Whispers of a Machine

BottomLine at the Top: As someone who has long held a fascination with futurism and the singularity this game was a must buy right away for me. Overall an excellent sci-fi P&C game with cool cyberpunk detective elements. Highly recommended!
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Pros
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-Again, I am a big fan of any sort of media that deals with the theme of the singularity and gets that concept into the public consciousness (especially cool to see it starting to crop up more and more in gaming!)
-Starts right up. No setup headaches/nonsense. Overall very stable game as well with no major bugs or crashing.
-Great overall design. Excellent art and animations. Creative sci-fi story.
-Vera is a cool character. Not sure if there will be any kind of sequel but I'd def love to see more of her and the world the developer has created here.
-Incorporates an interesting personality mechanic. Continues a trend I've been seeing in more modern P&C games to introduce replayability thru different moral choices (also recently seen in Unavowed, another great recent P&C game!)
-Good quality of life features (spacebar interactable activity/item highlight function, double click fast travel to next room/area)
-The cyberpunk detective mechanics were pretty cool what with the bioscanner/heart rate detector/notebook. Reminded me a lot of Heavy Rain.
-Decent voice acting (including a couple of your favs from the Wadjet Eye Games team!)
-Atmospheric Music. Melancholic Norse themes with a dash of cyberpunk.
-Relatively good game flow. At times it does border on too simplistic but overall gameplay and story keeps you hooked.
-Museum location reminds me a lot of Star Trek: Judgement Rites Ch.6: Museum Piece (a real classic!)
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Meh.
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-Sprite walking routines and notebook updates take a second or two longer than I'd like.
-The formality of how characters talk doesn't always fit the tone of the game. For instance, the Doctor is supposed to be this guy with a dark sense of humor, but his writing feels "stiff" at times. Also, the main character Vera vacillates between empathy and logical stoicism. The dialogue choices that are up to the player can’t sometimes clash with the tone of the default non-selectable dialogue.
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Cons
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-No manual save slots. The game has three autosave slots for different individual games, but it only saves to one slot per new game. This was an unusual choice. As for why the developers chose this, I can only assume it has something to do with replayability. If it was given save slots it would have been much easier to go thru the different moral path options versus having to essentially restarting a new game every time you want to try a new path. I absolutely appreciate the time and energy it takes to create a game with multiple action paths and endings, I typically am not big on replaying an entire game just to see all possible outcomes. Having a save feature to eliminate some of the backtracking is nice because that’s typically the only way ill see different outcomes. I could go on and on about this subject (check us out over at the Coalition of Point & Clickers for more commentary on modern P&C's and multipaths versus extended story!) but I’ll just say as someone who doesn’t have the time to spend replaying games a save feature would have been much appreciated!
Final Thoughts: Sometimes when you see a preview of a tv show/movie/game/book you know right away it’ll be something you enjoy. This game was very much like that for me and I was not disappointed! In the past I would have said that $15 for my 6 hours of game play would feel a little pricey. However, I have come to realize that some games, if they really speak to your interests, are well worth the price and honestly $15 is not going to break anyone’s bank. Adding the replayabilty, if your so inclined, will only increase the $ per hour ratio closer to 1:1. If you’re a fan of sci-fi, cyberpunk, and P&C games you can buy this game full price knowing you'll have a great time without being disappointed and be supporting a great developer as well. Highly recommended!!!

