Machinarium App Reviews

Machinarium is a decent little adventure game, but I would not recommend trying to play it on a phone or any device with a small screen. The games puzzles tend to be arbitrary. The in-game hint system is primitive, providing a single hint for each area, whether youve already solved that particular puzzle or not. Gameplay can be frustrating at times. I had difficulties with some of the controls until I realized that they DO NOT SLIDE. Instead, you should click on the spot where you want the control moved to. One puzzle had three "sliders", each with three positions. I struggled mightily with that puzzle until I realized that I needed to tap on the position I wanted rather than sliding the control to it. The graphics arent exactly pretty but have a certain charm. The music is good enough that I never felt the urge to look and see if there was an option to turn it off. The environment sounds are good. The story is rather shallow but works well enough. Backstory is provided via graphic dialogue. Instead of text or spoken words, speech or thought bubbles display black and white line-drawn pictures or animations that tell the characters history or what he wants. The player is directing a little robot who has just been discarded at the dump. It soon becomes apparent that the robots in this game arent very robotic; they experience a full range of emotions, have personalities, and even seem to experience a sense of touch and smell. Certain robots in this mechanized society, possibly the leaders and police force, are brutes and bullies who delight in tormenting and abusing weaker robots. The unnamed hero of the game must avoid these robots as he finds a way to reenter the city and then makes his way around. One might wonder why he would want to return to a near dystopia, but when he was taken to the rubbish heap, he was parted from something he holds very dear. As the hero explores his environment, there are objects that he needs to pick up, but there are no hidden object mini-games. However, there are a couple of arcade mini-games. Fortunately, they arent difficult, but I would prefer not to have ANY arcade type mini-games in an adventure game. The market is flooded with arcade games for people who like that sort of thing. But at least you dont have to worry about running or hiding from other characters; your robot hero wont do anything that will get him in trouble unless it is necessary for the story. Where the game really shines is its imaginative world. And despite the rather sinister characters the player encounters, the pleasant music and gameplay in which the hero cannot "die" give the game a relaxing vibe. Its a decent way to kill a few hours.

The imagery is amazing. The one world is interesting and unique. The characters are wonderful. The problems unfortunately over powered the positives. Bugs made some puzzles impossible to solve. For example there is a radio thats supposed to play a tune that you later need to duplicate on an organ. Neither the radio or the organ had any sound. The solutions to some of the situations are so off the wall that I cant imagine anyone completing this game without finding a walk through and using it several times. It was almost fun but not quite because I found the glitches nearly impossible solutions growingly frustrating as the game went on. The puzzles were great though.

I can not find If its a known bug but I cant seem to get my sweeper moving into the bathroom once I go down the elevator.

I love this game, but I ran into a bug that prevented me from progressing. I thought, okay, not that far in - I restarted and got past that bug but immediately ran into a different bug on the same puzzle.

I loved it!! Extremely creative characters and puzzles! Highly recommend!

From the makers of Samarost, which is another odd "indie" puzzle adventure. Wish there were more of these games. Challenging, but fun!

This game is fantastic its beautiful, the main character is very endearing, and the story is intriguing and cute; I enjoyed how it played out without use of words and with just enough of the story to make it more than your average point and click game but not take over game play. The gameplay is challenging and rewarding; I love that they have the built-in walk-through feature that you have to play a game to access so its not just a freebie which adds another level to the game. I play a lot of point and click games and I think this is one of the best Ive played in a long while. However that being said playing on an iPhone screen, I have an iPhone 7, can be tricky there is no zooming in to make sure youre clicking in the right spots like with some game. This is definitely a game design for a larger screen like an iPad or computer. Also if you get a phone call, a text, or an alarm goes off anything with noise on your phone while playing the game the noise in the game will stop working however that seems to be a glitch with the iPhone on several of the games not just this one. Even with those few flaws I will definitely be recommending this to all my gaming friends.

I loved it... every part of it. Its complex enough to challenge you but not too much to bore. Animation, graphics, gameplay, story- everything is just perfect. I played it in iPad and enjoyed thoroughly. I wish it had more episodes...

Even using the walk through doesnt work! I want to love this game but the bugs made me delete it...please fix it

I really enjoyed playing this game however as compared to past titles from this developer, it feels like they forgot how to develop for touch screen controls. As others have stated, you need to be pixel precise in order to interact with some puzzles, often leaving players with the feeling they are stuck after trying everything.

Beautiful art work, gameplay wonky and sluggish.

Addictive, fun to play and its just pleasant. I didnt find a way how to turn off the sound within the app, would be nice to add.

Cant get the game to do what I obviously know I need to so I can move on - useless & frustrating. Wish I hadnt paid for this

This is a great game! Fantastic graphics and interesting story line. Youll definitely need to dust off some brain cells for some of the puzzles. Otherwise, very enjoyable! I hope they make a sequel!

Its a beautiful game and sounds great. Wear headphones. The puzzles are cute, and well done. I had to consult the built in cheat book quite a few times, but even thats fun. I wish the hit regions while dragging and dropping items were a little bigger. Still, the little guy makes plenty of emotional cues if youre paying attention. Im here to buy their other game. Im hooked.

The game does not respond quick enough to my touch to allow me to get anywhere. Even read walkthroughs but cant get the game to do what the walkthrough says. I touch where i need the robot to go and what i need it to do but it doesntvreact then i miss the chance and have to start over. Deleted the game. Games are supposed to be fun and challenging not make me so frustrated that i want to throw the ipad.

I started this game the other year and gave up, but since then the bugs have dramatically decreased, and it is such a beautiful and challenging game I had to come back and finish it. The only thing that prevents a 5 star rating is a touch of oddness with the UX. There are some interactions that are simply not intuitive enough to decipher. Example: the up/down lever on the platform where you get the oil from the girl. Also, I wish the helper books you can access from the game werent quite so explicit. It made some parts almost too easy.

Beautiful graphics and wonderful storyline the downfall, gameplay. The hints are helpful but I finally gave up never being able to touch the screen in an exact location at an exact second. Deleted the app, again...

As others mention, iPhone is too small to play and tap exactly where you need to. And it isnt a matter of figuring things out logically as much as it is just tapping on random crap until something happens.

This game is really hard to play if you have a smaller screen. The touch commands are unresponsive most of the time and it makes for a really frustrating experience. I love the art and the puzzle concept of the game, but its nearly impossible to play.