I haven't tried legend of grimrock, but Trine is surprusingly fun, even if you don't like plataforms game. The puzzles are fun to resolve, and the graphics are very beautiful.

Botanicula

It looks cute... It looks fun....
Actually this is the one title I'm mostly interested from the Indies so far on GOG.
The guys at Amanita done amazing job with Machinarium,but yet this game looks even better.
From the videos I've watched it is a point'n'click adventure type game with easy puzzels.

Yep...I'm short on words...for a game that is not yet released.I guess I'm a sucker for games like that,enjoy the teaser if you missed it
Teaser

Lots of great entries so far. Thanks everyone. I'll probably leave this contest open for about 24 hours.

Well, if you have not played Trine yet and do not plan on getting the Humble Frozenbyte Bundle (which includes a DRM-free copy of this game) this is the one I would recommend.

For me this was the game that convinced me indie does not mean "low production value" or "simple". Essentially the games is a physics-based puzzle platformer. In other ways you have to control physical objects and make them interact with each other to advance. Just like in "Incredible Machine" remember?

Well I would not recommend the game, if it was "just" that. Besides being a puzzle platformer the game also has elements of hack-and-slash RPG. This means you have to kill enemies, level up, distribute skill points, enhance your skills, find and equip items etc. And you have a "party" of heroes - a wizard, a knight and a thief (and a good-looking one at that!).

Now here comes the difference - while you are playing a platformer you are controlling only one character at a time. They are all "packaged" together so you do not need to worry about repetitiveness. What you do need to worry about is your own creativeness. Trine is a game where there are at least 2 ways to accomplish each puzzle. Normally you would rather have three. What does that mean? It means you can use "any" of the characters to advance. Just as well as you can choose any character to battle the monsters. Which one is better for what? You will find out yourself. What is even more important is that you will find out a lot of "oh that's actually really cool!" moments when you solve the puzzles (I certainly did). And since you essentially can do this in different ways the game has quite a lot of replayability value.

Now, you understand what the core is about. What about the wrappings? They are AWESOME! Frozenbyte claimed all level design in Trine was essentially done by their artists. And it shows. Oh yes, it shows. The levels are pretty... no they are PRETTY! Just look at the screenshots, find some gameplay video. You will certainly see what I mean. Lush, varied landscapes, lots and lots of details on backgrounds all blended together to create the magical atmosphere the likes of which you do not find in games all that often, actually.

Now you would not want to play the game without sound, would you? Well I would not advise you to. The voiceacting is really-really good. The storyline is "ok" (Frozenbyte actually claim it was conceived during a heavy-drinking night). But the presentation is splendid. Narrator sounds like a kind, old Gandalf telling hobbits about his past adventures with Bilbo and Frodo. The knight is a grumpy funny not-so-witty guy, wizard is a little goofy, but kind soul (remember Rincewind?), thief is a sneaky reserved girl, who nevertheless gets drawn into the things going on. All of them together have funny dialogs with some actually decent jokes and distinct personalities. The music. Well - please, just listen to it. You will absolutely adore it. Aari Pulkkinen is called "award winning" for a reason. His music fits the game perfectly. It is sort of nordic folk music one would expect the ancient finns play near their big fires praising their old finnish gods, eating their old finnish roasted boar and drinking their old finnish ale. It is charming, very professional and it will most probably come back to your mind once you think of Trine (just as it does to me even though I played it a long time ago last time).

The only problems is the lack of enemy variety (only skeletons here - different, with different weapons and abilities and of different sizes, but still - only skeletons) and lack of online co-op - only local is available.

Trine is like a fairytale come true to life! If you want to feel like a small child again, being told a magical and beautiful tale about old probably-never-existent-yet-so-believable-and-true events by a kind (grand)parent this game is for you.

P.S. And YES I wrote all of that RIGHT NOW on single try.

I would suggest Grimrock. Looks like a great throwback to a genre that isn't really made anymore, in fact I haven't played any blobbers and this looks like the perfect gateway drug, similar to Dungeons of Dredmor and roguelikes.

Do not buy Machinarium. It is indeed beautiful, but it commits some of the worst sins of the genre in terms of inane moon logic. You'd be much better served just watching an LP on Youtube.

I would say Grimrock in this case

Based on everything i've seen so far about it: I looks like it will be a fantastic game, especially if you like turn based RPG's

Grimrock is turn-based? Really? I don't know how I missed that. I love turn-based RPG's. OK, so Grimrock has a huge advantage right now, but I haven't considered all the posts on the other games yet so who knows?

I definitely suggest Legends of Grimrock.

The game looks great while (hopefully) retaining that retro dungeon crawler goodness and improving upon things where the older games fell short.

I hate to recommend something simply from the screenshots and videos and not actual experience, but there's not much more I can write since just about everything anyone would write would contain a lot of speculation or, at best, be based on observations from the beta. However, of the ones you listed, I'd personally take the gamble and go with it.

