The Whisperer

Alright. [i]The Whisperer[/i] is done and dusted. Initially, I spent a little bit of time trying to get the game to open into something other than a tiny window on my screen, but was unsuccessful regardless of the settings I used. So, if you intend to play this, and assuming it wasn't just some weird quirk with my rig, expect to be squinting a lot. With that out of the way, I thought this was an interesting title. All told, excluding my time playing around with settings, it took me about 45 minutes to complete. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3244652860 The story is a prelude to the larger game released after this, and is an investigation into the disappearance of a couple people in the cold of Canadian winter. You're operating under the basis that the people you are looking for were murdered by a rival trade company, and this takes place during the frontier days, so there aren't really phones or what have you. What you find both resolves the mystery, ends on another cliffhanger of sorts, and leaves at least the question of a spiritual presence open for the sequel to likely explore. I plan to play that later this year, but for now, I am basing my assumptions off of what was presented in this game. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3244662523 Anyway, it employs notes, sound and visuals to create a pretty believable setting. It's creepy, there is blood, and weird stuff seems to be happening. I thought it was pretty cool. It is visually both spartan and yet quite well done. I live in a winter area that sees snow eight months a year, and snow can and does dampen colors and create a natural filtering effect. This is portrayed quite well here. Gameplay-wise, it's a pretty straightforward 3-D point and click adventure. You click on areas and objects, collect and potentially combine items you find to solve puzzles and progress the story; and that's about it. I thought it was appropriate for the game. However, there are a couple issues. The screen size issue I mentioned earlier, in addition to just being unnecessary, also makes certain items really hard to find. And, even with lighting turned up, this game is incredibly dark outside of the main areas. The cave sequence really suffered for this, but even the simple act of finding at least one key was made way more difficult than it should be exclusively due to the lack of lighting. At one point, you even have a lit candle, and best I can tell, it does nothing at all other than unlock the ability to progress through the dark cave area. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3244662535 I also don't really recommend playing this on the Steam Deck or even with a controller. This is a k/m game all the way. All told, is the game worth $4.99? Not in my opinion. Is it worth playing though? I think so. Earmark [i]The Whisperer[/i] for a sale purchase would be my advice. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]

It looks decent visually, but it's very short with a mediocre story. I'd expect this to be a free demo--it's not worth the 5 bucks.

I've played a lot of point and click games in the past. This one has almost no story, so it's difficult to see how it might be a prelude, and if this is anything like the game it is to precede, I won't get that game either. At one point I got stuck and without any further pointers, quit right there. I'm too old for this, which is why I don't recommend it, unless you like "games" that punish with out any fun.

This should be free. It's a 20 minute or so prologue to the main game and they sell it for $5. The atmosphere of the game is cool but not much here at all, it's a demo.

"The Whisperer | Le murmureur" is a fairly basic Unity asset flipped point and click adventure, one of many hundreds, if not thousands of these glutting Steam. The "developer" paid for/pirated a few Unity asset store packs, arranged them haphazardly in a first person adventure game template, and submitted it to Valve as if they're real game developers. Now, suggesting this is an asset flip is harsh, but it's true. Two notable criteria for what makes an asset flip instead of legitimate use of stock assets are whether those assets comprise the majority of the game, and whether the "developer" properly credited the people who created most of the assets in the game. This game fails both of those tests. The "developers" here didn't provide up-front credits for any of the artists and real, actual game developers who created the assets here, so this is plagiarism, as well as cash grab shovelware. In this case the bulk of the visual assets, which the "developer" wants you to think he created, are actually taken from a professional asset developer, "NatureManufacture". That's why the visual appearance is so high... because the developer didn't create them. They just want you to think they did. This is unethical. What's left over is a somewhat unpolished, dumbed down point and click with an edgy dark "suicide/gore/violence" theme. It looks like a first person adventure, but there's no locomotion, you have to click to get between various asset flipped scenes, like Myst, only this was "made" much more recently. Trying to address social issues through the medium of video games is misguided and can be harmful. While it's plausible to suggest the intention was noble, this can do more harm than good. Game developers are not professionals in areas of mental health and social problems, and when they use video games to pretend they are, this can cause far more harm than good. It's my opinion that it's improper to use video games to push political or social agendas. Apart from the harm such hamfisted attempts at addressing social problems can cause, this offers zero benefit to PC gamers. People suffering from health issues or other social problems should seek out professional help rather than going to crap shovelware video games attempting to get sales by exploiting such problems for their own benefit, as is the case here. Another thing... this isn't really a proper full game, either. This asset flip is more of an advertisement for another game the developer made (probably also an asset flip, we'll see when we get around to it). So there's another reason to avoid this. Taking this shovelware seriously as if it was a genuine attempt to make a game, it doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, left handed gamers or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 7 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. Taking the work of others and putting your own name on it, as the developer here has done, is highly unethical. It's plagiarism. It's morally bankrupt to claim someone else's work as your own. And it's much worse to do this for profit. It's harmful to gamers and the gaming industry. It's harmful to indie developers because it gives indie devs a bad name, and it makes it harder for them to compete to find an audience for their own, genuinely made products. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam? "The Whisperer | Le murmureur" has the insane price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the unethical nature of the developer. For comparison, the $5 asking price for this game could get you games like "Just Cause 2", "Torchlight" or the "Tomb Raider" remake. Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this. [quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says: [quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote] So I reinstalled the game to validate my review and confirm the accuracy as the developer whines they did credit the assets they used to make this asset flip. [b]There's no title credits page[/b]. The credits are hidden at the end to ensure gamers won't even find out this is an asset flip until the end. If it's not easy and accessible for gamers to read, it might as well not be there. The developer has taken deliberate steps to hide it from gamers so they won't see it easily. It's the same thing, effectively, as not crediting the game. We also know that this is deliberate. It's easy to include a simple link to the credits on the title. Why would the developer deliberately choose not to do this, if not to hide the true origin of the game assets from gamers? The developer insists that game development involves this three step process: 1) Take asset packs from NatureManufacture off the Unity Asset Store. 2) Take steps to try hide the fact you did that. 3) Breach Valve guidelines to whine at reviewers when you get caught. Fact: Third party assets make up THE MAJORITY of this game. This alone is enough to classify this as an asset flip. Fact: The developer took steps to hide this fact from potential customers by making the credits unviewable without slogging through the asset flip first. How are prospective buyers going to make this decision when developers take steps to hide important information about who really made the game? That's why reviews like this are important to inform gamers about the products they might (or might not) buy. Gamers hate this kind of asset flip BS from developers like Chien D'or, who put their ego before gamers and asset creators. This guy thinks he's the main character. No wonder the game only reached a peak player count of 7 players. It's an abject failure and the developers attitude here shows us why. Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this game to anyone.

