Machinarium 2 Finally Announced by Amanita Design, 17 Years After the Original
Seventeen years after Machinarium first sent a little robot wandering through a rusted, hand-painted city, Czech studio Amanita Design has confirmed that a sequel is actually happening. Machinarium 2 was revealed this week with a short trailer and a live Steam page where players can already add it to their wishlist, though no release date has been set.
A Long-Awaited Follow-Up From a Studio That Takes Its Time
Amanita Design built its reputation on slow, deliberate releases rather than annual sequels. Since the original Machinarium launched in 2009, the studio has put out Samorost sequels, Botanicula, the short and strange Chuchel, the puzzle platformer Creaks, and Phonopolis earlier this year, but it never returned to the robot city that made the studio’s name. A long gap between games is nothing new for the team either, the third Samorost entry arrived a full eleven years after the second, so a 17 year wait for a direct Machinarium sequel fits the studio’s pattern more than it breaks it.
Josef and Berta Crash Land in a Valley of Two Robot Tribes
The story picks up right after the first game. Josef and his companion Berta escape the city of Machinarium together, but their journey ends with a crash landing out in the barrens. There they stumble onto a hidden valley shared by two very different robot tribes, one living in the elevated monastery of Elektrona, the other down in the city of Oilton. Both tribes are slowly running out of power, and that shared crisis looks set to drive the new adventure.
Machinarium 2, official Steam screenshot.
Two Robots, One Set of Wordless Puzzles
Gameplay keeps the series’ signature approach intact. Players control Josef and Berta and can switch between them at any moment, leaning on each robot’s own abilities to work through the valley’s puzzles together. True to Amanita’s style, the Steam page promises there is “not a single line of text to read,” with the two leads communicating purely through thought bubbles, symbols, and gestures instead. The hand-drawn art again takes cues from Renaissance landscape painting, and composer Tomas Dvorak, better known as Floex, is back to score it with symphonic arrangements, just as he did for the original fifteen years ago.
No Release Date Yet, But the Wishlist Is Open
Amanita Design hasn’t attached a release window to Machinarium 2 beyond confirming it for PC through Steam, with both Windows and macOS listed in the store page’s system requirements. Given how long fans waited just for this announcement, a quick turnaround seems unlikely, but the original Machinarium remains one of the most fondly remembered indie puzzle games of its generation, and that alone should be enough to keep its sequel on plenty of wishlists until Amanita is ready to share more.
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Picture Source: Amanita Design
