Written by: Rik
Date posted: December 27, 2025

New-fangled point and click games that look like the old point and click games while adding quite a few twists of their own are a relatively recent addition to FFG, but hopefully one of interest to at least some of this site’s 7 readers. True to form, we still lag many years behind the latest releases, although in my mind 2019 still counts as ‘pretty recent’, in the same way that I think that I’ve ‘just turned 40’.

Anyway, to Whispers of a Machine, a sci-fi caper with a Scandinavian flavour, in which you guide Special Agent Vera Englund through the rural town of Nordsund after she’s called in to help the local cops investigate a series of murders. Following a brief introduction, you’re straight into the action at a rather grisly crime scene, and after your new partner mistakes you for a nosey onlooker, his error is compounded by your discovery that he’s not made the best job of securing the area.

It’s at this point you’re presented with your first dialogue decisions, after being warned by the game that each choice will help shape Vera’s personality, and that it uses an autosave system so you can’t use any sneaky save and reload tactics. Do you brush it off and put this overawed cop at ease? Keep it professional, and stick to pointing out the possible consequences of his mistakes? Or firmly state that it’s simply not good enough and that he should defer to you in future?

In other words, will Special Agent Englund, under your control, approach her work with an empathetic, analytical or assertive attitude? A summary of Vera’s personality is provided by a gauge in the bottom left of the screen, and this will determine her responses when you’re not in direct control of a dialogue choice. In addition, Vera will develop new abilities as the game progresses, in line with her personality type, because not only is she a slick city cop with a sharp haircut and snazzy coat, she’s also cybernetically augmented.

As your partner Gabriel nervily attempts a joke about you having X-ray vision (and you decide how to deal with that question) the game also presents you with an immediate opportunity to utilise your new augmentations. Excitingly, for anyone in search of a detective game where you actually do some detective work at the crime scene, one of the tools allows you to scan for, collect and compare DNA evidence – a bit like CSI, except without any sprays or powders or the need to go back to the lab.

The way you follow the evidence is quite intuitive and you soon get the hang of the so-called Smart Scanner and rely on it as your first port of call at each scene. Others are used less regularly: super strength allows you an early cathartic opportunity to bypass a lock, but then the game finds ways to stop you doing this repeatedly, while your built-in lie detector also isn’t called upon as often as you’d expect.

Your augmentations derive their power from a fluid known as ‘Blue’ which apparently develops with time and in accordance with the individual’s personality, which is the game’s explanation for how you acquire new skills, depending on your choices, with each passing day. It offers a level of role-playing, although mainly in terms of how you want Vera to react, rather than what kind of approach you want to take to the puzzles, as it’s pretty standard adventure game fare regardless. There is a level of replay value, though, especially as you can create a hybrid personality type by behaving in one way for a portion of the game and switching it up later.

Completely original takes on a sci-fi future in which society is trying to recover from a big bad event are pretty hard to come by, but although Whispers doesn’t quite achieve this, the Nordic noir approach provides a refreshingly European take on small town dystopia, with tensions between characters, including Vera, playing out in an understated, almost polite, fashion. As the big city outsider, you may not be entirely trusted by the local police chief, Commissary Andersson, or by Stina Rooth, the local politician to whom you report – indeed they say as much to each other as they await your arrival – but they give you their cooperation nonetheless. Equally, they largely also maintain a united front, despite work-related friction clearly bubbling below the surface.

As the tale unfolds, bigger questions – mainly, whether to trust technology, or humanity – reveal themselves. However, although there are rival factions, and zealotry on both sides, the game largely avoids forcing the player to pick one until it’s absolutely necessary, instead allowing Vera to focus on navigating a path through the mess to focus on the job she was sent there to do. Like her temporary colleagues, she largely maintains a professional approach, regardless of the personality type chosen, although the side-effects of her Blue cause this to slip occasionally as she experiences hallucinations that risk allowing her past to interfere with the present.

It’s a good yarn, with well-rounded characters supported by strong voice performances throughout (only one – a slightly wacky ventriloquist – stands out as a slight irritant) and some genuinely surprising moments. The only minor disappointment is that you don’t get the opportunity to use the various tools at your disposal to investigate many individual crime scenes before the main story takes over. Your correspondent’s lengthy trudge through the official CSI games may have caused a slight fixation on this aspect, admittedly, and your own mileage may vary. However, as already noted, it is really well done here, and it seems a shame not to be able to play around with a few more lower-stakes cases before getting into the meat of the game.

The puzzles are pretty gentle, particularly for those raised on the unforgiving point and click games of many years ago, although they are a small step above the likes of Blackwell or A Golden Wake in terms of difficulty. You can die, but given that there are no manual saves, the consequences are almost non-existent, as you’re immediately restored to the place of danger to reconsider your previous decisions. This can result in some comically fast-paced deaths, and in a couple of instances the on-screen drama was undercut by a slight pantomime element as I repeatedly guided Vera to her doom.

Bar a few quibbles, though, Whispers of a Machine is a pretty fine effort. It offers a different twist on a few sci-fi tropes, some solid and well-realised investigation mechanics, and a light role-playing element that, combined with a short-ish play time of around 6-7 hours, might just persuade you to consider at least one repeat playthrough. If you find yourself idly flicking through the digital sales pages this festive season while digesting half a kilo of chocolate and half-watching the TV, you should do yourself a favour and pick it up (and, ideally, get off the goddamn sofa and go and play it).