it on your ‘standard’ HD flatscreen :)

This retro-review is mainly geared towards those that have never heard of this artistic heavy weight. Let’s hope that more people discover this fantastic game. And if you do know the game. Just read on for a trip down memory lane :)

Protagonist

Wander  lost the love of his life (editor: or possibly his sister ?) and is bringing her lifeless body to the forbidden land in a desperate act to get her back. Travelling through the mountainous landscape, you (as Wander) are on a quest to find a holy temple where you can ask the gods to restore the soul of your loved one. At the temple, when you place Mono’s (the girl’s name) body on the altar, a biblical sounding voice of the god Dormin speaks to you about a trial. Mono’s soul will be restored to her if you manage to kill the sixteen colossi that are roaming the land. Love, being the strong motivator here, compels you to do so, risking your life by riding towards certain doom on your horse, with only your sword as a means to an end.

Yet, this sword is not only suitable for giant slaughter, it is also one hell of a navigation system. By raising it up into the air, it reflects the sunlight in such a way that it will point the way to the next colossus. During your fights with the colossi, it will even point out their weak spots. Handy, huh?

Horseback riding

Your exact relationship with Mono, remains unclear during the whole game, and there are many theories (one includes her being your sister)as to what it is. Yet another relationship slowly develops as you play the game. I found myself growing very attached to my horse, named: Agro. I just have to call out, and he’ll come galloping my way. He brought me to beautiful oases, mountain ranges, and saved me from many perilous situations. He makes the solitary life of Wander less solitary, and perhaps even bearable. And during those moments that you dismount and look around on foot, you’ll be thrilled to see the brilliantly designed insects, birds, reptiles, and plants that are bustling about. These natural elements form a strange contrast with the fact that you’ll be facing a living sky scraper soon.

Puzzle beast

Every time you find one of the colossi, the music starts and you’re introduced to the current colossus with a nice little cut scene. Kow Otani’s beautiful music is actually only present during cut scenes, and the colossi encounters, making the travelling in between more so desolate. But not so during your fights. Heavy slow moody music floods your ears as one of the giants slowly, yet seemingly unstoppable walks on and on. The weak spots of a colossus are never just their Achilles heel ;) so most of the time, you’ll have to find a way to climb the colossus while he’s trying hard to squash you like a bug. For example: colossus X tries to pulverize you with his giant sword. The only way up is to dodge the sword, jump back, onto the sword, run along onto his arm and let the rollercoaster ride commence! The music changes into something fierce and bombastic. The colossus tries to brush you off with all their might. Clinging on for your dear life, you can only wait and hope that he’ll stop shaking for a bit so you can climb onward. Keep your eyes on the emblem that shows his weak spot. Once you reach it, you can sink in the blade and watch the living mountain stumble, and crumble dramatically into a pile of stone and dirt. The music already makes you feel that this is not a heroic moment. It is a sad moment where a wondrous beautiful creature is killed, because you can’t live with the loss of your wife-sister-girl-thingamabob. No, you will not feel like a hero, you will be left with a bad taste in your mouth, and oh woe, there’s 15 more to go :( ./cry

Emotional journey

As the colossus crashes to the ground, black shady tentacles shoot forth from the remains to enter your body and the screen turns black. You find yourself back at the temple, next to  mono’s still remains where there is now a shadowy presence looming over the altar for every giant you killed.

SotC is drenched in this sort of mystique and evokes a lot of emotion in the player. The relationship you develop with your horse, the dreamy, gloomy ambience, the guilt over every killed giant… this game is one big emotional trip, and that’s what makes this game so special.

Unfortunately, with the pimping of this PS2 classic for PS3, they did not pimp the somewhat awkward controls, as they are just as awkward as they were back then, causing some frustration when you fall down from a colossus half way up for the Xth time. Yet, it kinda adds to the challenge, and I found myself not being stopped from enjoying this game, and remember… you don’t just buy this one emotional journey, you get that other fantastic journey called Ico as well! One heck of a double bill :)

I recently received a text message from a close friend saying: ‘Dude! Did you play Bastion? ‘The name rang a bell somewhere, but being very busy at the time, I couldn’t recall what it was. So, the next morning I checked out the trailer and that’s how my curiosity was piqued for this very first game made by Supergiant Games.

Demo

The trailer was looking good, showing me a little guy with a huge hammer smashing away at bunches of enemies, all drawn in a detailed, painting-like style. I downloaded the demo and started playing to get a feel of what it would be like to do the smashing myself. I wanted to know why my friend was so enthusiastic about the game, as the trailer did not convince me fully at first. After, oh, let’s say seven minutes, I whipped out my credit card and bought the full game on Steam. I was hooked.

