BottomLine at the Top: As someone who has long held a fascination with futurism and the singularity this game was a must buy right away for me. Overall an excellent sci-fi P&C game with cool cyberpunk detective elements. Highly recommended!


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Pros
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-Again, I am a big fan of any sort of media that deals with the theme of the singularity and gets that concept into the public consciousness (especially cool to see it starting to crop up more and more in gaming!)
-Starts right up. No setup headaches/nonsense. Overall very stable game as well with no major bugs or crashing.
-Great overall design. Excellent art and animations. Creative sci-fi story.
-Vera is a cool character. Not sure if there will be any kind of sequel but I'd def love to see more of her and the world the developer has created here.
-Incorporates an interesting personality mechanic. Continues a trend I've been seeing in more modern P&C games to introduce replayability thru different moral choices (also recently seen in Unavowed, another great recent P&C game!)
-Good quality of life features (spacebar interactable activity/item highlight function, double click fast travel to next room/area)
-The cyberpunk detective mechanics were pretty cool what with the bioscanner/heart rate detector/notebook. Reminded me a lot of Heavy Rain.
-Decent voice acting (including a couple of your favs from the Wadjet Eye Games team!)
-Atmospheric Music. Melancholic Norse themes with a dash of cyberpunk.
-Relatively good game flow. At times it does border on too simplistic but overall gameplay and story keeps you hooked.
-Museum location reminds me a lot of Star Trek: Judgement Rites Ch.6: Museum Piece (a real classic!)


-------------------------------------
Meh.
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-Sprite walking routines and notebook updates take a second or two longer than I'd like.
-The formality of how characters talk doesn't always fit the tone of the game. For instance, the Doctor is supposed to be this guy with a dark sense of humor, but his writing feels "stiff" at times. Also, the main character Vera vacillates between empathy and logical stoicism. The dialogue choices that are up to the player can’t sometimes clash with the tone of the default non-selectable dialogue.


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Cons
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-No manual save slots. The game has three autosave slots for different individual games, but it only saves to one slot per new game. This was an unusual choice. As for why the developers chose this, I can only assume it has something to do with replayability. If it was given save slots it would have been much easier to go thru the different moral path options versus having to essentially restarting a new game every time you want to try a new path. I absolutely appreciate the time and energy it takes to create a game with multiple action paths and endings, I typically am not big on replaying an entire game just to see all possible outcomes. Having a save feature to eliminate some of the backtracking is nice because that’s typically the only way ill see different outcomes. I could go on and on about this subject (check us out over at the Coalition of Point & Clickers for more commentary on modern P&C's and multipaths versus extended story!) but I’ll just say as someone who doesn’t have the time to spend replaying games a save feature would have been much appreciated!


Final Thoughts: Sometimes when you see a preview of a tv show/movie/game/book you know right away it’ll be something you enjoy. This game was very much like that for me and I was not disappointed! In the past I would have said that $15 for my 6 hours of game play would feel a little pricey. However, I have come to realize that some games, if they really speak to your interests, are well worth the price and honestly $15 is not going to break anyone’s bank. Adding the replayabilty, if your so inclined, will only increase the $ per hour ratio closer to 1:1. If you’re a fan of sci-fi, cyberpunk, and P&C games you can buy this game full price knowing you'll have a great time without being disappointed and be supporting a great developer as well. Highly recommended!!!

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Another game where I'm on the fence between a severely critical but positive, and a negative review. I decided I couldn't possibly give a thumbs up to something this flat and unmemorable. Bland, bland, bland - that was my main impression after finishing it, and subsequent playthroughs didn't do much to improve it. But they did give me ammunition.

A shame, as Whispers of a Machine has a lot of things that attract me, namely: sci-fi, cyberpunk/post-AI dystopian setting, investigative murder mystery, perhaps even deals with interesting themes centered around singularity etc. It also has some cool features that promise to breathe new life into traditional point'n'click gameplay and *gasp* replayability. So I kind of understand the appeal and why it has such a positive rating here on Steam. But, the binary system never tells the whole story. I mean, I almost gave it a positive one myself despite being completely unimpressed by it.