Fine as a teaser to the Whispering Valley, which is what it's supposed to be. Has a good idea going for it but it's extremely short so it's more of a proof of concept, really not much to play with here. I got it for $0.75 so I didn't mind, but I wouldn't really recommend this full price. $5 isn't a lot, but I'd just recommend playing the whispering valley instead especially considering you can get the penumbra trilogy (which is more fleshed out than this) for about the same price. My playtime as of this review is roughly how long it takes to complete the game totally blind.

It's really a click-fest, but at least it's got a creepy atmosphere and is available cheaply. It's the sort of point and click where you wish the player had free movement control, to properly explore its world.

This is the prologue to The Whispering Valley | La vallée qui murmure. It's a point 'n click with fixed positions, but you can look around in 3d. Graphics are very barebone. But what did I just play? I think I murdered my father. Don't know why. And then you've done it and it ends. And that's about as far as I got regarding the 'story'. The game itself doesn't give any clues about what to do. There isn't that much content so it's pretty easy to figure out. Except when you miss an interactable spot so you don't even know why you got some seemingly important item that should be used there. I really hope it makes sense after playing the main game, but boy this was underwhelming. [i]Edit: quick update: currently been playing the main game for about an hour. That one also looks basic, though it's better than this prologue. And so far I'm liking it. Quite intriging.[/i]

Found a hatchet, read a letter, found a key, opened a door, went inside, found a bed with a small table next to it. Really exciting game. Maybe there's supposed to be something else that I missed, maybe someplace else to explore? Oh well.

Hallo? Ist Ca na da? ^^ Wer gruselige Adventurespiele mag, der ist hiermit ganz gut bedient. Es dient wohl als sehr kurze Vorgeschichte für die nachfolgende, spätere Handlung, dem Spiel Whispering Valley. Wir befinden uns am Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts im unteren Teil von Quebeck, Canada. Dort tobt gerade der blutig ausartende Krieg zwischen den beiden großen Handelsgilden der Region, was auch schon in einer TV-Serie thematisiert worden ist, und viel Stoff für eine interessante Handlung bietet. Unser Alter Ego ist mitten im tiefen Wintertreiben auf dem Weg zu einem kleinen, weit abgelegenen Außenposten einer dieser Gruppierungen. Was dann passiert, müsst ihr für euch herausfinden. Ihr bewegt euch in Schritten, mit der Maus kann man sich frei herumbewegen und Aktionen ausführen. Das kennt man aus vielen, vor allem älteren, Adventurespielen, die ich hier auch schon reviewed habe. Ich finde das ganz gut so, denn dann ist die 3D Umgebung nicht ganz so schlimm beim Absuchen von kleinen Objekten etc. Stellt euch einfach vor, ihr spielt ein Amnesia Light, ohne Killermonster und in festen Standpunkten. Finde ich für mich perfekt, Amnesia habe ich zu viel Schiss und Frust vor. Das Spiel bietet als Option das ein und ausblenden von historischen Infos, was ich für das Verständnis der Handlung als sehr wichtig empfinde. Die Handlung in diesem kurzen Spiel ist natürlich relativ beschränkt und auch die Rätsel sind sehr wenige vorhanden. Als Einstieg für The Whispering Valley ist das aber ok und ich würde auf jeden Fall das Bundle im Doppelrabatt mitnehmen. Fazit: sehr kurz, aber nett