The Chosen One

While you were sleeping, the world went apocalyptic (Ed.: Sound Sleeper :)). Hurricanes and floods wiped out whole tribes of people and almost all of the land on this world. You are ‘The Kid’ and managed to survive this disaster together with a flying island called ‘The Bastion’. The island is not fully realized as it is. It is missing some vital elements to fully function, and floating over the remnants of the world, it is up to you to find these missing components. By carrying a small piece of the Bastion with you, you can make little bits of the world reappear around you making the world come back tile by tile. Oh, and with the reappearing world, the critters that lived there, also reappear making sure you have a hard time on your mission o.O.

Depth of combat

The enemies you encounter vary a lot and all have their very own way of making sure you meet a swift demise. Some attack in groups while others try to pick you off from a distance, not to forget those really big guys that can almost smash you with one blow. To deal with all this mayhem, you have been equipped with an impressive arsenal of weaponry (that you build up during the game) allowing you to pu t an end to their miserable lives. Though whether or not you survive after one of these onslaughts greatly depends on your skill. This game is not a random ‘button-masher’. You have to learn to use your shield in combination with well-times attacks. Every enemy acquires a different approach yet, they often attack together making it vital to decide on the spot, which enemy should be taken out first.

Upgrades

In the heat of battle, it feels great to pull off a special attack (linked to one of your weapons), allowing you to send a whole group of enemies to the afterlife with one sweep. You can carry two weapons at the same time, though you can only link one special attack. If you have a bit of common sense, make sure that one of these two weapons is a ranged weapon.

Every weapon is upgradable and at a every upgrade point you can choose from two options, such as: ‘Critical Hit Chance’ or  ‘+50% Damage’. You can change these upgrades at any moment, giving you a tactical advantage, so use them wisely. Then, if you earned enough XP you level up granting you an extra potion slot. You can use various potions to refill your energy bar, run faster, etc, (and you can change this too at any given point)..

Spoiled ears

While playing this game, you will not only hear the thuds of your swinging hammer, but you will also hear the wonderful music made by Darren Korb. The music can be described as adventurous folk-rock. While visiting his website I couldn’t help but notice that Darren played in several bands and you can hear this band influence in the music. The game’s music is not just some collection of random tunes, it has a band’s energy and dynamics.

And then… there is the story teller, or perhaps the person doing the live commentary (as in a sports show) that works together with the background music to set the mood. Your actions are commented on by a brilliant voice using some crazy remarks when you find stuff or demolish things. Definitely good for a laugh or two :)

The right ingredients

What makes this action-RPG so different? It is ‘spot-on’, makes you keep your wits about you at all times, and you keep being curious about what you’re going to find next, whether that’s a new weapon or the next step in the storyline. It keeps drawing me back due to the wonderful atmosphere due to its combination of graphical style, music, and that audio commentary. The colours make you want to go ‘ooh’ and they turn the game into a comic book style fairy tale with a rough edge. Why not give that demo a try and see how many minutes it takes before you believe it has the right ingredients.

The Bridge really started out as an aid in Ty Taylor’s university research project. Mario Castaneda eventually joined forces with hi mto wrap up his art-minor, and together they continued working on the game to turnit into a full fledged piece of art.

Tilt buttons

The Bridge cannot go unnoticed duet o its wondrous style. The apple tree, the house… pretty much everything is portrait in a sort of art book sketch style. The game starts off with the sound of… snoring. You are asleep, and the only way to wake up your persona is to tilt the screen until a Newtonian apple drops from the apple tree unto the sleepyhead. By using the Q and E buttons, you can manipulate the screen to tilt, or rather rotate it, clockwise or counter clockwise. Doing so, the apple falls, and…  “Pop”, your character is awake. Very cool concept! While walking home, you are surrounded by floating strings of poetry (the actual thoughts your character is having). Once you arrive at your house, you can enter a door way and be on your way to solve the game’s first puzzles.

That Dutch artist

Only after encountering the first puzzle di dit struck me. Everything kind of looks like a spinoff od the Dutch artist M.C.Escher. Escher used mathematical principles to turn his seemingly 3d images into something of a paradox that could never exist in the real world. You find these very same structures in The Bridge. At first it seems like it is impossible to navigate them to reach your goals, until you start to tilt the screen and realise that the ceiling is a perfectly fine floor to walk on as well. A typical Escher structure, and there were quite some more of those. Dare I say, many? Different gravitational points, parallel worlds, they are all there. Thankfully all wonderfully integrated into the game, and I’m not going to spoil it for you, because there is so much more!

