The Whispered World Demo

Adventure games need to rely pretty hard on the story and the characters that are part of it, because there’s not much action you can be a part of when the gameplay is point-and-click. However, when the developers do a good job with these, the lack of interactive sections is not that much of a big deal, since you are absorbed by the events and the dialogue.

The Whispered World is a classic point-and-click adventure game in which you get to explore a fabulous world filled with mythical creatures, beautiful scenery, and the obvious evil that lurks around the corner. This time, however, you do not play as the brave hero who goes on a journey to save the world, but rather with a cowardly little boy, lacking any kind of motivation whatsoever.

As it happens, story revolves around Sadwick, a boy whose family is into the traveling circus business, which means that he is part of the show as well. In fact, he is the star clown of the show, but he’s certainly not happy about it. A recurring nightmare haunts him for a very long time, only to force him to search for answers to his misery. Naturally, the visions turn out to be true, and an interesting quest starts from there.

The interface is a bit buggy and unintuitive, however, because it doesn’t really function like it does in a classic point-and-click. Hence, instead of clicking on objects to interact with them, you must hold the mouse button down for a second and wait for the menu to appear, which then allows you to select the desired action. This adds one more step to the usual way of doing things, which is not very comfortable.

On the other hand, the artwork that can be admired throughout the game is sublime, not to mention the beautiful hand-drawn landscapes. The cartoonish graphics style happens to be an inspired choice in this case, especially because of the artwork. Moreover, the voice actors did a good job at portraying the characters, but the brilliant dialogue lines helped a lot as well.

All things considered, the occasional humor seen in The Whispered World is eclipsed by the constant sorrow you get to experience, which is not at all a bad thing. However, the technical difficulties can make this sorrow all too real, especially when it comes to the interface.