Clifftop
Games, Faravid Interactive
If you thought the future was going to be an AI controlled utopia of
automation, think again. It's not. Well, at least not according to
Whispers of a Machine, a new 3rd person point-and-click adventure from
Clifftop Games (Kathy Rain) and Faravid Interactive (The Samaritan
Paradox). In their vision of the future, all AI, CPUs, and basically
anything with any kind of electronic brain, is outlawed....outlawed by
the 3rd Decree! And woe betide anybody caught defying it! You can't even
ride in an elevator anymore. It's THAT serious.
So, what happened? Well, apparently, years before, we humans were
getting along nicely with all our gadgets, and everything seemed to be
fine. But, under the surface, behind the scenes, in dark rooms and back
alleys, certain people were getting restless. They didn't like this
embracing of our new artificial overlords. And some other people didn't
like that they didn't like it. So tensions grew. And grew. And then grew
some more. Until.....The Collapse. Some kind of catastrophic apocalyptic
event that almost destroyed everything. And out of that rose a new
world. A world devoid of any advanced computer based technology. A world
where such fanciful things are confined to museums and curiosity shops.
All in non-working, de-activated, and replica form naturally.
And now, some 86 years after The Collapse, things appear to be going
quite well in Nordsund, a small and docile Swedish town perched atop a
large platform, safe from the horrors of the past. The trains run on
time, the police enjoy the sleepy nature of their jobs, and the only
thing to worry about is the ever growing pile of old pre-collapse junk.
But even that's not a worry since it's part of the local scenery, and
much beloved by everyone, especially scrap hunters and the local kids
who just can't get enough of climbing to the top as a way to pass the
time since there are no game consoles or tablets anymore.
Today though, things are a bit different. Today there has been a
murder. And it's the second murder in quick succession. Enter us, the
player, as Vera Englund, a federal agent, dispatched from the nearby
city, by the Central Bureau, to investigate. We're no ordinary agent
though. No. We have been injected with something known as "The
Blue". The Blue is one of only a few technologies still allowed to
be used, and even then, only by the Central Bureau. It grants Vera and
her fellow agents special abilities in the way of augmentations. And
there's quite a wide variety. And we can use them all in our quest to
find out just who is behind these grisly killings.
Whispers of a Machine has a couple of features that set it apart from
your average standard point-and-click adventure. One is the
aforementioned augmentations. Right from the start we have access to
three of these special abilities. We can increase our muscle strength
for a brief period, we can scan the environment for biometric data, and
we can monitor a person's heart rate and demeanour. Using all three of
these, we can break open lockers, follow invisible footprints, and tell
when someone is trying to hide something from us. The second feature is
the now seemingly much sought after choice making mechanic wherein you
get to decide how to question/react to people at certain times. You have
a choice of three distinct "paths" you can follow throughout
the game - empathetic, assertive, or analytical - and whichever way you
decide to go will have an impact on certain elements of the game later
on. In particular, your choices will affect which new augmentation you
receive each morning, as The Blue slowly alters your biochemistry over
the course of four days. You will get just three new abilities, out of a
larger selection, and whichever ones you have will determine how you go
about solving certain puzzles throughout the game. The problem though is
that the game just isn't really long enough or expansive enough to
really make use of these features to an effective degree. You will
probably find yourself using your new abilities only two or three times
throughout the entirety of the game. And they're used in very specific
places at very specific times so it becomes pretty obvious which you
need to use and when.
In addition to solving puzzles with your augmentations, there are
also the usual inventory based problems to solve, which won't present
much of a problem, as well as some out-of-the-box thinking, which might
cause some head scratching. You might find yourself having to consult a
walkthrough multiple times during the first two-thirds of the game as
some solutions just don't link together, and Vera doesn't give up much
in the way of hints to assist us. One example is a certain
click-things-in-a-certain-order type puzzle to reveal a secret door. The
solution is contained within a book that you picked up a while before,
which you will have read at the time, but by now forgotten all about.
There's no reason to think you should go back and look in this book to
find the solution to this puzzle. A little guidance along the lines of
"Hmmm, this reminds me of something. Did I read something about
this earlier?" would go a long way to preventing a lot of
frustration. Although, it will become apparent as you progress that if
you still hold an item, then it will still have some use, as Vera will
unceremoniously declare that she is just going to throw items away when
they become useless. All that being said, the game does feel like it
gets easier going into the final third. Almost as if it were designed by
a different person. It just flows better overall. In terms of both
puzzles and story.
