Whispers in the West draws quickly closer to release

Written by Jack Allin — February 6, 2022 at 11:01

There isn't much good that's come out of the pandemic, but one silver lining is the formation of Team Dissonant, a group of young people from the UK who came together through the Kickstart scheme (not to be confused with Kickstarter) to create a "highly personal game project" called Whispers in the West, an upcoming point-and-click murder mystery for one to four players.

Located in the "far reaches of the Wild West," the town of Brimstone is usually a sleepy one but has recently been rocked by a crime perpetrated by one of its own residents. To identify the guilty party, you and up to three friends must "collaborate, look for clues and piece the puzzle together to solve the mystery." With multiple stories available via a script selection feature, each with its own "crimes, culprits and clues to discover," no two playthroughs need be alike.

Presented in a hand-sketched third-person art style, Whispers in the West looks to be a traditional point-and-click adventure at first glance. What separates it from most, however, is that while it can be played solo, it is designed to be enjoyed cooperatively with a minimum of two and a maximum of four players. There are four different protagonists available to choose from – the Outlaw, Cowboy, Deputy and Sheriff – and "each offers a unique skill, which leads to different interactions with the town's residents." Rather than brainteaser-type puzzles, the focus here is on narrative-driven detective-style investigation, such as "finding contradictions in an alibi, spotting lies, [and] identifying timeline clues." 

Rather than being matched with strangers, players will link up via invitation by a host who owns a particular script. Other participants won't need to own that script for themselves, merely download the base version of the game and join in to play. Once the story begins, each player will experience it from their own distinct perspective, exchanging information through an external communication tool and only physically interacting with others in their group when together on-screen. Certain objectives are meant to be completed by particular characters, but when no such character is present, alternate routes will be available to continue without them. 

There is currently no firm target release date for Whispers in the West, but the developers hope to launch the base game and initial script on Steam for Windows PC sometime later this year, either for free or a nominal purchase price, with new scripts released regularly afterwards as commercial DLC.