Whispers of a Machine is a somewhat complex, yet compelling Sci-Fi point & click title set in a Post-AI dystopia. I found the most interesting aspect to be how there are multiple methods of solving the same puzzle and the method chosen will influence both the story and available augmentations (special abilities) as the game continues.
Pros
+ Excellent dialogue and engaging voice overs for all text.
+ Superhuman abilities that are unique to players choices and unlock different approaches to puzzles.
+ Nordic Noir genre.
+ Multiple endings with many different pathways to explore, rewarding multiple playthroughs.
+ Multiple solutions for most puzzles.
+ Different investigation approaches: Empathetic, analytical or assertive.
+ Hand drawn pixel art
Cons
- No manual save option
Story
You play as Vera, a cybernetically augmented agent working for the Central Bureau. You are tasked with investigating a string of recent murders in Nordsund, beginning with the brutal death of two people who are seemingly unrelated to each other. From the beginning, players are immersed into this tightly knit community within Nordsund and are slowly introduced to the various unusual, yet distinctive characters.
Whispers of a Machine is set in a world that has banned AI, with many people who resent this idea and wish to revert society back to how it was 'post collapse'. If players wish to determine the towns history, what the collapse is and why exactly technology is forbidden, exploration is a must and I won't spoil anything here.
Vera's investigation revolves around a group of fanatics determined to be the mastermind of creating an AI superintelligence. This lack of cyber-tech in the main population is in stark contrast to Vera's own abilities, enabled by a nano-substance simply labelled the 'Blue'. The Blue is only intended for use by special agents and for the purpose of crime investigation.
The story follows Vera throughout her investigation but also delves into her own personal life and the struggles she has encountered. Overall, I found the story to be extremely interesting yet also very thought provoking as it does pose some relevance in current society regarding our technology obsession and reliance.
Gameplay
Being a point and click game, the mechanics are what anyone would expect, however the cyber augmentations and adaptive story make it stand out from the rest.
Simply put, the game boils down to a murder-conspiracy investigation but includes some cool special abilities to aid in detective work. The game begins by inspecting a crime scene and using a 'smart scanner' which can detect and differentiate individuals DNA as well as trace evidence such as specific shoe prints or plant soil. These findings will remain with Vera throughout the game and can be used to compare other biological evidence to. It is very simple to use and is activated by just dragging it over the screen until it detects a positive result.
Depending on the players strategy, the augmentations available to them will be different with some examples being invisibility, mind control, amnesia and regeneration. If players choose more empathetic choices rather than assertive choices, this will lead to acquiring a new ability that is adapted to this play-style and so forth. I found this to be rather interesting and an exceptional addition to the game.
I also found that there were a multitude of solutions to puzzles and each possible solution was connected to either an empathetic, analytical or assertive approach. These puzzle solutions along with the variable dialogue options make for a very unique and individual experience which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I don't have many negative comments for this title, however I would appreciate a manual save option. This would allow players to change a choice without having to restart a new game, although this is not entirely necessary.
Graphics
Whispers of a Machine features hand drawn pixel art which beautifully complimented the Sci-Fi theme and is by the same developers who made Kathy Rain and the Samaritan Paradox.
Sound
All text is voiced by excellent professional voice actors and really supports player immersion as the game is so dialogue heavy.
There is also an option to skip past these voice overs if wanted.
Bugs and Glitches
I did not experience any problems and it ran smoothly .
Price and Content
This game is designed to be replayed to achieve the different endings, story-lines and augmentations. At $AU21.50 the game is definitely on the pricier end for a point and click title, averaging around 5-6 hours for the first playthrough. Despite this, Whispers of a Machine has a lot to offer in the value of replayability and I would recommend it, especially to those interested in the futuristic and Sci-Fi genre. Although, If you are not really interested in replaying and just want to enjoy the story on one playthrough, I would advise on waiting for a sale.
Conclusion
I found it difficult to fault this game, its array of dialogue, excellent voice overs, adaptable gameplay and interesting plot made it hard for me to stop playing. This is definitely a must-play for all point and click enthusiasts who enjoy detective work and Sci-Fi themes.
This product was reviewed using a key kindly provided by the developers, however my opinion has not been influenced by it.
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Two parts murder mystery, one part transhumanism.
Whispers of a Machine is a point and click adventure game from the same developers as Kathy Rain. In WoaM you play as Vera Englund, an augmented special agent who has been sent to the small Nordic town of Nordsund to investigate a murder. What begins as a single murder investigation quickly becomes a much bigger case, not least because of the involvement of AI technology that has been outlawed after the ‘Collapse’.
I quite liked Kathy Rain and picked this game up because I really enjoy murder mysteries as well as sci-fi/cyberpunk stuff. I’ve absolutely loved playing this, and I didn’t touch another game until I had gotten all of the achievements. My initial playthrough took me eight hours partially using a guide, and then my other playthroughs for achievements went pretty quickly as I skipped through anything I had seen before. This is the game I have enjoyed most so far this year, and while I don’t think everyone will enjoy it quite so much, I really do think this is an excellent game.
Positives:
I really like the pixel art here, the characters are well designed (particularly their portraits when talking) and I think the background art is excellent. They did a good job creating the aesthetic of a run down, post-‘event’ Nordic town. The animations are good too
The story is really the main selling point of the game here, I found it incredibly compelling. As I said, it starts out with a fairly simple premise but in the first two days of the game (the events take place over four days) things rapidly become more complex as you uncover what’s going on in Nordsund. I felt that the pacing was good. I felt like I was getting new information pretty regularly and I always felt that the game was moving forward with the plot.
The setting is interesting, Nordsund is an interesting little town with some strange characters. I kind of got a Fortitude vibe from the whole thing. You’ll also come to learn more about the Collapse as you explore the game, particularly in the Museum. This is a kind of worldwide catastrophe I haven’t personally see in any kind of media before, so I found it really interesting.
The writing is excellent, I found all of the characters very believable and it helps that the writing is backed up by excellent voice acting.
There is some puzzling, but most of the gameplay involves looking for clues and then asking the right people about certain things to get the information you need. Part of your toolkit for getting said information is the cybernetic augmentations you have access to in the game. You begin with a smart scanner, biometric analyzer and muscle booster. You have to use these augs to find clues on bodies, detect when people are lying and interact with heavy objects etc. You also unlock new augs over the course of the game dependent on what path you choose.
Speaking of paths, there are three available to you. Empathetic, analytical and assertive. You have a little diagram that keeps track of your alignment, and it changes based on what dialogue options you choose when talking to people. The path you’re aligned to affects which new augmentations you unlock during the game, which significantly changes how you solve some of the puzzles in the game. It does also have some effect on the story and your interactions with characters.
There are two main endings (technically three but there’s not a huge amount of variety between a couple of them) and I found that both endings were very satisfying. They both make sense for the character depending on how you play her. I won’t say more than that as I don’t want to spoil it.
The game doesn’t overstay its welcome, and even after playing through it four times to get all the achievements I’m left wanting more.
You can pause during dialogue without skipping anything.
Negatives:
There is one puzzle that seems almost impossible for a regular player to get without using a guide. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to solve it without using a guide.
Verdict:
This is an excellent point and click adventure game, I enjoyed every second of it. It’s got a compelling story that’s held up high by an interesting setting and great writing. This is the game I’ve enjoyed most so far this year, and I highly recommend it to adventure game fans or anyone with an interest in sci-fi.
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Very, very, VERY well made! Bravo Developers. This is a wicked experience for a Point and Click guy like myself. I grew up on Monkey Islands and King's Quests and know a thing or two about what point-and-click should be. To me, you took the best of all worlds. This is A+ stuff and it would be a PRIVILEGE to play another one of your games. So please do us, your biggest fans, a favor and make a few more if you can. Charge more if you need to. Love, Bluujaize (This got really sappy towards the end but I just realized there are no point-and clicks this good in the marketplace. And it made me appreciate this a lot more).