That's because there aren't many things this game does wrong per se, but almost everything it does is underwhelming and not enough. Let's start with the setting and atmosphere. The decision to base it in a small rural town is... well, isn't really used for anything interesting. Here we have Special Agent Vera Englund coming to this small town to solve a series of murders, kind of like Agent Cooper coming to Twin Peaks, and if you except some unique idiosyncrasies and quirks, or maybe some tension between an outsider and suspicious locals, you'll be disappointed. There isn't even that dark, oppressive atmosphere of Nordic Noir this game tries to be, just a plain, mundane, dull rural town. And since this is a post-AI/post-apocalyptic world on top of that, these backwoods guarantee you don't have to show much of anything of that fallout (junkheap and robot shop notwithstanding), muting any overly cyberpunk and dystopian vibe as well.

At first I thought, ok this is just a beginning, a starting point, the world will expand when Vera takes off on a grand adventure trying to uncover the mystery of the Blue that augments her with special abilities and seems to tinker/react to her mindset, or even more about the Collapse, to kind of tie one case to something much bigger like a good sci-fi. But nope, the whole game takes place in this one setting with several locations, all very limited in scope. It's a very, very small game world.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2581594854

Surely that can be compensated with good worldbuilding, but sadly it was rather poor and unconvincing. In the beginning, talking to everyone about everything seemed interesting and promising, but soon proved to be mostly a wasted effort. The good old clicking on everything wasn't really useful for worldbuilding either as Vera would just give very brief, on point and boring descriptions with no variations (well, boring seems to be in character). The place where you can find out more info, the museum, is quite limited with only one screen. Still, I appreciated the history lesson even though it felt like quite an exposition dump. There was also a library later where you couldn't interact with any books. Why? What about all those runes? Nothing.

Small game world, small story, everything is so small. What a bland post-apocalyptic world... If this is intentional, which I suspect it is in trying to mimic Nordic Noir, then the execution leaves a lot to be desired. If keeping the markings of the previous world very subtle was the goal, and also making the story small-scale to serve as a reflection of wider tensions that led to the Collapse, then it needed properly fleshed out characters, better layered story, exciting and tension-filled, keeping you on the edge-of-your-seat, twists and turns like a good murder mystery, not to mention compelling atmosphere, more worldbuilding and backstory to tickle your imagination, leaving you thirsty and wanting more. If I can't have my adventuring and a sprawling world, then give me a deep human story. Alas, nothing of the sort here. On the contrary, the story is quite predictable and uninspired, easily resolved, just... very dull. All those interesting themes I mentioned - artificial intelligence, singularity, transhumanism, cybernetic augmentation, even globalisation - are hardly explored, mostly used as buzzwords.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2581589042

Having a so-so story in an adventure game isn't always a deal-breaker, but the ones I ended up liking despite that gave me something else: puzzle heavy world and a joy of exploration. Whispers of a Machine is a classic point'n'click at its core, but can hardly be called puzzle heavy. It's actually on the easy side and has all those nice things to make it even easier: hotspot highlighter, fast travel on exits and a notebook where Vera neatly writes down all the tasks, topics and people you should investigate. They even get crossed out when you're done so you don't have to wonder if there's more to them. You always know where to go next cause either she tells you or it's obvious. Preserving linearity is all fine and well in making sure the story flows; if only it were a better story. I enjoyed a few puzzles though and appreciated that some could be approached in more ways than one.

The most interesting thing about gameplay though are things you rarely see in adventure games: choices that shape MC's personality and play styles, influence puzzle solving, form paths and multiple endings... on paper. Like I mentioned, a nano-substance, the mysterious Blue, gives her special abilities and reacts to her mindset which you impact with your choices. Those are most numerous on the first and second day and depending on whether you make Vera empathetic, analytical or assertive, the appropriate skill unlocks the next day. On top of that, you're already equipped by default with augs such as scanner, biometrics analyser and strength booster. Cool! It really made the gameplay more interesting overall and brought some nice multiple puzzle solutions.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2573993259

Because of this the game is touted for its great replayability and to make sure you really experience it, you're not given a manual save, only 3 slots of autosaves for 3 playthroughs. Of course, that's the only way to get all achievements. Ugh, I hate that and as much as I appreciate these attempts to breathe fresh air into the genre, the replayability is an illusion. Three different paths basically boil down to slightly different puzzle solutions, so I wouldn't call them paths at all. You're not actually shaping Vera's personality cause outside of a few lines and facial expressions here and there, she reverts back to her default, generic, boring persona which is actually closest to empathic. (Be a ♥♥♥♥♥ dammit!) No matter what path you're on, you will get the same two endings determined by the choice at the very end* (staying in character be damned). Is it worth playing 3 times just for somewhat different puzzle solving? If it were a better game overall, I wouldn't mind it; as as it stands - no! I'd rather have a sense of wonder and adventuring in one long, more fleshed out playthrough than these gimmicks and fake replayability.

