Whispers of a Machine

With a promising premise and great voice acting, Whispers of a Machine starts out on the right foot but is brought down by poor puzzle design and shallow writing.

I'm also now intrigued to play the game again, and make different choices, look for different solutions to earlier puzzles, to see how differently it plays when I don't have, say, the ability to zoom in on distant details with my super-eyes. It's not a long game - it won't trouble you for more than six hours or so - so it's the ideal length to take a second stab at.

When you think of point-and-click adventure games, you might recall classics like the Monkey Island series or Grim Fandango. The best of these games are equal parts fun, engaging, and challenging, while the less-than-stellar entries struggle to maintain a balance. A good point-and-click adventure game wins you over and lets you get lost in the story, and Whispers of a Machine captured my attention immediately.

*whispers* it's good.

A fun adventure game that doesn't nail its big ideas.

Whispers of a Machine is an approachable point and click adventure. The story is pretty interesting and the main character, as well as few side characters, are well-crafted too. It falls shy of the best examples of the genre, but Whispers of a Machine isn't far off the mark from being considered great.

The story is pretty straightforward. It has a few twists along the way, although it didn’t delve as deeply into the moral quandaries surrounding AI as I expected it to. This was a little disappointing, since it left the world and story with unexplored potential. Despite taking place in a single town and featuring a fairly small cast, I never felt particularly attached to any of the characters except Vera herself, either. Solving the mystery and watching all the pieces come together was the most interesting part for me, and in the end, everything came together for a satisfying conclusion.