Whispers of a Machine

I was raised on quest-style adventure games, from typed commands to point and click, and this is one of those fantastic retro experiences that feels like what might have come next, rather than being content to almost imitate something that was great in its day. The fully voiced acting is a little stiff, but that's par for the genre. I like the innovative special abilities and personality valence, and storywise it blends more of my favourite types of TV shows (melancholy nordic cop drama, mundane cyberpunk dystopia, science emotions) than I can shake a stick at.
Plus the graphics feel true to the medium. It's not just pixels for pixels' sake, the aesthetic is thorough and it feels just right. The music is uncommonly good, I do sort of wonder how it would sound on an old AdLib or SoundBlaster.

Overall, this game was fun and very well-done for a modern point-and-click game in a "retro" style.
It had some issues: It really railroads you; A few puzzles required you to do things so counter-intuitive that I had to look up the solutions in walkthroughs, and when I did, I was convinced that had I not looked them up I would never have figured them out on my own; the save system implements "You need to live with your choices!" to a ridiculous degree.
I think the game's biggest failure is that last one. There are some choices right at the end of the game where it would have been cool to go back and see how it would have affected the ending to make different ones, but the game prevents it by immediately saving after you make the choice so you can't try another option. What's the benefit to the player of being forced to play through the WHOLE game just to flip the bit on the very last choice? That's just a jerk move on the developers' part. In fact, it would have been totally reasonable to allow the player to save before every major choice and return to them to explore all the branches, and I don't think it would have detracted from the game at all. The only logic for the choice they made is that it inflates the gameplay time slightly for people who do replay, which might be the reason, since the game only has about 8-9 hours of gameplay in it, and it's a bit spendy for that.
All of that said, I did enjoy it and and the story, and the voiceovers were exceptionally well done. If you're a big fan of classic point-and-click adventures, I'd say that you should definitely play it. If you're not, I wouldn't recommend this as your first, though.

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whispers of a machine is your typical point & click adventure created with adventure game studio: pretty good pixel graphics, great music and a fully voiced sci-fi story with a female protagonist enhanced with various augmentations trying to figure out a series of murders while also dealing with some baggage of her own.
dialog choices will alter your empathetic, analytical and assertive attributes, and these will determine what augmentations you can use to solve puzzles. it's still the same story, starts in 'a', goes through 'b' using whatever tools you have, and ends in 'c or 'd' (or 'e', which is only a slight variation) depending on a choice at the end and none of the others made throughout the game, which was fine with me. so no point in multiple playthroughs, only to do the same puzzles in a different way.
no manual saving is a major issue in a game with so many variables, bordering on being a dealbreaker, and don't give me the 'choices are permanent' nonsense, autosaves can be backed up and overwritten just like you'd do with regular saves, they just made it more finicky for no reason. so when you're presented with the choice (you'll know when), alt+tab, back the saves up, choose an option, watch the ending, then copy the saves back, choose the other thing and watch the other ending.
controls are as they should be, space or tab highlights interactable things (should be an icon on the ui as well), double click exits the screen instantly, individual lines of dialog can be skipped if you're a fast reader, and there's a notebook to peruse occasionally and use it to bring up various topics during conversations. augmentations are on the bottom right, they can turn you into a regular forensic investigator, but some have a cooldown, which I found unnecessary in a point & click game. it's pretty quick, which makes its existence even more baffling. you also need to pay attention when using the biometric analyzer (I just had it on all the time) and click on anomalies before they disappear to get more info out of people. it only happens a few times.
I found the extra mechanics cool and absolutely loved the music, but would've liked a map for fast travel. the story and characters, including the protagonist and her personal matters, weren't too interesting or memorable though, the robot guy's ventriloquist act was especially annoying, and there are parts where timing is key, otherwise the scene gets reset. again, something like this is always unnecessary and annoying in a point & click adventure.
overall, it was okay for a playthrough, took about 6 hours, but wouldn't want to go through it again and only recommend it if you've already played all the better adventures out there and still want more.

Whispers of a Machine was good. I think it could have been a bit longer and a lot less straight, but the central mystery and investigation were well done.
A lot of the time in mysteries, either you immediately know the solution or it's twist after ass-pull twist that makes it futile to even think about what the solution may be, because nothing you find matters until the very last thing. Notably, both of these faults can be found in spades in anything Steven Moffat has ever done, HEY-OH!
In this, the little twists do a good job not of invalidating what you've found before but rather of recontextualizing it, which made the investigation actually satisfying.
I thought the solution could have been hinted at or foreshadowed more than it was, but even then you find things that make you think back to other things and see them in a new light. "I didn't think much of this thing this person said at the time, but now I see there was something else going on," etc.

I don't even think a review is necessary, just trust me, buy this game!!!
Ok, for those that need more, here's why:
This game truly captures the 'choices matter' genre, while also giving you a well rounded story and retro gaming style. I can't tell you the graphics are beautiful, as they don't need to be, this will give you classic point and click vibes from the first moment to the last. Nothing is over or underdone.
The characters all seem to have depth, and all contribute to the story, no red herrings there!
The story itself gives feelings of dystopia and a changed future world, leaving you to decide where your morals lie, and how you want to interact with people.
Your interaction style helps dictate the 'powers' (for want of a better word) that your character has. You can be authoritarian and unwilling to waver from the law, or empathetic and show your human side. Your choices affect your game play and options, as well as the ending.
I found that I plated this game through very quickly due to being addicted in a very short space of time. However , I had nearly 5 hours game play my first time round, and still have two other paths and multiple achievements to play through, so lots of replayability.

A really nice Point & Click adventure game. I’m a fan of the genre and this game has done justice to it! Played Kathy Rain too and I’d been looking out for this game ever since I heard about it. and I should say, this game is an upgraded, improved version of its predecessor, Kathy Rain, introducing new concepts like augmentations, voiceovers, etc. I really really appreciate the developers for making this amazing game! Will definitely replay the game for the numerous achievements! My only complaint about the game is that it was too short.. but since there’s replayabilty, I guess that was the whole point. And maybe the ending was a bit rushed. Still, that aside, GREAT GAME! Please play and get to be a coola$$ detective agent.

That was one of the most intense point&click adventures I've ever played. Its difficult to create an immersive distopian world with an unforgettable soundtrack where hope is still shining through. But Whispers of a Machine did exactly this. The different play styles (assertive, analytical, emphatetic) in combination with a rather short playthrough makes the game perfectly replayable.