I took a risk on Whispers of a Machine (WM) which has good reviews and is of a type that I generally like to play. I wasn’t expecting to like it since the overall premise was iffy (detective work? Okay, but I’m really not that great at it..), but I finished it in the span of a weekend. I really liked WM. Part of it may be attributable to growing up with the Monkey Island games. It was one of the first games my sister introduced me to and we’d play together whenever she would visit home from college/work on the weekends. Of course, being a young child, I got impatient and didn’t want to wait. Curiosity and all that. Eventually she let me loose by making me promise to write up a summary of what I did while on my own. This game, WM, even though it is short, is worth playing, especially if you can get it for free on Twitch Prime.

The basic story starts off as you playing Vera, an augmented human being sent to investigate a small town murder. Just before you arrive, there is another murder that takes priority. The larger backstory is a post-apocalyptic world whose cause was from AI. Yes, taking the AI/ML of today and imagining in rough outline the advancement and consequential political ramifications, then asking “What if…” to set up the world of WM.

There are lines dropped here and there about violations when it comes to computers and especially AI. Robots are okay, as long as it doesn’t have a CPU (hand-waving a bit here as I don’t recall the specific line), and there is a semi-disturbing, semi-amusing tinker who manages ventriloquism with a small robot. Littered around rooms that you explore will be screens we are very familiar with, yet are referred to as old relics, for decoration, etc.

What is interesting is the theory of if computers are illegal, what would be the next “obsession” for the advancement of the human race? Apparently, it is a return to biology. To become an augmented human, Vera was injected with some substance called Blue. This mysterious blue liquid gives you a few enhanced abilities, like a Forensic Scanner to examine murder scenes with, a Biometric Analyser to monitor the people you are talking to (like a lie detector), and more. The game is spread across a few days and almost each day unlocks a new ability.

Some of the unlocks are determined by your dialog choices. There are three personalities that you can groom Vera towards on the first day – analytical, empathic, or assertive. The path you choose to take her in determines how some of the puzzles in the following days will be solved. I took her down the assertive path, which unlocked a skill to energize things and people. I believe all paths will hit the same scenarios, so some scenarios may have multiple ways of being solved.

That said, some of the puzzles would require some real abstract thinking to draw solutions out of. I, of course, cheated and looked up a walkthrough which is only why I’m dumbfounded as to how someone could piece together these things. Or maybe I’m just not good at that kind of stuff. One example is finding a book belonging to a cult. The book turns out to be central for a couple of puzzles, but there’s a lot of noise in the contents of the book. So, good job on the lateral thinking that I’m clearly not so great at.

Regardless, the story moves along and that is what interested me the most. It’s fairly tight and cohesive, though at some points confusing because what makes for better tension than character reversals? (/sarcasm) I found the devs’ “what ifs” an interesting exploration to a post-apocalyptic world. Artificial insemination is apparently illegal the way it is presented.

The graphics are very reminiscent of the 90s point-and-click adventure games albeit with better quality. There is the nostalgia of the hard lines of pixels, the slightly clunky animations, and the mood music in the background. Some interactions were a little weird, like being able to double click to speed Vera along a particular screen but sometimes it wouldn’t work. There’s also a shootout where you would think Vera would move faster, but no, she just casually mozies her way from where she’s at to where you want her.

One feature I really liked that I wish more point-and-click games had? Highlighting all of the things you can interact with. It’s a much nicer UX experience than scanning the screen with the mouse to see if you’ve accidentally overlooked something useful. Yes, it’s somewhat of a cheat, but not a significant one in the context of WM.

The game is overall quite enjoyable. It’s short and with three personalities, you could play through it three times if you wanted to experience solving some of the puzzles with different abilities.