User summary
Machinarium is a 2009 point-and-click Flash adventure game for Windows, Mac, and Linux by the same people who made Samorost, Amanita Design. You play from the third-person perspective of a small robot in a world much larger than himself. You'll guide this protagonist through a story of crime, love... and revenge! Despite mediocre gameplay, it is a refreshing take on the adventure game genre set in a unique and fantastical mechanical world accompanied by a nearly perfect musical score. Its aesthetic has been highly lauded by many reviewers.
The gameplay is straightforward, like a cross between classic Lucas Arts/Sierra-style point-and-click adventure games like The Secret of Monkey Island with more recent browser-based Flash adventures like Samorost. Although you do have an inventory, there are relatively few items in the game. And interacting with the world is done with just a click, with no menu of verbs to choose from. So most of the time you're walking around, clicking on things to do some sort of action, or applying an item from your inventory to something.