It looks nice I guess, this hand-drawn pixel art; and voice acting is great, no complaints there. I also liked how the main actors, those that move the plot, are all women. Too bad it was so utterly forgettable. The only reason I'll remember it is because I'm giving it more thought for review purposes. Otherwise, I would've forgotten it as soon as I finished it, like all those other games I can't recall now. I can't even think of a title for the review, ffs.

Whispers of a Machine is a somewhat complex, yet compelling Sci-Fi point & click title set in a Post-AI dystopia. I found the most interesting aspect to be how there are multiple methods of solving the same puzzle and the method chosen will influence both the story and available augmentations (special abilities) as the game continues.

Pros
+ Excellent dialogue and engaging voice overs for all text.
+ Superhuman abilities that are unique to players choices and unlock different approaches to puzzles.
+ Nordic Noir genre.
+ Multiple endings with many different pathways to explore, rewarding multiple playthroughs.
+ Multiple solutions for most puzzles.
+ Different investigation approaches: Empathetic, analytical or assertive.
+ Hand drawn pixel art

Cons
- No manual save option

You play as Vera, a cybernetically augmented agent working for the Central Bureau. You are tasked with investigating a string of recent murders in Nordsund, beginning with the brutal death of two people who are seemingly unrelated to each other. From the beginning, players are immersed into this tightly knit community within Nordsund and are slowly introduced to the various unusual, yet distinctive characters.

Whispers of a Machine is set in a world that has banned AI, with many people who resent this idea and wish to revert society back to how it was 'post collapse'. If players wish to determine the towns history, what the collapse is and why exactly technology is forbidden, exploration is a must and I won't spoil anything here.

Vera's investigation revolves around a group of fanatics determined to be the mastermind of creating an AI superintelligence. This lack of cyber-tech in the main population is in stark contrast to Vera's own abilities, enabled by a nano-substance simply labelled the 'Blue'. The Blue is only intended for use by special agents and for the purpose of crime investigation.

The story follows Vera throughout her investigation but also delves into her own personal life and the struggles she has encountered. Overall, I found the story to be extremely interesting yet also very thought provoking as it does pose some relevance in current society regarding our technology obsession and reliance.

Being a point and click game, the mechanics are what anyone would expect, however the cyber augmentations and adaptive story make it stand out from the rest.

Simply put, the game boils down to a murder-conspiracy investigation but includes some cool special abilities to aid in detective work. The game begins by inspecting a crime scene and using a 'smart scanner' which can detect and differentiate individuals DNA as well as trace evidence such as specific shoe prints or plant soil. These findings will remain with Vera throughout the game and can be used to compare other biological evidence to. It is very simple to use and is activated by just dragging it over the screen until it detects a positive result.

Depending on the players strategy, the augmentations available to them will be different with some examples being invisibility, mind control, amnesia and regeneration. If players choose more empathetic choices rather than assertive choices, this will lead to acquiring a new ability that is adapted to this play-style and so forth. I found this to be rather interesting and an exceptional addition to the game.

I also found that there were a multitude of solutions to puzzles and each possible solution was connected to either an empathetic, analytical or assertive approach. These puzzle solutions along with the variable dialogue options make for a very unique and individual experience which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I don't have many negative comments for this title, however I would appreciate a manual save option. This would allow players to change a choice without having to restart a new game, although this is not entirely necessary.

Whispers of a Machine features hand drawn pixel art which beautifully complimented the Sci-Fi theme and is by the same developers who made Kathy Rain and the Samaritan Paradox.

All text is voiced by excellent professional voice actors and really supports player immersion as the game is so dialogue heavy.
There is also an option to skip past these voice overs if wanted.


I did not experience any problems and it ran smoothly [RTX 2060, i5-9400, 16GB RAM].

This game is designed to be replayed to achieve the different endings, story-lines and augmentations. At $AU21.50 the game is definitely on the pricier end for a point and click title, averaging around 5-6 hours for the first playthrough. Despite this, Whispers of a Machine has a lot to offer in the value of replayability and I would recommend it, especially to those interested in the futuristic and Sci-Fi genre. Although, If you are not really interested in replaying and just want to enjoy the story on one playthrough, I would advise on waiting for a sale.

