Empathy: Path of Whispers

Empathy is a first person adventure game where you attempt to “fix” the world that has been ravaged by a virus. You roam a surreal world that has been abandoned and find items that provide glimpses into the memories (momentos) of its former inhabitants.
Pros:
Great graphics
A mystery unfold as you play the game
Well optimized
The developers are actively updating and answering questions
A few puzzles
Voice acting is good
Cons:
A few overlapping textures (most notifiable in the cliff side settlement)
The narrator talks a little to much
A fair amount of walking back and forth
My initial impression, at the start of the game, was the buildings seem to be floating in the clouds. It reminded me of Columbia (Bioshock Infinite), except not quite as dreary and no one was shooting at me. In fact, there are no people in this game, just the items they left behind for you to discover. Most of this game involves exploring each area collecting items, momentos, and documents, then piecing everything together to form another part of the story. Then you're off to find the next group. Basically, this game is a walking simulator with a few puzzles thrown in for good measure.
All of the issues I had with this game where very minor. For example, the narrator will chime in on something, which is okay except if you're trying to activate a momento, you'll have to wait until he's finished speaking before activating the next one, and sometimes there are three or four momentos in the same area.
One of the best things about this game is that the developers are actively involved with the game, answering questions, fixing bugs, and updating... unlike Ether One where the developers abandoned their game and left us with a broken mess.
At the time of this review, Empathy was selling for $19.99. That price is just about right. My first play through took me about 8 to 10 hours plus another 5 hours to obtain all of the achievements, so it's worth it.

This game is very similar to Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. If you have played that game and liked it, you will probably like this one. Basically a walking simulator with a small amount of interaction with objects in it. The scenery is different and strange, the music and background sounds seem approppriate. If you want action and romance, give it a pass. If you want to pass the time in an interesting environment, give it a try.