No, combat in Grimrock is real-time. The movement is tile-based, however, which is pretty unique nowadays.

It is too early to say anything for sure about Grimrock or Botanicus, but both look great. I've not been so excited over a game release in years as I've been with Grimrock. In fact the imminent Grimrock release has made it hard for me to focus on anything else...

Out of the ones that has actually been released, I'll tell you my experience with them, and hopefully it will help you decide.

-Darwinia
This is a bit of an odd one actually. It looks like a strategy game. It has been advertised as a bit of a strategy game. But in reality it is more of an action game with a small strategy element. Imagine Syndicate, but with expendable troops, and a small resource management element on the maps. A bit on the short & easy side, but a fun experience


-Machinarium
Machinarium is a beautiful game (which I'm sure you already know). It is a point & click adventure game, with a lot of charm & personality. I found many of the puzzles to be a bit simplistic, and at time it feels like you just click on things, but the game makes up for this shortcoming by just oozing of personality.

-The Whispered World
Another P&C adventure game. This one is more similar to the early-mid 90's adventure games, with a form of semi-logic to many of its puzzles. The game is very charming, but some people have said that they dislike the main character's voice to the point where they can't play the game. Watch a video on youtube and decide if you fall into that category, or if you are like me and don't mind the voice. This game is a fare bit lengthier than machinarium.

-Trine
Trine is an excellent platformer with a well thought out puzzle element. The puzzles are not actually hard, but they add some more variety to the game. The game has a nice storybook feel to it, with a story that is rather simple, but still charming. The levels are all varied and rewards exploration. The main drawback with Trine is its length, it is the shortest game out of the ones you listed

Go with Trine in your situation

If you haven't played it yet, it's a really cool game and check out the sequel when you are done with that

also: +1 for the giveaway

Out of the list of games that you want help picking from I have only played 2. Trine and Machinarium both of which I got through Humble Indie Bundles. As an RPG fan I should suggest Trine but I won't.

My suggestion is Legend of Grimrock. Reviews that I have read paint this game in a positive light and that gives me hope that this game is going to be good (especially after watching the trailer). When the game comes out you control your party of prisoners and try to survive while making your way through the dungeon. Classic RPG goodness in a modern shell.

I recommend The whispered World. If you like adventure games you will love it. I think it is one of the best adventure from the last years. Great art, music and story.

You play as Sadwick, a pessimist clown, who has to save the world. He has to travel through a fantastical world with his carpertilla pet Spot.
If remmeber corretly it took me about 15 hours to complete.

If you want a lighter aventure game I would recommend Machinarium, which has great art.

I'll make a case for Darwinia. It looks like a really cool real-time strategy game, while combining aspects of action games and puzzle games. I haven't played it yet, though I did get it on Steam when Introversion did their Humble Bundle.

While Grimlock and Botanicula look great plus I love tile based first person dungeon crawls and Total Bisciut did do a WTF is on it and he had high praise for it, plus it looked pretty damn impressive in action I can't recommend a game I haven't played yet.

So that just leaves Trine, Machinarium and Darwina which I break down here and cover some of their high points and low points as best as I can from memory since it's been awhile since I played them. Just in case you may find another one of these games more to your liking then what I suggest.

Now Darwina is a very fun and I loved the look and the action meets rts style of the game but it is a very short experience plus it can feel a bit repetitive as you mainly blast away at various forms of viruses and worms while collecting "digital souls" to help repopulate a simulated world but they do try and keep it interesting also what it lacked in length it made up for in solid gameplay but if your not really fond of light strategy and action orientated combat this may not be your cup of tea.

Machinarium is a gorgeous and very artistic/stylistic adventure game that has a wonderful and touching story that is told completely without a single word of spoken or written dialogue but instead is told through these interesting little thought bubbles, also the in game hints are actually unlocked by a clever little side scrolling shooter where you take a key and try to navigate it into the lock.

It's defiantly one of my favorite adventure games a bit on the short side about 6-8 hours but most adventure games are pretty short once you figure things out. Speaking of which I should also mention that the puzzles aren't really that mind boggling or require giant leaps of logic like say Kings Quest 1 and 2.

I should also mention that this game was coded in flash so I'm not sure if that makes a difference to you but I known and read of people who that is deal breaker for. Also on the downside the interface has some minor quirks if I recall.

Trine this while a very visually appealing platformer with bright colours, some really cleaver physics based puzzles and three characters to choose from each with their own strengths and weaknesses plus it has multiplayer if I recall. While it was fun it didn't really wow me too much it just felt like it was just a good solid platformer but didn't really stand out to me as anything special or remarkable. So this would be my less favorite of the three as it really feels a bit more of a pretty game but really not that amazing gameplay wise not terrible just as I said nothing really special.

So which one do I recommend? While as you notice I like and would recomend all three but personally I would go with Machinarium since your looking for just one title and it was just a really the more satisfying game and feels the strongest and most well done of the three ones I would consider recommending based on personal experience with these games.