Review for The Whisperer
At the risk of making this review irrelevant, the less you know about The Whisperer going in, the more you’ll probably enjoy it. However, if there’s one thing that all players should definitely be aware of before purchasing, it’s that this is not a full game at all, but more a bite-sized “standalone teaser” for Studio Chien d’Or’s upcoming The Whispering Valley, expected later this year. As for why I recommend going in otherwise blind, well … there’s just so little story to report on that nearly everything I mention may feel like a bit of a spoiler by default.
Had I not known the size of the game, and expected a meaty adventure instead, I’d probably have been left very disappointed by the abrupt ending. Still, even with expectations of grander scope kept firmly in check, The Whisperer is only about as satisfying as a sufficient movie trailer: it sets an evocative tone and reels you in with an intriguing premise, but ultimately it’s a promotional tool that asks players to come back later for the real deal.
You begin without introduction or fanfare at a candlelit table in a dark void, left to piece things together on your own. The mood oozes evil, from the spooky, ethereal soundscape to the ominous items atop the table. A heavy cleaver is embedded in the wood, next to a worried letter from someone begging you to stay away from them. Picking up the cleaver threateningly reveals a nearby cabin in the void, and within a matter of moments you’re breaking in to perform quite the dark deed. Our unseen protagonist, mysterious and nefarious as he proves to be, certainly isn’t lacking in motivation.
Soon after, the setting shifts to an expansive, well-lit winter forest in Lower Canada, where our main story unfolds. The year is 1814, and our cleaver-wielding maniac “hero,” Robert, is tasked with solving the disappearance of two brothers at a French-Canadian trading post. Sabotage from a rival fur trading company is suspected, but the truth quickly spirals into something far more sinister (and grotesque).
Navigation is done through pure point-and-click adventuring, in a first-person 3D node-based interface allowing for 360° panoramic scenes like Scratches or Myst III: Exile. The snowy landscapes are pleasant enough to look at, but while exploring the wintry woods there are perhaps a few too many “empty” scenes between key destinations, making travel a bit of a chore (especially for players inclined to carefully comb the barren environment in vain for clues). Music is very sparse but ambient and evocative when present, painting a gloomy vibe that fits the sights. Other notable audio includes haunting whispers that arrive during key moments – never intelligible and always unnerving.
The enigmatic plot pulled me in, but unfortunately I got stumped within the first ten minutes. The culprit? Every adventure gamer’s trusty ol’ nemesis: pixel hunting. There was a little key veiled in plain sight that I may never have noticed without a hint guide, and that wasn’t the only offender. There aren’t many locations in The Whisperer, but plenty enough to get lost in, and important objects are occasionally quite small and well-hidden. There’s no way to reveal hotspots, meaning you’ll have to carefully scour your surroundings – sometimes from unusual angles – to succeed.
The few puzzles in the game are inventory-based, with a handful of straightforward “combine this with that” solutions. Predominantly the challenges are built around circumventing an obstacle so you can explore a new location, meaning every item you get is, more or less, the equivalent of a passkey to a door. You’ll find keys to open locks, tools to clear blockages in your path, and (in the most significant inventory puzzle) combine several components to make a rudimentary bomb. This gives the gameplay a bit of a one-note feel that would likely get old quickly, except that the entire experience comes to a close before stagnation even has time to set in.
It took me only an hour to complete The Whisperer. I wouldn’t consider that a negative except for the fact that the story is left hanging in a quite ambiguous spot, just as things start to get properly interesting. Again, thinking of this as more of a playable teaser helps here. The game autosaves whenever entering or leaving buildings, and you can also save manually any time, though the short length may not make that necessary. There is only one save slot, so if there’s a certain portion you want to return to, a fresh start of the game may be necessary.
Sometimes hotspots are a little finicky. The violent aftermath of a crime in one area leaves quite a bit of blood splashed about; however, Robert will only comment on it if you select a small patch of red on the floor, rather than the larger puddle next to it (or the gore-spattered table filling most of your view). A couple puzzles had solutions that seemed obvious to me in retrospect, but felt a bit unfair to work out – you’re required to use an item on an area without a hotspot, unlike other, better-clued interactions in the game. It’s unclear what the purpose was of leaving hotspots out of these moments, but the only answer I could think of was that it’s for further confounding players and squeezing out a few more minutes of playtime.
Because this is a 3D game rather than pre-rendered, there’s some enjoyment to be had with its lighting effects. A late-game area requires a lit candle to navigate, and it’s fun to be able to raise and lower a portable light source, which is just not something we normally get to do on the fly in node-based adventures. However, using the candle in the outdoors breaks the illusion a little; the flame’s brightness is so strong that it made the already daylit snow glow with an intense yellow sheen, even several yards away from me. Otherwise the presentation is reasonably well-polished, aside from a few minor graphical glitches I noticed during scene transitions in a cave. Nothing egregious, by any means.
The Whisperer skirts the line between mystery game and supernatural horror experience. It is extremely tense in its final sections, particularly as you explore some locations you really don’t want to linger in. Occasional glimpses of unknown beasts really amp up the unease, but the game never leans all-in on the terror, preferring to hold off from jump scares and instead fill the air with dread. For my tastes, that’s a plus.
The narrative, delivered primarily through a handful of letters found around the trading post, sets the stage for a gripping mystery but never quite coalesces. By the time I reached the end, I wasn’t sure who my character really was – or if the actions I took even actually happened. There are so many surreal moments throughout Robert’s tale that the whole investigation may as well be the dreamlike memories of a long-dead man, and maybe that’s the point.
Between the eerie setting and well-crafted sense of menace, there’s much to admire here. Unfortunately, as a standalone game, The Whisperer is too lacking in content to be strongly recommended. Viewed as a cheaply priced proof of concept for what’s to come, however, it’s a bit more palatable. What I can say confidently is that Studio Chien d’Or has succeeded in making me very interested in The Whispering Valley, which is probably their whole point in releasing this. If they can expand on the puzzle variety and investigation gameplay (without hurling players to the mercies of excessive hidden hotspots), I could see this formula working well in a full-length experience. Hopefully the upcoming game also sheds some light into some of the foggier aspects of The Whisperer’s short story, as until it arrives, it’s difficult to really judge how this game works as a standalone prologue.