Empathy: Path of Whispers was a game that came across the ethereal surface of my existential desk quite by chance. Although I had never heard of the game previous to receiving a copy from the generous souls at Iceberg Interactive, I do love a good walking simulator, and so was quite stoked when presented with the opportunity to play and review this game. The product page description on Steam reads as follows:
Empathy: Path of Whispers is an atmospheric and story-driven adventure game where you explore a seemingly abandoned world through the emotions and memories of the people who once inhabited it, trying to restore the world’s lost balance by journeying through its past.
What I found was an engaging and quite lengthy adventure (at least lengthy for a walking simulator) which took me through quite a different take on a post apocalyptic world. It took me right at about 9 hours to complete with a fair amount of wandering. So, with that said, let’s dive into the meat of this review.
Story
The story in Empathy: Path of Whispers is one that develops as you progress. You play as a child, awake and alone in a world where all other people are gone. The world itself is an idyllic and yet completely bizarre place. The narrator, who is heard but never seen, guides you on a path to attempt to restore the world and humanity to its pre-apocalyptic state.
Throughout Empathy: Path of Whispers, you will encounter sub-plots via notes and memories that reveal much of the fear and angst surrounding the inception of the apocalypse and humanity’s attempt to avoid its inevitable demise. Each distinct area in the game has its own primary story woven immaculately into the fold of the overall plot.
During your travels, you really really get to know some of the people whose memories you are afforded the opportunity to share, and the writing in this game does an amazing job of really bringing you close to a lot of people who are not even alive any longer and who you only come to know via their thoughts and impressions of the world as it was coming to an end.
Additionally, the actual premise behind the demise of humanity was nothing short of brilliant. This was an amazingly well thought out and presented glimpse into a fresh and new variation of the world we know as it is dying or coming to an inglorious end. Evocative through the end, Empathy: Path of Whispers will capture your imagination and not let go.
10 out of 10
Gameplay
Gameplay in Empathy: Path of Whispers has all the standards of a walking simulator: Exploration, interaction, and plenty of reading. However, thanks to a device you are given (a scanner) at the beginning of the game, you can find the impressions of a world left behind and attune your device to these impressions, revealing actual objects, memoirs, etc…and these will be used to progress the story and unlock the next areas of the game. This was a pretty imaginative and ingenious way to get the player fully invested in the game and allows a level of interaction previously unseen in this genre of gaming.
There is quite a bit of backtracking as one set of memories unlocks other sets. However, there isn’t any backtracking from one game area to the next. Once you have moved on from a game area, you won’t be going back. As such, it behooves you to really be thorough in your exploration, especially if you are an achievement hunter. After 9 hours, I still missed a small amount of notes and memories needed for the 100%
I experienced no actual issues while playing this game at all. It handled perfectly.
9.5 out of 10
Graphics
Empathy: Path of Whispers utilizes the Unreal Engine, which is pretty common for this genre of gaming. As such, if you have played any walking simulators previously, you will have a good idea as to what you can expect graphically. However, when you look at the creative direction in this game compared to its contemporaries, you really get an appreciation for the level of detail put into this game and the definite desire to create a world that people have’t experienced before, and this was a complete success in my opinion. This is a beautiful game with plenty of jaw dropping vistas and a unique presentation that will again capture your imagination and never let go.
9.5 out of 10
Audio
There are some nice background sounds and music in Empathy: Path of Whispers. Things sound the way they should and the way they are incorporated into the game really elevates the atmosphere of the world as you wander about.
However, it is the voice acting that I found truly compelling. as you listen to the memories of now dead people and hear the things they were going through, not only as they tried to find normalcy in a world gone wrong, but also as their fear was mounting and different factions were forming. The variety of actors and attitudes used to define each of the many characters in the game was pretty phenomenal.
Special mention goes to the narrator, who really was able to find a nice balance between seriousness and a sardonic humor that was perfect for the story being presented.
9 out of 10
Verdict
Empathy: Path of Whispers immediately enters the top tier of walking simulators I have had the pleasure of playing through. The story might be the most interesting one I have encountered in the genre, the set pieces were completely unique and awesome, and the presentation of this post apocalyptic world was fresh and new. An innovative addition to the gameplay typical of this genre really just elevated this games status even further. After all that, the game still managed to lighten the mood a little through witty dialogue courtesy of the narrator as well as a comical ending post credits.
9.5 survivors desperately trying to end the apocalypse while the remains of humanity does their very best to destroy and stop them from shutting down the vehicle for our destruction. Out of 10 possible. The remaining .5 simply disappeared.
If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, it would be appreciated. Cheers.

This game is amazing. It's a narrative walking simulator with some puzzle elements like many others however this one stands out from the rest, the game favours players who like to explore and get the most out of the game instead of following a small linear path as you are set free in an area to explore and find secrets to help unravel the story.
Graphics are hit and miss, some areas look really good and some don't. The game ran very smooth throughout on 4k ultra. Voice acting was excellent, same with the soundtrack although it did pop in and out randomly as you walk in and out of rooms.
The puzzles were very easy for the most part but the occasional 2 or 3 in each area were extremely hard. I was stuck looking for one object in the first area for about 20 minutes which might have just been stupidity on my part.
I completed the game in 4.5 hours having explored every corner of the game, making sure I got every note and hidden secret I could find.
I would recommend this game to anyone looking for an experience like Dear Esther or What Remains Of Edith Finch but with more interaction.

I really liked this game! It was one of the most enjoyable exploration, walking sim games I have played in a while. The game world was gorgeous and I thought the voice acting was wonderful.
This game has 5 acts in different settings so I didn't get bored running around the same scenes. Yes, there is backtracking, but it is a function of the game to convey the story. You wander the level the first time to get your bearings and pick up clues and then as you progress different things open in places you visited before - but in exchange you get another piece of the story.
It took me a while to figure out what was going on storywise, but then I just relaxed and listened and it all started to fit together. I quite enjoyed the mystery and I stopped for the messages to make sure I paid attention and to absorb the scenes and that broke up the the constant moving for me.
I really liked the auto save on this. I haven't seen auto save work so frequently. Nice feature! I also liked the scanner that helps you locate objects, though I only used when I had to. I preferred to wander and find as much as I could without it. There is a wave matching part of the scanner that activates items (you will use it a LOT) but it seemed to me to get much easier as the game went on and was simply a matter of three tweaks and a match to keep going.
Yes, I played it slow, but even without my lagging I think game length was well worth the price.
Thanks, devs, for a captivating story in a beautiful world gone awry. I would love to see more games from these guys.

