The GWJ Adventure Game Club - Game 30: Whispers of a Machine

Whispers of a Machine (2018)

IMAGE(https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/631570/header.jpg)

From the creators of Kathy Rain, this sci-fi Nordic Noir game tells the story of Vera, a cybernetically augmented detective in a post-AI world, as she investigates a string of murders and unravels a dark conflict over forbidden technology. These brutal killings obscure a sinister truth, as Vera soon finds ties to a group of fanatics committed to creating an AI superintelligence, something which has been outlawed for nearly a century.

You can find the game's official website here, usual spoiler warning apply. How Long to Beat estimates about 8 hours to completion. Available platforms are Android, iOS, Mac and PC.

The main thread is over that way. We'll be playing Whispers of a Machine in April 2021, with an extra month should you require it.

It's $15 on Steam, but it's $6 on GOG right now. I think their sale is on for another week or so.

Yeaaaaaah, no. I don't shop on GOG anymore.

Will be playing on mobile. It's in the Google play pass collection.

Interesting...

And yeah it's only $4.99 on Android, regular price. That might be the way to go.

This is a great game, I played it shortly after it came out and really enjoyed it. I did get really stuck at one puzzle in particular that I thought was kind of nonsense so I'm curious to hear if it was just me. :p

Might join you in this, if there's room for one more. As a couple of people have said, it's included with Play Pass on Android: $4.99 a month, and you can get the first month for free if you've never previously been a subscriber.

Yay, you're more than welcome!

I'm holding off until I get some proper downtime this weekend (fingers crossed, there's a non zero chance I'm going to be at the hospital... again). Probably won't stream it since it isn't voiced, but I'm really looking forward to it!!

Well, I've finished it. I enjoyed it but I considering how open ended many of the puzzles are I felt several were a bit too specific and I had to look up the next step after seemingly interacting with everything in town twice. Maybe that's my fault for taking the Empathic path.

Fun premise, well built town, MOSTLY good puzzles. Overall a solid game.

I dipped into it Saturday night and was very pleased to discover it's voiced! And really well too. I like Vera, the main character, a lot, and I'm definitely curious to see where the story will go.

Jolly Bill wrote:

Well, I've finished it. I enjoyed it but I considering how open ended many of the puzzles are I felt several were a bit too specific and I had to look up the next step after seemingly interacting with everything in town twice. Maybe that's my fault for taking the Empathic path.

Fun premise, well built town, MOSTLY good puzzles. Overall a solid game.

That was pretty much my only problem with this game. Specifically,

Spoiler:

the worst offender to me was the part where you are supposed to find the hidden room at the museum. That one just needed a bit more signposting.

Pink Stripes wrote:
Jolly Bill wrote:

Well, I've finished it. I enjoyed it but I considering how open ended many of the puzzles are I felt several were a bit too specific and I had to look up the next step after seemingly interacting with everything in town twice. Maybe that's my fault for taking the Empathic path.

Fun premise, well built town, MOSTLY good puzzles. Overall a solid game.

That was pretty much my only problem with this game. Specifically,

Spoiler:

the worst offender to me was the part where you are supposed to find the hidden room at the museum. That one just needed a bit more signposting.

Ha! Oddly enough, an earlier puzzle used the same mechanic

Spoiler:

(the conduit book for the name used in apt 113)

so when I got stumped I looked there again and was able to figure it out.

And Eleima full agreement on the voiceacting. I actually listened to most of the dialogue!

Just starting playing this and got finished with the first area where you examine the body. Very early, in other words.

I was a teen during the golden age(?) of point-and-click, and it was my favorite genre. Monkey Island, Sam and Max, Simon the Sorcerer, etc. Back then, the gameplay was purely about inventory management - combining items and 'using' them with the environment to solve puzzles. It's interesting that the modern point-and-clicks are cleverly incorporating different gameplay elements to mix it up. In Unavowed, for example, you have different companions and can choose which ones to bring on missions, RPG-style, which changes how things unfold. And in this one, you have "cybernautic augmentations" you can use, and you can also shape your character's personality through the choices you make during the game, which, in turn, alters the way you solve puzzles (apparently).

I don't really have a point here, except to say it's interesting to see these indie devs looking for ways to be innovative when it would be easier to tread familiar old ground. I love to see it.

Oh, I agree with you, Tasty Pudding! I like the way they're evolving, for sure. I don't think the old system was sustainable, so it's nice to see these more recent adventure games moving away from puzzles with rubber chickens with a pulley in the middle. As much as I adore the older games, I 100% recognize there's a rose colored glasses effect.

Back to the game, I sat down and played some more. Absolutely facepalmed when I figured out the door code (you know the one I'm talking about). Now I'm being stumped by the password. Will have to sleep on it, but I can't wait to uncover more!

I'm on day two now, making good progress. Had a few "ah-ha" moments that were pretty good.

Spoiler:

Like how I figured out how to open the secret door in the museum

That was really satisfying.

Really appreciated Vera getting rid of items we wouldn't need anymore at the start of the day. More games need that.

Finished!
I enjoyed playing this game, it's now one of my favourite modern adventure games next to the Blackwell series.

