Fans of the quests are very fond of both the Wadjet Eye Kizi Games studio and the games it releases. These are always very stylish “pixel” point & click adventures that blend noir with the “Wizard of Oz” or cyberpunk, female mediums with the ghosts of detectives, and modern New York with magic and demons. Suffice it to recall the iconic Gemini Rue and The Blackwell series. So, Whispers of a Machine is not a game from Wadjet Eye Games , but, as Roman Kartsev would say, very similar. And all because its director was Dave Gilbert (Dave Gilbert), who did most of the quests just for Wadjet Eye Games. Therefore, there are also stylish “pixels” here, and cyberpunk mixed with “Scandinavian noir”, and detective stories with ghosts.

As in many books, films or television series, which critics somehow relate to the Scandinavian noir (we, for example, about “The Bridge” ), the main character of Whispers of a Machine is a girl-detective, almost no personal life. Well, in general, here too, everything is gloomy, sad and no one can give a hand. My beloved man died, and at work Vera (that is the name of our heroine) needs to investigate a series of mysterious murders day and night, occasionally taking pieces of bone from a tarred corpse into the dust of a mechanism. Even Vera lives in a police station near the SIZO.

With each new day (and the whole story is divided into three), the heroine discovers new superhuman abilities in herself. For example, he learns to send temporary amnesia to characters, or even to copy a person’s appearance and voice. How exactly the puzzle solution is built on this, I think you can guess.

Having invented skills that are very unusual for a classic quest, the authors did not finish their experiments with mechanics. The fact is that what abilities Vera will receive during these three days depends on the player himself, or rather, on what kind of heroine he has in character. And this is already the difference between Whispers of a Machine and a typical Scandinavian noir: not everything is linear here, and the protagonist may well not be a cynical stinker or a grim pro.

Periodically, we face a choice of how to respond and what to say. You can, for example, tell a girl who has lost a loved one, that, say, Vera herself was in such a situation. And you can see that this does not give her the right to violate the law. All these answers incline the scales towards one of the three paths - empathy, professionalism or self-confidence.

The nanosubstance called blue, which is used by our cyborg detective, allows her to develop abilities that correspond to her psychological state. Voloshin, a 43-year-old drunk , naturally had a girl who sympathized with everything and everyone, which is why she was given the challenge of amnesia and mimicry. And, for example, those who were inclined to analytics, taught her a special vision, which allows to see what is hidden from the ordinary sight.

This, of course, does not affect the plot, but determines the content of many puzzles. And if it was enough for me to bring a technical officer and just ask her to turn off the electricity (after making her forget about other work for a while), then the “analysts” had to bother with the current during a separate puzzle.

Otherwise, everything is a whole classic: we communicate a lot, collect items and use them in the right places, click on all active points (since they are highlighted) and solve puzzles. There are a lot of puzzles, and they are interesting: somewhere you have to clear the audio recording from noise, somewhere - correctly press the buttons under the exhibits in the museum to open the secret door, somewhere - manually enter the passwords extracted from books, and different commands through the panel management. And this is not all that we manage to do in three days of investigation.

Communication is especially important. Often the plot simply will not budge (or there is a solution to the riddle) until you discuss the right topics with the right people or overhear some conversation.

Yes, in Whispers of a Machine, as in almost any quest, there are conventions and situations that are far-fetched. When, for example, the heroine at point-blank refuses to notice the initials of one of the victims in a locked cabinet, until she understands in another room where they can be. This is all well and good, but if she didn’t understand this, then her eyes were still there before that — what prevented me from seeing two such familiar letters on the cabinet? But such situations, thank God, are rare. And where it is not clear what they want from you, as a rule, it turns out that you yourself did not understand or did not guess.

The main thing is why it is impossible to break away from Whispers of a Machine - there is a very exciting story. Scandals, intrigues, investigations, mysterious murders, betrayals, attempts on our heroine, attempts to survive in the forest - everything will be here.

In history and in the setting itself, there are many cyberpunk topics. The war with machines, totalitarian and terrorist sects, conspiracies, attempts to create supermind, illegal cybertechnologies - everything is written convincingly, and to this is added human motives.

Suffice it to say that from time to time Vera has to take care of an unborn child (not her own!) And communicate with the ghost of a beloved man who seems to have died, and now she either sees herself or gets out of some kind of neural network. Here, this moment of interaction between the heroine and the male ghost is not as detailed as in the games of The Blackwell series, but it is the weight of the final choice between two fundamentally different endings.

In general, I’m wildly excited about Whispers of a Machine - if only because I love cyberpunk, noir, scandinavian detectives, and Dave Gilbert’s games. Everyone who saw them will understand me and will not miss the work of Clifftop Games and Faravid Interactive . In addition, there are really very successful and sometimes unique gameplay finds. The music is good, and all the dialogues are very cool voiced.

But within the framework of our program “Down with“ Amazing ”to everybody indie in a row!” Let's say this: once I guessed who betrayed the main character, even before she herself guessed. For me, it was pretty obvious. On the other hand, if you want to sit, look and guess who is to blame and who is the murderer, this, you see, is a sign of an exciting detective story. In general, decide for yourself. For me and all quest lovers, this is definitely an amazing game. And for indie haters - probably something closer to "Commendable." Yes, and it is short - I want more!

Pros: the plot tightly clings from the first minute; addictive and varied gameplay with a few very interesting ideas; the world and the main characters are well written; a lot of different puzzles; the ability to influence their actions on the heroin's abilities and the content of riddles; stylish picture; All conversations are professionally voiced.

Cons: short duration; some riddles and their solutions are sewn with white threads; There is no Russian language.