Amanita Design forum

Hi All,

I really didn't have time to read through the other threads(sorry), but wanted to share my feedback after finishing Machinarium today. We have been playing point and click/adventure/escape/hidden object type games for sometime and were really anticipating the release of this game. I was one of the pre orders. So we were thrilled when it arrived. With 3 kids, it was hard to play straight through like some of you may have, but none-the-less we finished it without using many hints.

First off, I will mention one bug we found. Sorry, we don't know the names of each stage, so I will just describe the stage and you'll have to figure it out.  ;)

When you go through the manhole to that room with the guy with the pea-shooter thingy, if you go back down the hole and travel to the left in the pipe again(you may go thinking you forgot something back if you can't figure out the room), it won't let you come back up through the manhole into the room.  It's as if the game didn't anticipate someone would go back there again, so it didn't have the feet or any arrows or pointed hands or anything to get you back through the manhole.  Fortunately, we had saved the game fairly recently and could start again from that point, so it didn't turn out to be a big deal for us. but this is definitely considered a bug.

Okay, on to our review:

The game is, without question, graphically astounding. The work put into this is very apparant. I can see how it will be well received by many and will set the bar for future releases. I believe my review to be completely honest and unbiased, so please know that although there were so many 10/10 type reviews, this is my opinion.
From my point of view, I felt the game was too hard, especially if compared to the samorost's. We bought this game because my kids (8 and 7 years old) just LOVE samorost, but they were very frustrated with this game. In fact, my wife and I became quite frusterated several times. Although we are quite good at these games and quite logical, many things were not logical. Sometimes you would have the right idea or concept on solving a part, but the game dynamics didn't work exactly right and you felt stuck and needed a hint peep unnecessarily. For example(and i write this so as not to spoil), one could figure out the scene with the bird on the wire, but exactly how to accomplsih what was needed, even if you knew how(with hint) was still extremely sensitive and precise and took a while to accomplish. I think things like this in the game were unnecessary. Just figuring out the logic should have sufficed. I also felt the speed of the robot when walking from A to B (when stretched or not) was tedious and slow. I mean, if you accidentally tried walking but forgot to unstretch, it seemed like a lifetime before you were given control back to do so. Annoyed me several times.

I can list many other examples, but like I say, it is a great accomplishment for Amanita and the programmers so I don't want to harp. There were some extremely well done parts and puzzles that flowed well, but there were also some that didn't.

I read the other thread with so-called bugs, but i didn't post there as i disagree with the poster that those were true bugs. More like bloopers, none of which we even noticed. I think bloopers are fun. Go back and watch Gilligan's Island with a print-out of bloopers in hand, and it is hillarious.  :D

Congrats to the team. I look very forward to the next release in a few years!

Maceman

Not trying to be a troll, but I really don't understand what the problem was with the bird bit. I've read a few other people had trouble with this too, but it worked first time for me and felt really natural to do. As soon as I saw what was happening I knew right away what to do, and as I said it worked straight away.

I agree about the walking while stretched etc though. It was annoying, but I didn't really have a situation that didn't allow me to click on something close by so I could stop and go back to normal size.

um. Can you edit your post as not to spoil the game. I purposely wrote my comments in a way so not to spoil that level and you gave away the way to do it. Please respect the programmers wishes as specified how many times already??

Also, Glad it worked for you, but it is obvious if more than one person had trouble that the dynamics could have been easier. Maybe you were lucky.

Cheers.
Maceman

I didn't have the manhole bug - I wasn't able to get back up, but that was because whenever I told the robot to he shook his head. There isn't any need to go back up anyway, so I assumed it was just to help people by showing that.

Don't really see how my post had spoilers.. but i've edited it anyway.

@ steedus - thanx for editing. I wont say how it spoiled it because i would have to spoil it to do so, but it had to do with the bird :) Thanx anyways for doing that and glad it worked for you first time around.

@divit - yeah, it is hard to explain, but where i am referring you definitely have to go back up the manhole else you cannot go further in the game. Can't say much more without giving away stuff, but it is at the peashooter robot stage.

Cheers,
Maceman