Samorost 3 (2016)
Samorost 3, feverishly awaited by Amanita fans – myself included – finally came out a few days ago. Its intoxicating game world, populated by strangely endearing characters, shines in terms of audiovisual design. In Samorost, the mysterious sides of the forest blend with the emptiness of space, and it feels as if you were waking up inside a dream. Magic mushrooms and opium, yet somehow completely innocent.
When the first part of the Samorost series was released in 2003, a legend was born. It is a short, free browser game that Amanita’s founder, Czech designer Jakub Dvorský, created as his art-school graduation project. A couple of years later the second part was released, already reaching for the feel of a longer adventure game. Since then Amanita has released two full-length adventures, Machinarium and Botanicula, and especially Machinarium is visually very different from the Samorost games. Amanita Design’s website also features other content, such as a couple of music animations and a quiz game made for the BBC.
At the beginning of Samorost 3, a wind instrument falls down from the sky. Our little gnome in a pointy cap sets out to discover where the instrument actually came from. What follows is a musical journey from one celestial body to another. The game’s logic follows its own paths, but I did not feel it was difficult to grasp.
The promises of Samorost 3’s release and the first mysterious trailer gave me an almost feverish hunger, and the final game did not disappoint. The fascinating Samorost world became even more captivating, and Samorost 3 offers a wealth of fantastically rich audiovisual vistas – but not so many that it would feel excessive. The animations and music-related puzzles are delightful. I never felt like rushing through the game; there was so much to admire, and I often wanted to replay animations purely for the joy of it. It took me around six hours to complete.
Samorost 3 is indie gaming at its best. The graphics, soundscape, animation, puzzles and story form a perfectly balanced whole. For a point-and-click adventure, inventory use is fairly minimal – apart from the ever-present wind instrument, only a handful of items pass through your inventory. All the puzzles are designed according to the logic of the fantasy world. As an adventure game, my favourite title from Amanita is still Machinarium, but in Samorost the audiovisual experience and the mysterious world have always been the main attraction.
The game’s music is composed by Floex. It mostly acts as ambient music that supports the graphics and the flow of the game, stepping into the foreground every now and then. I have, however, preferred the music of Samorost 2; in the third game the soundtrack is more diverse, but at the same time it feels a bit more fragmented.
Verdict
The childlike nature of the characters is like a refreshing stream amid all the dark and violent games out there. Yet I would not call Amanita’s games children’s games – that would, in my view, be wrong.
I make no attempt to hide my affection for Amanita Design’s work, and I give Samorost 3 an overall score of 90 points out of 100.
Availability
Samorost 3 is available for Windows and Mac OS X computers. Amanita’s other games have, in time, been released on several more platforms, so the same will probably happen with this one as well. Amanita has made a major change to its pricing, and in my opinion it is the right decision. I do not, however, think that Samorost 3 will be immune to later discount campaigns either.