The nitpicking:

Spoiler:

That secret door. If I knew I was looking for one I moght have read the Book a bit closer ... I was totally stuck at this point and had to consult a walkthrough.
Also: when I found out that Katarina isn't who she said she was I wanted to ask Gabriel to join me in the confrontation. After all she shot at me before! But Vera didn't agree with me and I had to go on my own to the junkyard.

Good game! Thanks for the recommendation!

Marchantia wrote:

Finished!
I enjoyed playing this game, it's now one of my favourite modern adventure games next to the Blackwell series.

The nitpicking:

Spoiler:

That secret door. If I knew I was looking for one I moght have read the Book a bit closer ... I was totally stuck at this point and had to consult a walkthrough.
Also: when I found out that Katarina isn't who she said she was I wanted to ask Gabriel to join me in the confrontation. After all she shot at me before! But Vera didn't agree with me and I had to go on my own to the junkyard.

Good game! Thanks for the recommendation!

There's clue about that spoiler in one of the conversations prior to that.

Spoiler:

I can't remember who exactly, but some maintenance person was talking about how they'd seen Maja go into the museum and they'd follow shortly after but couldn't find her. They then left and she came back out, and insisted she'd been in a corner, the maintenance person had simply not seen them. Felt like a pretty big red flag to me and I knew there had to be a trap door or secret passage or something. The outline was fairly visible to me, but maybe I'm biased.

One of your favorite with Blackwell games? Wow, that's pretty high praise! Glad you enjoyed it so much!!
I'm hoping to wrap it up tonight, provided I have enough energy for gaming.

Finished it tonight!! Ultimately, here were my choices at the end:

Spoiler:

I'd gone down the empathy road, so I had the amnesia and mimic augments. Decided to go with the Fenrir (autowipe) option and I kept the child.

Honestly, it was a no brainer for me there.

Overall, I really, really liked it. I'm glad I played it. It's polished, the story is interesting, the world building is well done, the art is pretty and the voice acting is solid. Well worth any adventure fan's time!!

Eleima wrote:

Finished it tonight!! Ultimately, here were my choices at the end:

Spoiler:

I'd gone down the empathy road, so I had the amnesia and mimic augments. Decided to go with the Fenrir (autowipe) option and I kept the child.

Honestly, it was a no brainer for me there.

Overall, I really, really liked it. I'm glad I played it. It's polished, the story is interesting, the world building is well done, the art is pretty and the voice acting is solid. Well worth any adventure fan's time!!

Same playthrough / ending for me as well and not a hard choice. I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and while I was annoyed at a couple small choices overall it was a very impressive game.

Re: the museum conversation above -

Spoiler:

In addition to the (mechanic? janitor?) conversation, one of the kids mentions that Maja FREAKED OUT when they ran around pushing all the buttons, which was also a pretty good clue.

I should slink back in and admit I did not finish this. I was playing with a free trial of Play Plus on Android, which expired before I was done. Part of the problem was the format. I have never played anything other than Fruit Ninja on a phone, and this was an experiment to see if I would enjoy games on the tiny screen. "Not really," is the answer to that one.

TBH, though, I wasn't really feeling WoaP. I love the experience of getting into sync with an adventure game - that feeling of understanding the type and nature of the puzzles and "getting into the mind" of the creator and figuring out what they are demanding of me. I didn't get that with WoaP. Just didn't mesh with it at all. Ended up looking-up a few things but still never got into the right headspace. Oh well!

That's super interesting, Tasty Pudding. Any idea whether you would've enjoyed it on a console or PC instead of a phone? As for the puzzle aspect, I'd say WoaM is kidna light on that score, it's really more about the world, the characters and the story for me, but I could be wrong.

That's a good question! Probably has something to do with having to peer at a little screen while trying to press tiny buttons with fat fingers.

As for the puzzles, I tend to do better with the kind of leftfield stuff you used to see in LucasArts games. "Use rope with plunger then use on catapult to create a zipline across the ravine". That kind of thing. Whispers of a Machine was more like a detective game. So, you might see a model of a sun and then think to yourself "Ah, there was reference to solar in the diary I picked up. Maybe there are some clues there about how to manipulate it." I'm completely making that up, but hopefully you know what I mean!

Definitely an interesting world, though, for sure.

One thing I found annoying from playing a point-and-click game like this on mobile is the lack of "point." That is, there is no cursor that can be highlighted when you hover over something you can interact with. I remember getting really frustrated when I played Botanicula on my cell phone. Some games have a button that will highlight anything you can interact with on the screen and I imagine that would be very helpful on mobile, but I'm not sure this game has that option.

I also feel like not having grown up with a smartphone, there's just a psychological barrier for me to play full feature games on mobile. It's completely irrational, but it's there.

Oh yeah, I definitely see what you mean. At least when I was playing on PC, there would be a "tag" or name item when I hovered the mouse over whatever I was looking at. That definitely made pixel hunting easier.
And yes, you definitely have a point, Tasty Pudding, about this being more a detective game than a puzzle game, for sure. I like ye old adventure games as much as the next gamer (pehraps more! ), but This definitely appealed more to me since there was a distinct inner logic to the game. I don't do well with rubber chickens with a pulley in the middle, not unless I have a truckload of time on my hands.

And yeah, I'm with you Pink Stripes. Gaming on my phone still feels like... "not gaming." Sure, I'll play otome games there, but it's more reading than anything else, to tell the truth.