I found it difficult to fault this game, its array of dialogue, excellent voice overs, adaptable gameplay and interesting plot made it hard for me to stop playing. This is definitely a must-play for all point and click enthusiasts who enjoy detective work and Sci-Fi themes.

This review copy was provided to the OCG-curations curator.

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Clifftop Games and Raw Fury already gave us Kathy Rain several years ago (it even has a Director's Cut I have yet to play). I knew I had to put my hands on WoaM when reading the synopsis mentioning this was a sci-fi nordic noir game. I made the purchase some time ago but put the playing on hold as the game ended up in my then massive list of backlog titles.

A dystopian future

While the story revolves around investigating murders with Vera - our cyber-augmented detective - it is interesting to find out that in this future we are after a catastrophe that had something to do with advanced A.I. Do read everything when you get to the museum as it tells you a lot. Vera is one of the few with her augmentations that affect gameplay and gives us the possibility to solve a situation in different ways.

Attitude / personalities & augmentations

Picking a dialogue option doesn't just serve to advance the story but it affects later chapters (or days as the game refers to them). Generally, many times we have the opportunity to pick from 3 different answers. In a way they mean the same but determine how Vera approaches a problem. She's straightforward which means she can hurt the feelings of others or empathetic towards the victim or enemy and she can also act professionally in her responses. The points we get for these determine what additional augmentation we unlock later.

Augmentations help with investigation and initially we rely on various scanning methods to find a trail. Vera analyses dead bodies and bootprints or even blood samples can be saved and looked for when looking for our next clue. She can also boost her muscles to become stronger - get that coin from the soda machine with the boost OR ask for a screwdriver. Both can be used to open the ventilation shaft for a special item.

There are 3 slots locked in the lower-right corner of the screen as depending on our attitude when responding different augmentations will unlock. We can use Mimicry to infiltrate a church or in case Mind Control is available instead we can take control of somebody else to enter the building. You need an electrician's help to progress but she's busy working on a power box. Use Amnesia on her so that she'll forget what to do and decides to help you instead or apply Energise on the box itself and by doing so you complete her task in a jiff. Each tier has 3 different skills which means you need 3 walkthroughs to experience everything and also to get the corresponding achievements.

Summary

WoaM gives us an interesting story with at least 2 different endings. The approach to problem solving in line with our dialogue options and skills increases the replayability. For me this is uncommon in this genre which is why I can only praise this game. Vera constantly updates her notes as we progress with the story and during conversations we can ask other characters about each entry. Do that even if it makes no sense as people respond anyway and the voice acting is great in this game. This is a very satisfying adventure game that point-and-click fans must have in their library of games.

I was raised on quest-style adventure games, from typed commands to point and click, and this is one of those fantastic retro experiences that feels like what might have come next, rather than being content to almost imitate something that was great in its day. The fully voiced acting is a little stiff, but that's par for the genre. I like the innovative special abilities and personality valence, and storywise it blends more of my favourite types of TV shows (melancholy nordic cop drama, mundane cyberpunk dystopia, science emotions) than I can shake a stick at.

Plus the graphics feel true to the medium. It's not just pixels for pixels' sake, the aesthetic is thorough and it feels just right. The music is uncommonly good, I do sort of wonder how it would sound on an old AdLib or SoundBlaster.

Only artificial intelligence is real, isn´t it?

Fans of classic point and click adventures probably know Clifftop Games already from their last work Kathy Rain.
Whispers of a Machine has some similiarities to Kathy and in some extend is very different. One of the biggest differences is of course the setting and story - you live in a future world, where AI is banned (or so they say) and play as Vera, an city agent ordered to support local law enforcement in a small rural town, which is plagued by some murders.

The personality of Vera is something which players of Kathy could find familiar.. an at first glance tough woman, although troubled by her past. As for the setting, it is not as grimdark as some other distopian sci-fi settings, but below the silent country side still lurks some mud. Vera is also an "enhanced" human being, which means she has some extra abilities to use for her detective work, some from the start and some she develops while playing, the exact kind depends on how the player acts (assertive, empathic or analytic). The gameplay slightly changes as per your new abilities, but all in all it is one story told, no matter the differences (at least until the end).
That´s also something i´m a bit sad about, the whole game/story seems a bit rushed, or maybe it was just so good, that i didn´t want it to end already (after 5 hours, played on a very leisure pace). At the end i´m left with a slight dissapointment, as to the fact that there could have been much more to it.