Homage

It is a very nice concept : To wander through sketches that seem so Escheresque. I sometimes even got the feeling that I was travelling through Escher’s thoughts. The music, that sort of floats softly in the background, fits the mysterious atmosphere perfectly. In my humble opinion, Hypercube Games succeeded in making a most excellent puzzle platformer with an original inspiration source. Here’s a freely translated Escher quote: “Another lifetime could be filled with all the drawing that I’d like to do.” Well, it seems that Ty Taylor and Mario Castaneda just gave him a head start ;)

Check out the trailer at: http://thebridge.hypercubegames.net/

It has been almost eight years since Monolith produced this unique beauty of a game. “A neon lit beauty” called: TRON 2.0.

Due to the recent film, I assume that probably all of you are familiar with the Tron universe, the awesome Light Cycle Races and the superb Disc Fights. Regardless, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to Retro Review this early Tron game.

Not a box office hit?

I can remember it like yesterday… The excitement I felt when I found out that my favourite Disney film (Tron) was going to be made into a video game. It was quite a risk for Monolith to take on this franchise considering that the film did not become a box office hit. The movie was too unconventional. Unfortunately, the game suffered from the same effect and it did not sell as much copies as anticipated. Yet the press wrote some nice critiques at the time, often calling the game: “A work of art!” and I wholeheartedly agree with that.

 Tron 2.0 is in essence a First Person Shooter (Oh noes… not another one!), yeti t is so much more. With puzzle and RPG elements, the game is perhaps more an action packed adventure game rather than an FPS. In-game you travel down the routes of the digital world, venturing inside a computer, router, server, and the internet. You are sucked into this digital world through the means of a mysterious machine after trying to find out why your father disappeared so suddenly. In a brilliantly designed universe, you are to search for the Tron code. A code containing information about your father’s disappearance. Your journey is enhance by the orchestral music that has been ported straight from the film itself. The soundtrack was written by Wendy Carlos (known from het music for `A Clockwork Orange`). The music is a rare mix of sounds from the fabled analogue Moog Synthesizer and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Black light experience

Disney’s imagination created a metaphorical representation of a complex computer, using humanoid avatars to represent programs, codes, and even viruses. It made this particular Sci-Fi story a touch more Fantasy and also a touch more human. For example: The loading screen contains a loading bar. But not the kind that fills up the screen, but one that fills up the drinks of the programs that are waiting there to be ‘loaded’. There are many more of these smart little inside jokes. If you add this to the black light and neon lit designs, you have a unique word to enjoy and venture in. Unforgettable is the level where you end up inside a computer that detects you as a threat and immediately activates its Firewall (Ed.: check out the pictures in the gallery). This leads to you not only having to battle the viruses, but also to having to stay ahead of the cindering wall of red fire that is slowly creeping up to consume you!

I already mentioned it before… the Disc. This is your main weapon, but also the most awesome weapon of them all. To begin with, this FPS does not contain an arsenal of your average Kalashnikovs. Instead, it contains anaesthetic wands, virus-balls, and a particular kind of explosive boomerang. Yet I kept switching back to the Disc. It is delightful to hurl that disc at the enemy and hearing that brilliantly designed swishing sound. Later on in the game, you are presented with upgrades for your weapons, causing them to turn into a variety of things, combined with wonderful animations, as happens with the Sniper Rifle: You break a shining rod into, causing it to transform into a futuristic rifle. Very gorgeous to see.

To vary the pace of the story, they slipped in the Light Cycle Races. A well implemented and pleasant (and addictive!) distraction. The speed and ridiculous sharp corners have been translated from the film to the game, just like they should.

Sales corner

This game is so totally different from all those other games. Tron leaves the safe comfort zones of what is familiar and makes you feel what an FPS can also feel like, using eccentric weaponry, smart metaphors, and its abstract neon fantasy. It has become a work of art, one that does not age and has reached cult status, just like the 1982 film. Thanks Disney and Monolith for teaming up to make this little gem. By the way! You can still get his game in the stores, as I recently spotted it in the sales corner of my local game shop for only 7 Euro (10 USD)!

Today we (Jerôme van Mulukom & Mendel Bouman) are proudly launching our new games review site: Artful Game.com!

As of now, we will use this place as a platform to review games that we deem artsy! Be that Music, Graphics, Story wise, or due to any other criteria we fancy, if your game is artsy, it should be up here ;)

We hope that we’ll have many great games for review for you in the future, but until then, please stay tuned :)

Cheers,

Jerôme and Mendel