Welcome to Nordsund! It is a peaceful city high above the ground where you can see old tech and have a quaint life. Or at least, that’s what Nordsund was. Your arrival in Nordsund is due to a murder, and it’s your job to investigate it. You will take on the role of Vera, a highly trained special agent who has been augmented by a substance called Blue. This substance gives you superhuman abilities, exactly what you need to figure out the mysteries of this town. Welcome to the world of Raw Fury’s Whispers of a Machine.
Vera arrives in Nordsund as a fairly well-rounded agent, but you can change that. She has three main personality attributes: aggressive, analytical, and empathetic. The choices you make during the game will sway Vera in one or two of these directions. This will ultimately affect the game in the form of augmentations. You start with three: forensic scanner, biometric analyzer, and muscle boost. These three skills will help you solve the case you are here to crack. As the case goes on, Vera grows stronger—and she adapts. Depending on her personality, the two augmentations she will acquire will differ, thus changing the way puzzles will be solved.
The game mechanics are simple: it’s mostly point and click. There are some cases where items will need to be merged or interacted with in special ways. You may find yourself in a quick time event of sorts, this is an active crime scene after all. In the event of a death, or getting caught infiltrating, don’t stress, the game will reset and you can search for a different solution. Timing does matter, and so does sound… take that as a hint, I really needed it.
The lore of this game is not so simple. It’s in the future, but after a huge calamity has changed the pace and use of tech drastically. The game has tons of details about this conflict, and you’ll get to learn about multiple factions throughout your investigation. Ethics play a huge role in that conflict and guide many of the characters you will meet. Figuring out where you, or Vera, stand will be a rocky but rewarding road.
This game is about more than solving a case. In a way it become an RPG, with Vera developing along with the player. And she, and you, will get tied up in far more than you bargained for. There will come a time when choices need to be made, and personally, I feel I did the best I could for Vera and for Nordsund. Part of me wants to know what would have happened if I chose differently, and that to me means Whispers of a Machine is a well written game.
If you are looking for a game where a mystery comes together with lore and player choices, with is the game for you. Every bit of information you uncover will be relevant in some way. It is challenging, but mostly not frustrating. If you do get stuck, try investigating a different lead for a while. You may not have unlocked a location or source that you need, but eventually all the pieces will come together.
You can buy Whispers of a Machine through Steam or GoG. It is also available on both the Apple App and Google Play stores.