In many ways, this approach does a service cheap voice actors could have ruined the whole experience, and indeed, any dialogue, no matter how well delivered or written, could have dealt serious damage to the whole aesthetic experience. Even hints and tutorials are portrayed using sequential images. Dialogue is presented as brief sketched animations that play out in thought bubbles. Aside from menus and the title screen, there are no words in the game. While this is certainly one of the elements that makes Machinarium so unique, it's also one of my most contentious issues with the game. Specifically, you'll notice the complete lack of dialogue or written instruction. The next thing you'll notice about Machinarium is its method of storytelling. I've never been a big game music enthusiast but this is one game soundtrack I could, and will, listen to on its own without ever growing bored. It would have been so easy to match a soundtrack of sterile bleeps and bloops to a game about robots, but composer Tomas Dvorak deserves big propers for lovingly crafting such warm, soulful tunes to do justice to the game's overall aesthetic. In these moments, the funkier, jazzier tracks sound more like experimental dance beats rhythmic, motivating and unwaveringly enthusiastic. Occasionally, the music of the game will be brought to the forefront in the form of radios and a street band. The music of Machinarium isn't just music, it's the sounds of the city itself coming to life. The individual sounds that make up each song - the chimes, taps, whistles, zips, hums, twangs, and groaning bass rhythms - sound completely authentic to the world. Its more musical aspects are hypnotizing, lulling you into an almost meditative state of concentration. The ambient tunes easily fade into the background, allowing you to focus on whatever adventure game logic puzzler you're currently tackling. The sound design in general will blow you away and the soundtrack itself is arguably the best I've ever heard in the medium. Machinarium isn't only visually beautiful-oh no-but aurally, as well.

It's the kind of sadness you could call, 'happiness for deep people.' Rather, it's the kind of sadness you feel wandering through an old house, taking in its history, age and mystery. The feeling of sadness that you feel exploring this world doesn't stem from a place of tragedy. Yet there's an innocence as you wander its sparsely populated streets and squares, watching its machine inhabitants go about their daily lives and helping them with their troubles. The sky is a burnt umber, covered in smoke the earth is a black, blasted wasteland and the city itself is rusted and crumbling. The world and its machine inhabitants all look old and broken-down. With its hand-drawn environments and sprites, it evokes the highest caliber of children's storybooks it's just quirky enough to be cute and just surreal enough to be slightly unsettling, yet thoroughly enchanting. Call me a sucker but take one look at the game and you can see why: Machinarium is beautiful.

From that first instant, I was enchanted.

Machinarium mouse problem