Whispers of a Machine

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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.

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.

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.

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.

WoaM is just right in terms of difficultly, with logical puzzles and lots of "Of course!" moments from me. No 'use banana with spanner' or pixel hunting nonsense here. I was rarely stuck for very long and the game mostly made it broadly clear where I should be placing my attention next, but it's absolutely not easy-breezy. Two puzzles stumped me for an extended amount of time, and I think the second I would likely never have figured out without the Steam forums. That's the only time I questioned how fair the game was being, but your mileage may vary.
Graphically it reminds me of playing Beneath The Steel Sky as an 18 year old on my Amiga. It feels retro, with painterly backgrounds and pixel people on top, but it's smooth to play and clearly a modern game for modern resolutions. The music and voicework are very good too. It has a gentle atmosphere for the most part.
I had a delightful 8 hours with WoaM, split over several evenings. I like how the game deals with big themes, but in a relatively small and intimate location with a thoughtful cast of fleshed out characters. There's no globe-trotting, red herring items, padding, or action sequences here, but a satisfying and succinct adventure that felt like curling up with a good book.

A game I had on wishlist for a long time before installing, was not disappointed. Great storytelling, slightly challenging puzzles, a few may frustrate you because they require retracing your steps. Most of all I liked the story, the intrigue, and always the possibility of a backstab. The rich telling of it through your character choices mixed in with a relationship that cannot be, and of course the chance at 3 different ways to finish the game.
Would pick up another title by this publisher if they can improve the smoothness of the game mechanics in puzzles, which are all in all pretty well done for a point-click story type game.

Good story, good voice acting, no 'moon logic' adventure game bullshit.
HOWEVER game is very short - I did it in about 4 hours played. Be warned.
Protip: you can backup your save before the final choice and paste it back over to choose the different endings.