Samorost 3 is an achievement, probably both Amanita and Jakub Dvorsky's best work to date. It's a gorgeous, cryptic experience structured like a classical odyssey, journeying across a small solar system filled with oddities to discover the origin of a magical flute that lands on your front lawn. As always, it is composed of a dazzling photocollage artstyle (made even more stunning by the huge jump in definition from the Flash originals), all overlaid with beautiful hand-drawn vector animation to represent the spirit world your Gnome can now speak to with his new instrument.
Samorost as a series has always excelled aesthetically and been widely recognized for it, but 3 is filled to the brim with inspired audiovisual fantasy concepts. Who could forget the Pop It turtle? Or crossbreeding a mandragora to use as an explosive? Or the slumbering robotic knight of legend, awoken by a magical bead? Or the hermit aboard the deadwood moon that denies you a puff of the forbidden hashish? Everything about Samorost 3 feels like part of a cohesive, plausible mythos of a forgotten civilization.
Even the gamey bits are inspired. Your magic horn doubles as instrument and earpiece, and you learn to play the tunes of the natural world around you to communicate with the foreign wildlife. The game's wordlessness fosters a sense of non-urgent yet deliberate exploration. While there are the typical blockades - fetch quests and trades so typical of games as a whole - the method of retrieval is mercifully never simple, even once! You must find secret passages, discover means of communication, and learn to operate obscure contraptions. It's never as simple as running around stuffing your pockets.
My final blessing for Samorost 3 revolves around the work contributed by Tomas Dvorak, longtime Amanita composer and audio lead. While more understated than his presumably most famous work from Machinarium, the audio design here feels more sophisticated, layered and intentional, making the fantastical sights feel even grander and stranger. It is surprisingly life-affirming to watch and hear your fungal spaceship refill with oxygen like a thick balloon upon landing. The climax for me is the quartet of horns played by in-game characters at the very end of the game in a quasi-meditative jam session, a mesmerizing conclusion to a one-of-a-kind game.
Samorost as a series has always excelled aesthetically and been widely recognized for it, but 3 is filled to the brim with inspired audiovisual fantasy concepts. Who could forget the Pop It turtle? Or crossbreeding a mandragora to use as an explosive? Or the slumbering robotic knight of legend, awoken by a magical bead? Or the hermit aboard the deadwood moon that denies you a puff of the forbidden hashish? Everything about Samorost 3 feels like part of a cohesive, plausible mythos of a forgotten civilization.
Even the gamey bits are inspired. Your magic horn doubles as instrument and earpiece, and you learn to play the tunes of the natural world around you to communicate with the foreign wildlife. The game's wordlessness fosters a sense of non-urgent yet deliberate exploration. While there are the typical blockades - fetch quests and trades so typical of games as a whole - the method of retrieval is mercifully never simple, even once! You must find secret passages, discover means of communication, and learn to operate obscure contraptions. It's never as simple as running around stuffing your pockets.
My final blessing for Samorost 3 revolves around the work contributed by Tomas Dvorak, longtime Amanita composer and audio lead. While more understated than his presumably most famous work from Machinarium, the audio design here feels more sophisticated, layered and intentional, making the fantastical sights feel even grander and stranger. It is surprisingly life-affirming to watch and hear your fungal spaceship refill with oxygen like a thick balloon upon landing. The climax for me is the quartet of horns played by in-game characters at the very end of the game in a quasi-meditative jam session, a mesmerizing conclusion to a one-of-a-kind game.