Technically you have the basic game UI, which is easy to work with, useable objects are viewable via button. Much of the game consists of talking, which every line is voiced of - very professionally - and shown with well drawn pictures of the talking character. The backgrounds as well are done well and transport the atmosphere, as does the music.
Riddles are always fair and logical, best enjoyed by people who are in it for the story (like me).

Conclusio: Whispers of a Machine is a well done, little sci fi noir point and click adventure, which offers a few decisions for the player (which i don´t want to spoiler), regarding the ending of the story. It does a good job, telling it´s story and maybe makes the player think a bit, while solving the mysteries of the murders.

Rating 7/10

Started off strong, then became underwhelming and even bad.

It's not that the endings were bad (they were), or that there was no climax (there wasn't), but that the journey itself was inane.

You have this great concept of a world and you can't explore it at all. There's almost no interaction with objects. There's only a handful of objects in the game that you can learn about. Nearly all of your interactions result in the player standing still while making a short remark about something across the screen, yet none of it is important or gives any background to the setting. There are screens (junkyard) where you have these beautiful backdrops but they are empty.

I'm just really disappointed in how they let the players use the mechanics. Let me use my bioscan of Karl to actually learn about his life. When I see his DNA on the bed, tell me it was "mixed." Or that he used a special shampoo that hints at some other npc. When looking for footprints, why not have some footprints hiding behind a bush? Give hints to sneaking. Or maybe behind a corner, and let the scan show that there were junk food bags (like a stakeout). Let me use mimic on Valter, then go into the school and make some kids laugh with some impressions. Let me interact with all the robots in his shop. Let me gather herbs to be nice to that guys kid in the compassionate route...

Let the DNA scans and augments tell a story all the way to end instead of making them useless after two minutes.

Why can't I explore the EPOS library? What about all the dead ends? The room in the school. The work room in EPOS? The Chapel? The elevators? The robot in your room? The big ball in the center of town? What's up with the runes (partially explained)? Give me more.

The game is probably a one hour experience per play, if you sit down and listen to all the dialogue. It gets faster after you beat it once. I only have 5.9 hours because I left it running while I played with my kids.

I hope in the next game the developers can make better use of their mechanics.

Whispers of a Machine is a point and click adventure game from the same developers as Kathy Rain. In WoaM you play as Vera Englund, an augmented special agent who has been sent to the small Nordic town of Nordsund to investigate a murder. What begins as a single murder investigation quickly becomes a much bigger case, not least because of the involvement of AI technology that has been outlawed after the ‘Collapse’.

I quite liked Kathy Rain and picked this game up because I really enjoy murder mysteries as well as sci-fi/cyberpunk stuff. I’ve absolutely loved playing this, and I didn’t touch another game until I had gotten all of the achievements. My initial playthrough took me eight hours partially using a guide, and then my other playthroughs for achievements went pretty quickly as I skipped through anything I had seen before. This is the game I have enjoyed most so far this year, and while I don’t think everyone will enjoy it quite so much, I really do think this is an excellent game.

• I really like the pixel art here, the characters are well designed (particularly their portraits when talking) and I think the background art is excellent. They did a good job creating the aesthetic of a run down, post-‘event’ Nordic town. The animations are good too
  
  
• The story is really the main selling point of the game here, I found it incredibly compelling. As I said, it starts out with a fairly simple premise but in the first two days of the game (the events take place over four days) things rapidly become more complex as you uncover what’s going on in Nordsund. I felt that the pacing was good. I felt like I was getting new information pretty regularly and I always felt that the game was moving forward with the plot.
  
  
• The setting is interesting, Nordsund is an interesting little town with some strange characters. I kind of got a Fortitude vibe from the whole thing. You’ll also come to learn more about the Collapse as you explore the game, particularly in the Museum. This is a kind of worldwide catastrophe I haven’t personally see in any kind of media before, so I found it really interesting.
  
  
• The writing is excellent, I found all of the characters very believable and it helps that the writing is backed up by excellent voice acting.
  
  
• There is some puzzling, but most of the gameplay involves looking for clues and then asking the right people about certain things to get the information you need. Part of your toolkit for getting said information is the cybernetic augmentations you have access to in the game. You begin with a smart scanner, biometric analyzer and muscle booster. You have to use these augs to find clues on bodies, detect when people are lying and interact with heavy objects etc. You also unlock new augs over the course of the game dependent on what path you choose.
  
