Many good things about it. It starts out well and I enjoyed much of the game. It just failed in even more ways. There is this strange mix of trying to tell a story and then throwing in all kinds of woopaloooooo bolappppaaapppppoooooooo madness. They made a great job with the design, music and voice acting, but it doesn't set any atmosphere. There is no atmosphere to talk about. Everything is completely unbelievable, not in the sense that I don't believe in magic or whatever, but the game breaks it's own rules and fails completely at being coherent. The world is never immersive. It feels like it's the product of some randomizer which has just stringed some random events and characters together without any thought. Most of the game feels out of place. The second half has the story fall apart completely. Haven't seen such a mess in a long time. The game takes an overall turn for the worse with the second chapter but most of all with the story. Monotonous and lots of walking back and forth. Good parts: The space ship story starts out good. Some puzzles and areas are really good and well designed. Overall very much attention to detail. For example, if you try using an item somewhere it can't be used you won't just hear " I can't do that". Usually you get a specific line or even conversation custom made for that only situation. I haven't encountered any other P&C game with that much attention to detail. At best a very weak 3/5 but I would stay away from this game.
The game is kind of short and can be played in one go. I finished it in just under 5 hours and was probably not very quick. Overall a great game with nice design and music, very mixed puzzles and a built in guide in case you get stuck. Except for a few puzzles, it's not a very difficult game but I had to resort to the built in guide a few times. Sometimes I did it just for fun too, as the guide contains a lot of artwork etc. It's very well done. If you don't want to make it too easy, you can use it to get a vague idea as well. Even in the pictures, the solutions are not always instantly clear. I didn't enjoy Botanicula in case someone reading this also disliked it and feel hesitatant about playing Machinarium because of that. I'd really recommend trying this out.
2 hours and ten minutes on my play through. Seen a lot of people complain about the length. I guess it is what it is. Had it been longer, it would probably still be in development. I think it took seven years or so to develop this. Maybe more. Better like this. Better too because no matter how much I enjoyed it, I'm not sure it would keep my interest for say ten hours. Some things are better short. With that said it was a 5/5 while it lasted.
The game sometimes feels kind of flat. It focuses too much on some of it's (rather unique?) mechanics and ideas and a bit too little on actually being immersive, intriguing or enjoyable. I can think of several things that impressed me, but I didn't actually enjoy the game that much. Played it a while ago, my mind has finally decided it's 3/5.
I've owned it for a few months but the graphics kept me from picking this up. When finally starting it turned out the graphics weren't a problem at all. The atmosphere is great and I think that the low res graphics leaves more to the imagination. At some point I found myself glad that the graphics were as simple as they are. Just wanted to say that first as I guess a lot of people don't pick this up because of the graphics. Except for that I just want to say that the games are the best Lovecraftian media I've found, except for the written texts and the game Darkwood. If you are a fan you'll probably enjoy the game. It's its own thing but heavily inspired by Lovecraft. Great gameplay too. I just wish they hadn't added in game achievement pop ups in season two.
I've owned it for a few months but the graphics kept me from picking this up. When finally starting it turned out the graphics weren't a problem at all. The atmosphere is great and I think that the low res graphics leaves more to the imagination. At some point I found myself glad that the graphics were as simple as they are. Just wanted to say that first as I guess a lot of people don't pick this up because of the graphics. Except for that I just want to say that the games are the best Lovecraftian media I've found, except for the written texts and the game Darkwood. If you are a fan you'll probably enjoy the game. It's its own thing but heavily inspired by Lovecraft. Great gameplay too.
I liked the puzzles, story, setting, music and environments. Length is good. Not too long, not too short. The things that stand out is the world itself. It's nice to see such a different take on a science fiction story. Rather than high tech it's semi-crumbled and for good reasons. Puzzles are great too. For me the biggest flaw was the personality system. It's mostly (entirely?) based on dialogue options. I wouldn't mind, except that it's so obvious which option is connected to a certain trait. For intelligence, use the smart line. For charisma, use the leader line. For strength or whatever the third one was, use the cool reply. It feels like the character is 3 entirely different persons at once and it breaks the immersion and flattens the main character. I think they could have done it better. Like lets say you enter a crime scene, find someone hurt and you call the ambulance before you pick up a certain item - maybe it could give a + on kindness or whatever. Just choosing between three different dialogue options feels a bit like it does more harm than good. It gives some variability at the expense of other things. Almost a 4.
It felt like they went way over the top trying to include all various mythological creatures. It gets increasingly difficult to suspend the disbelief as the list of creatures increase. I'd have preferred them to focus on one certain type of super natural beings (like demons, anyway central to the plot) and make an as good job as possible with that, going a bit deeper. Now instead, within the first hour you'll encounter interdimensional plant people, demons, fire elementals, djinns, fire mages, a living house, ghosts and dryads. The game is fun though. Level design is great. Good puzzles. High replay value for anyone wanting to try how different areas are solved with different party members etc. I just wish the plot had been better.
Great co-op game but trying to play the second part on my own was completely different. Didn't even bother. It's a game that should be played together with someone. Except for that, I recommend reading the stories recorded by Knud Rasmussen as he traveled around Greenland back in the early 1900's. It's a world of it's own, different from any other mythology I've encountered.
