Machinarium

Late last year, as the dark nights closed in and the air turned cold, I began playing Machinarium, an addictive little point-and-click puzzle game. Initially, it was the beautiful visuals and atmospheric soundtrack that lured me in, but soon, after completing the demo's first three levels, I found myself sucked in and dutifully downloaded the rest of the game.

You control a little robot, Josef, who goes about a city undoing the mischief wreaked by the Black Cap Brotherhood. They're planning to blow up the tower but there's also Josef's girlfriend to free too - she's been locked up and forced to cook. Using the mouse you solve various puzzles to move on to the next level. If you're anything like me, this usually involves clicking virtually every pixel on the screen to find something to pick up and/or use. A hint is available for each level in the form of an animated thought bubble and if you really get stuck you can get more help by accessing and completing a separate minigame. Because there's no dialogue, either spoken or written, this comes in the form of diagrams. It was a beautiful experience playing this on cold winter evenings: I recommend dimming the lights and wearing headphones for full immersive effect.

Machinarium was developed by a group of Czech developers who financed the projct themselves. The mp3 soundtrack by Tomas Dvorak comes with the download. The game is available on PC, Mac and Linux.

You can play the first three levels of Machinarium free online here.