Amanita Design’s Machinarium was a fairly big hit. The quirky little title that had no spoken or written dialogue, a lovingly crafted world, and a cute, memorable main character was well received by the public and critics alike, and Josef, the main character, even appeared in Super Meat Boy. So naturally, for their next game, the developers decided to go with five cute and memorable protagonists who traverse a lovingly crafted world without encountering any dialogue. Will revisiting the strengths of their last game be enough to give Amanita Design another hit? Let’s find out as we delve into Botanicula.

‘Organic’ is the best word to describe Amanita’s newest game, Botanicula, in which five plants must protect a magical seed from a life destroying spider-like monster. That’s not only because the game is set in a forest, stars five sentient plants, and has the growing of a seed as its main mission, but also because the game is bursting with life. From the colorful cast of plant-people you’ll encounter, to the tree that that the entire plot of the game revolves around, the game just feels alive. This is thanks in no small part to the game’s fantastic art and animation. Much like its spiritual predecessor, Machinarium, Botanicula has a distinctive art style that demands you look at it and keeps your attention once it has you. The entire world of the game is a wonderful mix of hand-drawn sets and characters that look like they are roaming a world of paper craft and set paintings. One of the more memorable moments for me was when I clicked on a giant gourd and watched as a turtle emerged from it and began to drag the gourd atop its back, despite the gourd looking like it was a fixed part of the background.

That’s to say nothing of the animations and the way they bring the characters to life. Without saying a word, I knew more about the characters than I did from many other exposition-filled games. Just by watching the characters, I learned that Mr. Lantern was the humble idealist who needed his friends’ help to make the journey, but he had an inner strength just waiting to be shown, Mr. Twig was the silent badass who was extremely resourceful but not very open, Mr. Poppy head was the gentle giant who was an accomplished musician and was willing to sacrifice himself for his friends, Mrs. Mushroom was the athletic one, and Mr. Feather was the scaredy cat who could be a bit of a jerk. Of course, the characterizations brought by the animations aren’t limited to only the main characters; in the game’s third area, I encountered an entire village of lively people that had everything from two religions, an active interest in volleyball, and a resident mad scientist who wanted to bring a friend back from the dead to play catch with. The art and animation are simply stunning in their ability to add to the story

Another stunning facet of the game is its music and sound design. Botanicula is in a class of its own in this department; from the ambient noises of birds chirping and leaves rustling to the charming musical numbers, everything was a delight to listen to. The game makes wonderful use of wind and wood instuments, as well as distorted voices and a few other instruments to give yet another unique layer to this impressive game.

In addition to being extremely unique, Botanicula also offers some solid and varied point ‘n’ click gameplay. Amanita was trying to create a game that could be enjoyed and completed by the entire strata of gamers and they succeeded. Instead of making you carry around a large inventory for the entire game, you are only responsible for a small inventory in each of the game’s five zones. To make things even more streamlined, you can access your inventory at any time by moving your cursor to the top of the screen, where you’ll find fetch quest items in the middle that can be dragged down when you’re in the right room and main quest items in the top right that need to be collected to leave the zone you are in. This keeps the game flowing and more focused on exploration and puzzles, not on tedious inventory management.

Speaking of the puzzles, they are fairly easy but greatly varied. In addition to finding objects for the various denizens of the tree you are exploring, you’ll be solving all kinds of conundrums, such as getting past an obstacle, beating the computer in a game of volley ball or RC bugs (no, seriously), or even altering the world by moving a piece of the environment. For example, in one segment, a key was held up in air far above where the five heroes were but Mr. Feather was unable to reach it due to puffs of air. After a few minutes of flailing about, I realized that by running my mouse over a red ball, I could push it towards holes which would fire it towards the key, knocking it towards the main characters. The main characters also have their own unique talents, but the game only makes their different skills important in set scenes that let you choose which character will try to accomplish a task, otherwise, the game will automatically use the proper character, such as a puzzle later in the game where you need to play horns to create the illusion of a duck so it will come to life (no, really) and the game will make Mr. Poppy Head, the musically schooled character, take on the task of playing the instruments. This keeps the games both varied and interesting; there is never a moment of “that one puzzle” as the puzzles are all different, but build up your skills manipulating the world so that none of the puzzles are confusing or too difficult.