A melancholic mosaic of the human condition - enjoyable despite its flaws
"Empathy: Path of Whispers" is an exploration game with a few minimalistic puzzles thrown in, and a unique narrative style. You roam a surreal world that has been abandoned after a terrible catastrophe, and find items that provide glimpses into the memories of its former inhabitants.
The narrative style is pretty unique for a game. Do you remember movies like "Short Cuts" or "Southland Tales", and how they track a large number of characters and their respective plots, which keep converging and drifting apart repeatedly? Empathy tries to do something similar in a game. While you explore the lifeless world, you keep finding memories from the time when the apocalypse was still ongoing, coming from more than 20 very different people. Most of these memories are quite short (often just 2-3 sentences in a voice-over, or a short part of a conversation), and there aren't a lot of them, but they are well written and succeed in forming a diverse mosaic of completely different reactions to the events.
While I liked this style a lot, I should also mention that it renders the story considerably less accessible than more traditional formats. The large number of actors will probably confuse you, and I strongly recommend to switch subtitles on, so that you can always see who's talking when a new voice-over comes in. Further complication arises from the fact that the memories aren't necessarily in a chronological order. At the beginning of the game, you also have no idea what's going on, so some of the memories may refer to events that you won't understand until later.
The game automatically keeps track of discovered memories in a journal, which helps in sorting things out. Personally I enjoyed this "detective work", and I felt that it gave me a much bigger and more varied picture of human behavior than a more traditional story could have provided. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I started a second playthrough immediately after the first one, because the beginning of the game becomes much clearer when you already know the rest of it. I also found the story itself quite original, and liked its philosophical implications.
However, the game will probably be less enjoyable if you aren't in the mood to follow and understand 20+ different characters based on semi-random memory snippets. If you expect the story to be served to you, if you just rush through, or if you don't take enough time to look for "optional" memories, then the story may very well feel like a confusing mess. Which it actually isn't, but it takes effort to unravel it. Note that there is no in-game reward for doing so either - your reward is the feeling of a deeper understanding of the characters and their stories.
I guess in order to like Empathy, you probably need ... empathy. ;) You need to genuinely enjoy unraveling stories about the human condition, and find it rewarding to just understand a given (fictional) person a bit better. If you _do_ fall into that target group. then Empathy can provide an amazing experience that really makes it stand out from similar games.
I found most other aspects of the game much less important than the story, but I'll address them quickly for completion's sake:
Puzzles are minimal and mostly very easy, most revolve around finding objects at fairly obvious places. One particular puzzle type is repeated dozens of times and can easily become annoying, but only takes 3 seconds each time.
Graphics are often low-fidelity, the game mostly looks as if it was 10 years old already. There's a lot of painfully obvious copy-pasting in the maps. The game partly makes up for that with some truly spectacular, unique views though.
Background music is excellent: subtle and melancholic, it carries the mood of the game perfectly without ever pushing into the foreground.
Voice-overs are a bit hit-and-miss, but they get their job done and convey the emotions appropriately. Prepare for lots of overdone accents though.
The developer has been very responsive and implemented several requested features since release.Some issues remain (one bug with game not realizing a correct puzzle solution seems to be particulaly troublesome), but I am confident that these still remaining issues will be addressed in the future.
I suppose one could say that this game is "flawed, but also perfect", depending on what you focus on. Kudos to you if know where that quote is from. ;)

On the whole I really liked this game. It's a bit repetitive, with the one main mechanic of aligning wavelengths with the scanner, but the exploration was fun, the story was interesting, I liked the art, and the overall mood of the game. If you're looking for something action packed, this isn't it, but more along the lines of firewatch or vanishing of ethan carter. Give it a go if you like a good story and exploration.