Whispers of the Hourglass

Whispers of the Hourglass is an exploratory puzzler with a unique format. The game environment is a stylized 3D landscape that can be traversed in any order, with full freedom of movement. You begin by exploring a house and soon find yourself on a modern city street. The story unwinds as you solve small puzzles to open gates. Gates grant access to hourglasses and scrolls which provide poetic snippets and//or clues for opening gates. Some of the clues are obvious while others are a bit obtuse. Some gates are mechanical and do not require clues. Despite finding all items, there were some clues I could not match up and so I solved a handful of gates with brute force. As you play, you are flipped into an alternate time zone and can begin exploring a village in the past. The past and present are connected by clues, puzzles, and narrative that weave the two together. The story itself is revealed through poetry and still-life illustrations which can be revisited, at any time. A map option allows you to flip between past and present and fast-travel between areas of the city and the village. In a perfect world, I would have opened a gate and then used the new clue to open the next gate. This might have unveiled the story in a logical manner. Instead, I found gates as I wandered, opened those I could, and circled back when I had more clues. Upon completion, I revisited my scrolls and hourglasses to get a better sense of overarching story. The game autosaves on exit but does not necessarily put you back in the exact place when you return. All puzzle progress is maintained. Hourglasses, scrolls, and pocket watches disappear after discovery (although pocket watches respawn when you return which is a tad inconvenient). Steam achievements are supported and you will earn 100% if you find all scrolls, hourglasses, and pocket watches. Once you have found the final scroll of the game and “finished,” you are free to circle back for any missing items. This means that there is no need to play through more than once. I enjoyed Whispers of the Hourglass. It has a variety of puzzles and held my interest. I floundered about in the beginning because I did not read the first scroll with care. Once I got the hang of how clues were revealed, I was off and running. If you are paying attention, there are random objects in the environment that can be interacted with for some small surprises. These have nothing to do with the story but were fun to find. The poetry is creative and makes Whispers of the Hourglass a nice change from your standard puzzler. I recommend it to those who seek a quiet journey with some puzzles to solve along the way. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow [b]IndieGems[/b] if you enjoyed this review and want to see more like it.[/url][/quote]

Unfortunately, I can't recommend this game. I love to support indie developers, but the puzzles in this game aren't even really puzzles. You collect hourglasses that give you the solution to the next puzzle in the sequence. With the ability to use a compass to find the next puzzle in the sequence, there isn't a whole lot of game left in between.

The beginning feels a bit empty. You wake up in your bed and start wandering around the house, but nothing really guides you or explains what’s going on. You can interact with a few objects, though most of them don’t add much and can easily be ignored. There’s also a noticeable lack of feedback. For example, you might try to open a door and nothing happens, even though some of them are already half open, which makes the whole experience a bit confusing. Your first real objective is to find a specific door that leads to the first puzzle. It’s not the strongest introduction, since you’re faced with rotating two keys in the correct way to unlock it. Inside, there’s a second puzzle that feels more intuitive and easier to understand. After solving it, you step outside, collect your first hourglass, and finally notice a shift in the visuals, which is a nice touch. As you explore further, you realize you’re free to walk around the city, but it feels strangely empty, with no people anywhere. Instead, the world is filled with puzzles. Some are immediately clear, like lighting up all the squares or following a specific path across tiles. Others are much more obscure, like a wheel covered in symbols or levers that change numbers without any obvious logic. In those cases, you’re expected to find clues first. These clues are usually hidden inside hourglasses, which you earn by solving puzzles. You can revisit them anytime, and they contain short pieces of text. There’s also another type of reward, poems from the 16th century, though they don’t seem to offer any real hints. At times, puzzles can be solved through trial and error rather than understanding. For example, one puzzle involves finding a path simply by trying over and over until the correct sequence clicks, while another asks you to create an obvious pattern. It’s also common to come across clues for puzzles you’ve already completed, which can feel a bit out of order. Eventually, after finding a certain hourglass, you gain the ability to travel to the past, arriving in a coastal town. The setting changes, but the core idea stays the same. You explore, solve puzzles, and collect more hourglasses and poems. It’s enjoyable to run around and discover things at first, and both worlds include collectibles like pocket watches that unlock a final entry. If you get stuck, there’s a compass to point you in the right direction, though it doesn’t help with finding poems or pocket watches. The game itself is fairly short and can be completed in about an hour and a half. After finishing, you’re free to go back and search for anything you missed, but without much guidance, this can quickly turn into a long and sometimes frustrating hunt.

Saw this game through an ad on reddit, the hook of the game sounded promising. Unfortunately, this game is pretty bad. Each puzzle that you solve unlocks an achievement. Since there are 26 hidden achievements, that means there are only 26 puzzles in the game. If they were meaty puzzles, this would not be an issue, but they are not meaty. They are extremely basic. I've already done a third of the game in 24 minutes. I'll try some more later to see if my initial findings are still correct.

fun puzzle adventure with variety and cool way of telling a story

Nice variety of puzzles and unique storytelling

A very cleverly designed and cute puzzle game that I can really see the enthusiasm behind its making process. It also has a cool storyline that slowly builds up as the "hourglasses keep whispering". I've also heard that the guy who did the music for the trailer of the game is very hot. I'd recommend (the game, not the guy).

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9686972/]Follow "[b]First Person Exploration and Puzzle Games[/b]" for more games like this![/url][/quote] A first person puzzler where you explore and find puzzles. It's... okay? There's a bunch of puzzles scattered around, without much cohesion. A lot of the puzzles give you the solution to a different puzzle when solved, so most of the "puzzles" are not logic puzzles, they're "find the puzzle that this solution goes to." A lot of them are easily brute-forceable (which I thought was the intended solution, until I later got the solution from a different puzzle). And the ones that are actual logic puzzles were stupidly easy. So, the game ends up being more about exploring than puzzle solving. The problem is, there's not much to explore. The game a handful of random props, and puzzles. That's it. There's no lore or storytelling, there's only puzzles. If the puzzles were more interesting, I could see this being worth a try. But as it stands, I couldn't get into it.

A very atmospheric and creative puzzle adventure. The mystery keeps you curious as you progress. I liked the comic-style storytelling, the medieval atmosphere and the overall indie charm. Recommended for players who enjoy narrative puzzle games.

Okay this was a short but sweet game with cute art and story was a good touch while going after the next clue. Positives: - Art - Story Negatives: - Puzzles more of a treasure hunt than a puzzle. - Puzzles could have more variety in it but well its just couple bucks Conclusion: A really cool premise about thieves, pirates, past interact with the present but sadly under delivered. Still it was a cool short treasure hunt with cute graphics