Developer: Night Light Interactive
Publisher: Night Light Interactive
Rrp: £6.99 (Steam) and £7.99 (Humblebundle)
Released: 9th July 2014
Available on: Steam and Humblebundle
Played Using: Keyboard
Approximate game length: 5 Hours
What if you found out that death wasn’t the end? That there was, in fact, something more? Would you go about you daily grind as you did before or would religion suddenly become a lot more important to you? More importantly, would you use the knowledge of the dead to help you?
Whispering Willows is a hand drawn, 2D, horror themed puzzle game in which you play as Elena, a young woman who is searching for her missing father. All the clues thus far have lead her to the Willows Mansion, where her father was last in employ.
For most the realm beyond death is forever a secret, at least until their time comes. However for a select few, such as Elena, this isn’t the case. In her spirit form she can converse with people whose spirits haven’t passed on. But not all the spirits are so welcoming. You do this by pressing [Q] allows you to use your spirit form, while in this form you can communicate with other spirits and possess objects like levers which you can then activate. But while in this form your body stays behind and is completely vulnerable.
Around her neck Elena wears an amulet that her father gave her. When in the presence of a friendly spirit it will glow blue, it also glows red around hostile ones so be careful.
This game commits what is quickly becoming for me a ‘gaming sin’. Even though I’m playing using a mouse and keyboard every so often a tutorial message pops up asking me to move a joystick. I wouldn’t be bothered if it were phased as ‘move the joystick in X direction or press X key’ but it only refers
to the joystick. I should also add that my control pad wasn’t even plugged in, so it couldn’t be that it detected the control pad and get confused.
I also feel that the animation of Elena, while very detailed, has a detrimental affect to the general flow of the game as it feels a bit stiff and delayed. Especially the animation for when she is turning.
My, oh my this game is a troublesome one. I want to recommend it because the story’s pretty good and because I feel the art style is gorgeous. But there is quite
a bit of moon logic in this game, especially toward the end and the whole thing is pretty short, lasting approximately three or four hours depending on how good your are at puzzles.
I can’t make up my mind, its a nice title but very much middle of the road for me.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
The Fall
Finding Teddy
Neverending Nightmares
