Botanicula

I can't call myself an Amanita design games fan. I always loved their style, always had the music from their games in my playlist, but the games themselves... Not really fond of them. First outings by the studio were full of random clicking on stuff and seeing what happens and it worked fine, as they were free. When they decided to sell Samorost 2 i was honestly surprised as paying for that kind of gameplay didn't feel like a good idea (although, i'm guilty of loving Monty Python & the Quest for the Holy Grail and it's weird moronic humor, i admit). Their second commercial release, Machinarium, didn't impress me much either. Apart from the usual beauty invisuals and sound, it was a very flawed "standard" adventure game that suffered from the old adventure games design decisions Amanita should've simply avoided. Botanicula is the best of both concepts combined. It has it's own share of randomness, most of which is completely optional. And it has some concepts usual for the "standard" adventure games. And, while having some slight flaws of those designs in several moments of the game, most of the time it simply works perfectly. And it creates a very special feel throught the game - one that does challange you from time to time, but almost never breaks the flow of the story and pacing. And what is much, so much more important, it makes you smile almost constantly. It's very hard to make the game playful and silly in a such way, that the player joins it in having fun and doesn't get frustrated or feel the that the fun is fake. Botanicula somehow understands that magic and, through art and sound as Amanita always did right, with gameplay not getting in the way this time but helping the magic, it makes you fall in love with it.

This game is very pretty. The scene transitions feel smooth, the characters and environments are rendered well, and the animations are lovely. The music is good too, and the whole thing feels well-produced. However, as you can see from my rating, I'm fairly disappointed with the game as a whole. The puzzles often have solutions which just don't make sense, and the vast majority of them simply require you to pull on every knob and button until something happens. The only puzzle that has actually been difficult so far turned out to require me to move the mouse in a certain way. (I'm very nearly at the end, so I've seen most of the game.) It was hard because, for some reason, the required movement was only recognized in the "60%" screen size option, and when set to "100%" it didn't work. I enjoyed this game, but only because the narrative is engaging (if simple) and it is very well produced. That can carry it through for the relatively short time it takes to play, but I would lose interest if it were any longer.

Botanicula is not a classic poin't and click adventure. Amanita defined a new kind of Point and Click. This game does not need long dialogs to tell you a fantastic story. It does not need fancy 3D Shaders to give you an awesome graphic experience. You don't control the characters by them selves, instead you help the characters by messing with the environment - similar to a god-game. But the most outstanding part of the game is the atmosphere. The game submits every intended feeling with great animations and an outstanding soundtrack.

Playing Botanicula felt like falling into a childhood dream, the kind where you wake up and feel like you might have really touched another world. It's not a challenging puzzle-driven game (although there are some puzzles), instead it's all about exploring a strange, adorable little world and poking at things - often with random and surprising results. I found it a bizarre and relaxing diversion from reality.