Pretty fun game! So I'm a big fan of Cyberpunk as a Sci-Fi subgenre and any game I find that is based around it instantly has my attention! I saw this game on a good sale, so I bought it on a whim. The game has you take on the role of Vera, a cop from the big city who's basically like a Blade Runner, who comes to a small town to investigate a murder. The game is a point and click in the vain of the older pc games from the 90s of that genre. You will be solving puzzles, talking to the locals and making dialogue choices.

Story-wise this game was quite cool to play through as it reminded me quite a bit of Detroit Become Human, in many of its themes and lore. The world the devs have built here is quite a cool one to explore and learn about. It kept me guessing who the murderer could be and surprised me in some cases. The story does get a bit formulaic towards the end and it has some elements that are some of my pet peeves in general when it comes to stories in games and movies.

Gameplay-wise it gets interesting as your character has access to augmentations to help you out. You start with 3 basic ones: a Batman detective mode type augment; a biometric analyzer that you can use when talking to NPCs to tell if they're lying or keeping something from you and muscle boost that gives you temporary enhanced strength which is good for breaking open lock doors. Another interesting part is you unlock 3 new augments, however, it's based on the dialogue choices you make, which are split into three different types (empathic, assertive and analytical). My playthrough I mostly made Empathic choices so I unlocked mods for that decision type and they were really fun to use as each path introduces different ways to get passed certain levels depending on what augments you've unlocked. I think this was a really cool addition and it definitely adds incentive to go back and replay the game to see what different augments you can unlock.

In terms of negatives, while some of the puzzles are fun to do, others are really complicated and I think it's because the game doesn't communicate the puzzle that well sometimes. One part in particular where you have to go and get an item, you have to solve a puzzle to get to it but the game at no point tells you that there even is a puzzle to complete in the first place. The game also is pretty short, taking me only 5 hours to complete. Your mileage may vary based on how quickly you can solve the game's puzzles. The game does have replay value with some variations in the story based on your choices as well as the different augments you can get, but I do wish the game was longer.

Overall, Whispers of a Machine is a fun game that can satisfy both Cyberpunk fans and fans of the point and click genre. I got my game on a sale and it had about the same value for what I paid. I'd say definitely get it on a sale, as the length can be a bit of a turn-off.

So I played once through this and I don't really have the motivation to play through it again. There's a lot of things I like about the game, the art style is great, the special powers are delightful and I like the concept of the game aligning to your play style.

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But I found the story and the setting a little flat. It seemed to be looking to ask big questions about AI and humanity but I don't feel like the questions where as big as it thinks they are, nor do I feel like the game has any opinions about what the answers could be.

I really liked their previous game (Kathy Rain), but this one just left me cold. I hope that they do another game like this with a story that really grabs me.