Whispers of a Machine

Whispers of a Machine really hit a note that I haven't witnessed in a long time. Games like Space Quest, Gabriel Knight, Monkey Island, and Beneath a Steel Sky all left a sense of wonder and exhilaration which I've found missing from many modern adventure games. However, Whispers of a Machine captures this spirit for me in such a nostalgic and refreshing way. Although the verbs interface is simplified compared to older adventure games, the "augmentations" provide enough complexity to keep it from feeling dull; and puzzles don't feel arbitrary or forced. It's super awesome that many of the puzzles can be solved in multiple ways, and the player is left to choose their own path of exploration. In many ways, it feels like they've taken a page from Ron Gilbert's guide to making adventure games not suck. 🙂 If all this weren't enough, the story, characters, and environment are all just stunningly crafted. You can spend time engrossing yourself in the atmosphere and it doesn't feel like a chore. This is an absolute work of art. If you love adventure games, I'd highly recommend taking some time to play this one.

It is a short game. I finished it in around 4 hours. I was afraid the story would develop into something very simplistic at some point but it did not. It is well written, dialogue are fine, voice fine, graphics good in their style. Sure, I have my reservations about how the story could branch depending on choices being made - probably more tailoring, to use the words of the Telltale good era. But it is nice to follow the story unfolding.

This game checks all the boxes of a good (adventure) game. It has an interesting sci-fi premise and solid world building that gets slowly fleshed out during your adventure. The puzzles are challenging but never unreasonably so, and there is a clear logic to be found in all of them. The story itself is pretty great and self-contained in what feels like a small slice of the world. All the dialogue is spoken as well with some very passable voice acting all the way around. The interface is generally great, and you can even hold tab to highlight things you can click on, so no pixel peeping for things to click on.

You should play this game, especially if you enjoyed their previous title (Kathy Rain). I'd still say that Kathy is a more complete experience, but this one is solid. The puzzles are simple but fun. There I think only one which is hard to figure correctly (the code) yet you can kinda brute-force it from the data you have anyways. I'm not the one who thinks that every adventure game should be a visual novel without any challenge whatsoever. The ending is kinda rushed in my opinion. There's a certain dramatic event after which you'd think: "Oh, here it goes!" yet the game ends quite abruptly after this. I'd hope it'd be a bit longer. They did a nice job expanding the ending of Kathy Rain in the director's cut, maybe they'll do the same for this title? Hope so.

This is exactly what I have been looking for. It's a 6-hour long adventure full of amazing writing, amazing dialogue and just-easy-enough puzzles to get me through. I enjoyed this immensely. The story is stunning and the world these guys created can do so much more! It can stand on its own, just like Frank Herbert's Dune. Here we are in a post-apocalyptic society - with no explanation as to why, how or when it happened, and a tough-as-nails heroine detective worthy of all the praise. This game made my evening. Play it! If you are a fan of point and click adventures, this one will surely warm your heart.