As a big fan of The Incredible Machine series, especially TIM2 with all of its improvements, this seems to be a good installment. It may not have the charm nor the right design choices like the previous games, but the overall mechanics of its Rube Goldberg device-like puzzle solving is still intact! The fact that there is Steam integration makes this many, many times better in terms of sharing fan-made puzzles. There is a good collection to try out, even to complete situational achievements that The Proclaimers will approve of!

But let’s focus a little more on the official puzzles released with the game! After you complete the tutorial puzzles – BTW, it only covers a small amount of the many parts this game has and doesn’t offer enough information on the overall mechanics of the game itself – most of the puzzles, even within medium and hard puzzles, range from pretty easy for a “medium puzzle” to outrageously situational where one pixel change in placement makes a huge difference. You’ll be assigned a certain amount of parts you’ll need to improvise with in order to complete your objective! When you complete the puzzle, you also have the option to see what the official solution is, where one’s reaction can range from “Huh…That makes sense!” to scratching your head in confusion as to why there is such a solution in the first place…

Meanwhile, half the music is really good, while the other half makes you wish TIM2’s more memorable Sound Blaster version of their music was there. And while there is good detail in the art, there isn’t enough personality or some kind of “OOMPH” from such designs. Maybe the not-so-good CGI in some of the art threw me off…

Amid the good things about the game, I would like to highlight the one problem other reviewers mentioned outside of the poor design choices and maybe very few stability problems in one or two puzzles: The UI is terrible!!! For example, there is no way for your mouse cursor to visually or audibly differentiate between the teeter totter and the rope you attached to it, making it think you will move the teeter totter than the rope itself. Also, when you place a part that is next to or partially off the screen, the controls that allow you to rotate the part, set its timer, etc. is off screen, prevent you to make such settings unless you move the part in view, make your change and put the part back. That takes extra time and throws off any minute placements you desperately need in-game. Even when it offers you the option to pan the screen for you to access it, it would be much better if there is a quicker “peek” option when you move your cursor closer to the edge of the screen in case this happens. And who would have thought you want to exit out of the game while you are creating a puzzle without realizing what that button is? >_<


Overall, despite its flaws, variable difficulty and lost opportunities, if you’re into puzzles this is still good. There will be plenty of other puzzles to solve when the official puzzles are taken care of and those with more creativity in their minds can have a great time making their own puzzles that will easily be shared here. Now we’ll see if The Incredible Machine 2 makes a successful port to Steam! XD

As a big fan of The Incredible Machine series, especially TIM2 with all of its improvements, this seems to be a good installment. It may not have the charm nor the right design choices like the previous games, but the overall mechanics of its Rube Goldberg device-like puzzle solving is still intact! The fact that there is Steam integration makes this many, many times better in terms of sharing fan-made puzzles. There is a good collection to try out, even to complete situational achievements that The Proclaimers will approve of! But let’s focus a little more on the official puzzles released with the game! After you complete the tutorial puzzles – BTW, it only covers a small amount of the many parts this game has and doesn’t offer enough information on the overall mechanics of the game itself – most of the puzzles, even within medium and hard puzzles, range from pretty easy for a “medium puzzle” to outrageously situational where one pixel change in placement makes a huge difference. You’ll be assigned a certain amount of parts you’ll need to improvise with in order to complete your objective! When you complete the puzzle, you also have the option to see what the official solution is, where one’s reaction can range from “Huh…That makes sense!” to scratching your head in confusion as to why there is such a solution in the first place… Meanwhile, half the music is really good, while the other half makes you wish TIM2’s more memorable Sound Blaster version of their music was there. And while there is good detail in the art, there isn’t enough personality or some kind of “OOMPH” from such designs. Maybe the not-so-good CGI in some of the art threw me off… Amid the good things about the game, I would like to highlight the one problem other reviewers mentioned outside of the poor design choices and maybe very few stability problems in one or two puzzles: [b]The UI is terrible!!![/b] For example, there is no way for your mouse cursor to visually or audibly differentiate between the teeter totter and the rope you attached to it, making it think you will move the teeter totter than the rope itself. Also, when you place a part that is next to or partially off the screen, the controls that allow you to rotate the part, set its timer, etc. is off screen, prevent you to make such settings unless you move the part in view, make your change and put the part back. That takes extra time and throws off any minute placements you desperately need in-game. Even when it offers you the option to pan the screen for you to access it, it would be much better if there is a quicker “peek” option when you move your cursor closer to the edge of the screen in case this happens. And who would have thought you want to exit out of the game while you are creating a puzzle without realizing what that button is? >_< Overall, despite its flaws, variable difficulty and lost opportunities, if you’re into puzzles this is still good. There will be plenty of other puzzles to solve when the official puzzles are taken care of and those with more creativity in their minds can have a great time making their own puzzles that will easily be shared here. Now we’ll see if The Incredible Machine 2 makes a successful port to Steam! XD