As possibly one of the oldest non-Valve games in my Steam library, Machinarium lingered on my list of shame for over a decade at this point. Machinarium (Steam store link) released in 2009, and I believe I scooped it up in the second Humble Indie Bundle in 2010.
While I grew up playing point-and-click puzzle games (shout out to Pajama Sam, Spy Fox, and Humongous Entertainment as a whole), as I got older I skipped over the static point-and-click experience for fluid, action-packed games. Plus, puzzle games for adults can be notoriously opaque and not as silly as finding a sock hanging in a tree or whatever Pajama Sam was looking for back in the mid ’90s.
But, with the arrival of the Steam Deck and finding myself away from my PC and consoles more frequently these past few months, I decided it was finally time to dig into Machinarium after years of begrudgingly scrolling past it in my Steam library.
Even though it’s not a super exciting experience, I enjoyed my time with Machinarium more than I thought I would. The game ran great on the Steam Deck…which wasn’t a real concern since the game is basically a series of 2D scenes with a few moving parts in each scene. A joystick takes the place of the mouse, and you’ll only need a button or two to control the rest.
The puzzles were challenging enough throughout the game to keep me focused without feeling frustrated. Though, at the end of the game there was one puzzle I had to look up the solution for. But it was more of a traditional puzzle than a point-and-click, use-the-right-item puzzle. I enjoy the latter, far far more than the former, for what it’s worth.
Without spoiling anything, the frustrating puzzle involved moving different sets of balls in a grid to get one of the sets to a specific position. Think of it like parking cars in a parking lot where there’s hardly enough space to maneuver them all in. I spent about an hour fiddling with the puzzle pieces while glancing up watching Netflix before I gave in and Googled a solution.
Everything else in the game I was able to figure out with good, old fashioned brain power.
Point-and-click games usually lean heavily onto their story, since it’s one of the few elements that work well with the genre. But Machinarium’s story is told through vague, pantomime-like methods. It saved the developers on some translation costs, I’m sure, but the end result is a shallow story with about as much depth as a caveman cave painting.
The end result was the story ending the way it did (no spoilers! don’t worry), and my reaction was simply, “Well, OK.”
I don’t regret spending the few hours I did with Machinarium. I am certainly glad I was able to finally cross it off my list of shame, but am I going to recommend it as a must-play game? Nah. If you’re a fan of point-and-click games and somehow missed Machinarium I think it’s worth the play through. But if you’re not a fan of the genre, you won’t find much in Machinarium that will be for you.
This game was reviewed using a retail copy of the game, purchased by the reviewer.
