Machinarium is a steampunk-style adventure puzzle game. The goal of the game is to solve several puzzles that are connected into a whole. A unique feature of the game is that the player's character can only interact with one object that is within reach at a time. Also, there are no dialogues in this game, so it doesn't matter what language the player speaks. Instead of text, the character's thoughts are shown in the form of animated images.
The game also has a two-tier hint system. Once per level, the player can receive a hint, which turns into a special treasure in the course of the game. Machinarium also allows you to see the result of collecting the puzzle as sketches.
At the beginning of the game, the player observes the city of Machinarium. The player's character is a robot named Joseph (named after Joseph Čapek - brother of the Czech writer Karel Čapek, who coined the word 'robot'), who was thrown away for scrap. He repairs himself and embarks on a journey through the city. During the story, he uncovers a conspiracy by the Brotherhood of the Black Cloak, who intend to blow up the city tower. But then he gets caught and locked up.