Xbox 360
It's amazing what you can get from a website nowadays isn't it? Back in olden times, when connection came with a dial tone and an mp3 took around 15 minutes to download, intraweb pages were a mere collection of boring fonts and thumbnail pictures. Thankfully technology has caught up slightly with the endless imagination of humanity and we can be treated to such gaming delights as Machinarium, a point and click adventure with a fully playable demo available to you via their website.
We know what you're all thinking though. “Point and Click? Boring! Why should I be playing this when I can be shooting all kinds of peoples in the face in Modern Warfare 2?” Well, cool your jets for a minute Mr Violence, and discover a different, more serene gaming experience.
Machinarium puts the player in control of a ramshackle robot, whose first task is regaining his lost limbs. It's a great introductory level which gets you used to the layout of the menu and inventory systems. There is the option to get a hint on how to solve your current problem, but most of the demo puzzles are simple enough to be defeated without having to resort to this tactic. Once your limbs are back in your possession, your automaton buddy waddles off to a giant city, for reasons unknown to us at this early stage.
If this all sounds rather boring, it isn't. The plot in this game is minimal at best, but rather than make us want to give up and do something else we found ourselves drawn further into the game, even more eager to discover more about our mechanical little friend.
However, the main draw of Machinarium is its simply stunning artistry, which lifts it way above any other flash-based romp. The beautifully detailed backdrops are a joy to take in and, like Amanita Design's Samorosrt series, contain hidden clickable objects that may not necessarily help progress gameplay, but instead add to the overall charm of the set-piece. The music is as sparse and solitary as the threadbare plot, but washes of noise and industrial clatters fit perfectly with the steam-punk locations featured.
Never before has ten minutes of gameplay made us want to invest in a full version of a game with such immediacy as the Machinarium demo. From the second you start playing, you are drawn into a cute and otherworldly fantasy that smacks of a far higher budget than this game has been endowed with and at £12.50 the full game is hardly a wallet-buster either. As an added bonus the soundtrack also included for your listening pleasure!
So for all of you people looking to take a small breather from booms and bangs and other such noises, turn off your console, get a cup of hot chocolate and relax for a while with the Machinarium demo, the most involving and charming 30 minutes of gameplay around.