I really want to like the game, because you get good value for your money, but i still think there is a lot of potential lost. Soundtrack, voice acting, the idea of the game and the unique gameplay elements are great. But NPCs lack a certain depth and so is the story. It feels a bit rushed and generic, without much love for the detail. It's very short (not more then 4-6 hours for your first playthrough) and the gameworld is just a bit too small, but that's what you might expect for that kind of money.
It really starts awesome, but just falls flat a bit at the end and there are no real suprises at a certain point anymore. The unique gameworld is just scratched at the surface and that's just sad. As i said, a lot of potetial unused. At least it have some replay value, because of your powers and because there isn't a manual save option you have to play it multiple times, if you want all archivements.
I still recommend it, if you like the genre, but there are way better adventures out there. Adventures with more depth, even with a nice sci-fi setting, if you prefer those.

From the makers of Kathy Rain and with a stellar soundtrack, step into a post-apocalyptic future where artificial intelligence and any technology that could lead down that path is against the law.
You’re playing as Vera, a special agent who has been given a nanofluid called ‘Blue’ that gives her ‘augmentations’. The starting augmentations are a forensic scanner, biometric scanner, and temporary superstrength. The player’s dialogue choices increase one of three personality traits: empathic, analytical, or assertive. In turn, this affects future dialogue, future augmentations that Vera develops, and thus means that puzzles may have different solutions depending on earlier choices.
Vera’s notebook is reminiscent of the Blackwell games since she uses it to ask people questions in a similar way, and fans of Wadjet Eye will also recognize many of the voices. Although I figured out several of the plot points before the main character and wish that there was a way to fill in more of Vera’s personal backstory, it is still a really fun crime-solving experience with unique mechanics and plenty of replay value as you make different choices.

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.