A few puzzles in the game make use of their unique abilities, but far too few. If anything in the gameplay sphere feels lacking, it comes back to the characters. You’ll undoubtedly be stumped from time to time, but it’s never frustrating and there’s always a way to work things out in the end. Even better, all puzzles are just the right difficulty. You’ll certainly have a smile on your face at the end.
#Machinarium vs botanicula full
There’s a Frankenstein-like monster to resurrect, a shaman to satisfy, a room full of clutter to scour and even a tennis game to win. To locate them all you need to scour everyone’s homes and steal, negotiate or win the chickens over. To power their flying machine they need thirteen chickens to run on hamster-wheel-like devices. Late in the game you enter a village that is attempting to escape the spider. Personally, I had a great time finding those chickens. It’s generally about interacting with whatever is in your immediate vicinity. Some items are picked up and added to your inventory for later use, but nowhere near as frequently as most games in the genre. There’s both great variety and very clever ideas here. There are puzzles that cover nearly everything you can imagine from making strange owl-like bugs sing, uncovering hidden keys and navigating maze-like environments, to shooting circus performers from cannons, engaging in a 2D arcade-style shooting section and finding weird, featherless chicken-things hidden amongst a village. Once you figure that out, the puzzles are relatively well thought out. Many areas have dozens of objects to interact with, making it difficult to determine which ones are useful and how exactly to use them. It’s an interesting mechanic, but it can leave you feeling confused. Some objects might need to be pulled, others twisted, and most just need to be clicked on a few times. On each screen it’s up to you as the player to mouse over all the objects and determine what you can and cannot interact with. Once the heroes enter a new screen they stay (in most cases) where they started unless you tell them to leave. Instead of your characters exploring the environment and interacting with things, you personally take control of the whole process with your mouse. The game itself is a fairly typical point and click affair with a slight twist. There are certainly moments of grandeur, particularly near the end, but this quality isn’t showcased throughout. Likewise, the musical score feels significantly underwhelming and never really grabs your attention. Sound effects are generally on the mark (most notably the sounds of buzzing insects), but they do feel a little dull at times. It’s unfortunate that the sound quality doesn’t match that of the graphics. The design of the main five characters is a little bland and they fail to stand out from the other insects, but when you spend most of your time admiring the environment, that matters little. Those of you who have played Machinarium or Samorost will feel right at home in the beautiful aesthetics presented here. The entire game takes place within a large tree (bar the finale), and the beautiful, stylistic design of the leaves, branches and creatures who inhabit it are magical. To somewhat make up for it, the world of Botanicula is outstanding. This was a real missed opportunity on Amanita Design’s part, and one that will surely disappoint. The five heroes don’t develop at all in the course of their adventure and you won’t feel any sort of empathy for them at all. It’s a cute little story, but character development is incredibly lacking. The five (unnamed) insect heroes set out together to defeat this monstrosity and save their home. To sum it up, an evil spider-like creature has attacked a massive tree, where all sorts of bizarre insects and animals live, and plans to slowly drain the life from it. The story is told through a brief prologue and then through various interactions throughout the 3-4 hour game. Like Machinarium, there is no dialogue at all in Botanicula. Botanicula has some unique and entertaining delights to offer, but falls far short of its predecessor overall. Botanicula is Amanita Design’s newest entry in the genre, following their last outstanding title, Machinarium. If only I’d been born in the eighties instead of the nineties, right? Anyway, I digress. There’s something about the genre that not only intrigues me, but always puts a smile on my face too. I’m always a little excited when I get a chance to play a new point and click adventure.
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