  
• Speaking of paths, there are three available to you. Empathetic, analytical and assertive. You have a little diagram that keeps track of your alignment, and it changes based on what dialogue options you choose when talking to people. The path you’re aligned to affects which new augmentations you unlock during the game, which significantly changes how you solve some of the puzzles in the game. It does also have some effect on the story and your interactions with characters.
  
  
• There are two main endings (technically three but there’s not a huge amount of variety between a couple of them) and I found that both endings were very satisfying. They both make sense for the character depending on how you play her. I won’t say more than that as I don’t want to spoil it.
  
  
• The game doesn’t overstay its welcome, and even after playing through it four times to get all the achievements I’m left wanting more.
  
  
• You can pause during dialogue without skipping anything.

• There is one puzzle that seems almost impossible for a regular player to get without using a guide. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to solve it without using a guide.

This is an excellent point and click adventure game, I enjoyed every second of it. It’s got a compelling story that’s held up high by an interesting setting and great writing. This is the game I’ve enjoyed most so far this year, and I highly recommend it to adventure game fans or anyone with an interest in sci-fi.

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Overall, this game was fun and very well-done for a modern point-and-click game in a "retro" style.

It had some issues: It really railroads you; A few puzzles required you to do things so counter-intuitive that I had to look up the solutions in walkthroughs, and when I did, I was convinced that had I not looked them up I would never have figured them out on my own; the save system implements "You need to live with your choices!" to a ridiculous degree.

I think the game's biggest failure is that last one. There are some choices right at the end of the game where it would have been cool to go back and see how it would have affected the ending to make different ones, but the game prevents it by immediately saving after you make the choice so you can't try another option. What's the benefit to the player of being forced to play through the WHOLE game just to flip the bit on the very last choice? That's just a jerk move on the developers' part. In fact, it would have been totally reasonable to allow the player to save before every major choice and return to them to explore all the branches, and I don't think it would have detracted from the game at all. The only logic for the choice they made is that it inflates the gameplay time slightly for people who do replay, which might be the reason, since the game only has about 8-9 hours of gameplay in it, and it's a bit spendy for that.

All of that said, I did enjoy it and and the story, and the voiceovers were exceptionally well done. If you're a big fan of classic point-and-click adventures, I'd say that you should definitely play it. If you're not, I wouldn't recommend this as your first, though.

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whispers of a machine is your typical point & click adventure created with adventure game studio: pretty good pixel graphics, great music and a fully voiced sci-fi story with a female protagonist enhanced with various augmentations trying to figure out a series of murders while also dealing with some baggage of her own.

dialog choices will alter your empathetic, analytical and assertive attributes, and these will determine what augmentations you can use to solve puzzles. it's still the same story, starts in 'a', goes through 'b' using whatever tools you have, and ends in 'c or 'd' (or 'e', which is only a slight variation) depending on a choice at the end and none of the others made throughout the game, which was fine with me. so no point in multiple playthroughs, only to do the same puzzles in a different way.

no manual saving is a major issue in a game with so many variables, bordering on being a dealbreaker, and don't give me the 'choices are permanent' nonsense, autosaves can be backed up and overwritten just like you'd do with regular saves, they just made it more finicky for no reason. so when you're presented with the choice (you'll know when), alt+tab, back the saves up, choose an option, watch the ending, then copy the saves back, choose the other thing and watch the other ending.

controls are as they should be, space or tab highlights interactable things (should be an icon on the ui as well), double click exits the screen instantly, individual lines of dialog can be skipped if you're a fast reader, and there's a notebook to peruse occasionally and use it to bring up various topics during conversations. augmentations are on the bottom right, they can turn you into a regular forensic investigator, but some have a cooldown, which I found unnecessary in a point & click game. it's pretty quick, which makes its existence even more baffling. you also need to pay attention when using the biometric analyzer (I just had it on all the time) and click on anomalies before they disappear to get more info out of people. it only happens a few times.

I found the extra mechanics cool and absolutely loved the music, but would've liked a map for fast travel. the story and characters, including the protagonist and her personal matters, weren't too interesting or memorable though, the robot guy's ventriloquist act was especially annoying, and there are parts where timing is key, otherwise the scene gets reset. again, something like this is always unnecessary and annoying in a point & click adventure.

overall, it was okay for a playthrough, took about 6 hours, but wouldn't want to go through it again and only recommend it if you've already played all the better adventures out there and still want more.