So, how is that story then? Well, the game certainly does raise some
interesting questions about our obsessions with technology and our
current push towards developing more AI based technology. It makes us
think about the possibilities and the consequences. It brings up ideas
of God and whether we could create God, and if we could, would we want
to, and what might one person do with all that power? It's all very
interesting stuff, but unfortunately the game just doesn't delve deep
enough into it to offer any meaningful commentary. This isn't helped by
the fact that we're cast into the game almost immediately without any
real intro explaining the history of what happened and the present day
situation. All of the information that we are able to get is gleaned
from comments by other characters and things stuck on walls. There were
supposed to be all these different factions in the past - some for AI,
some against - and the entire story is a murky conspiracy involving some
of these different groups. But we never really get a sense that there is
anything at stake. Nobody seems to really be fighting for much of
anything. It's all just a bit lacklustre. And yet it builds up to what
should be a very significant moment in the history of our entire
existence. A moment that we, personally, have to make a decision on. But
it just doesn't feel significant. It feels like the world will just
carry on around us as normal. Nobody noticed. Nobody cared.
Let's talk about the characters. Nordsund is filled with just about a
big enough cast of different characters for us to interact with. But,
aside from the characters who are directly involved in the main story,
not much back story or characterisation is offered for most of them.
There's no sense of belonging. No sense of community. No sense of a
world going on behind the main story of the game. The characters feel
like they're only there to serve us. We spend hours quizzing everybody
about everybody else with a simple "What do you think about so and
so?" and all we ever really get in response is "I don't know
him that well" or "I have heard of her. She's a
politician". The world feels empty. There's no fabric to it. Which
is a shame, because with such an interesting future new world, there
could have been a lot of things going on. A lot of things to get
involved with. A lot of things to uncover. We could have really got a
sense of what living in this time was really like. The struggles, the
trials, the tribulations. The slow march towards the dim light at the
end of the tunnel. The possibility of something new. But, sadly, we
don't get any of that. The main story is played out too quickly over the
top of it all. And it's difficult to connect with what's underneath.
Visually the backgrounds are perfectly acceptable. But again, they
feel empty and flat, and like everything is just there because we need
it to solve a puzzle. There are some very striking scenes though,
particularly the ground levels scenes, where we see remnants of the old
world, and the great hulking tower where the town is perched, looming
ominously in the background. It would have been nice to spend a little
more time down there, exploring the wreckage of that old world, and
perhaps meeting some people who could have filled in a lot of history
for us. People uninterested in plugging into the new world. People
seeking something different. That would have linked nicely to the main
story too, if these people were part of those factions. But, I digress.
The character art is where the visuals really shine. The dialogue
portraits and the in-game characters are well done and nicely detailed,
and blend perfectly with the backgrounds. The graphic design of the game
overall is also very good. It all has an 80's computer display vibe to
it. And there are even a few times in the game when you have to access
computers and use a command-line interface. All of that is very very
nicely done indeed, and it all feels very realistic.
A definite high point for the game is its voice acting. Dave Gilbert,
of Wadjet Eye Games, once again takes on the role of directing the voice
sessions, as he did for Kathy Rain. And he does a stellar job. It's a
definite step up from Kathy Rain, which was already very good. Dave
really shows that he has grown into that director role, and he can only
get better, especially when he has well written dialogue and talent that
can deliver. Fortunately he has both here. Everybody does a fantastic
job, but the standout is Ivy Dupler playing our main character of Vera.
The voice perfectly fits the visual and she does an excellent job of
capturing the subtleties of Vera, who is by far the most engaging
character of the game, unsurprisingly. She is somewhat of a tortured
soul, suffering with flashbacks and strange memory issues throughout.
There's a lot going on with her, and there are some genuinely touching
moments of Vera sitting alone on the bed, reminiscing with a past loved
one, who may or may not be real, as well as some more immediate and
heated moments later on where she appears to be arguing with her own
subconscious. All of that requires a certain range, and Ivy brings it
without a problem. Everybody is impressive though. If I were looking to
voice a game, then I'd definitely go to Dave to get it done.
In conclusion, I would recommend you play this game. It's not perfect
by any means, but there is sufficient substance to warrant at least one
play through. There is certainly a very interesting idea here. An idea
that will make you think about things, at least a little bit. I didn't
play The Samaritan Paradox, but I did play Kathy Rain, and I did enjoy
it. I have no doubt that these developers can make rich and engaging
content. Whispers of a Machine, for me, just falls slightly short in the
end.
