A dispirited teenage clown wants to save a world he is told he will destroy.
Sadwick lives with his bullying brother and nearly deaf grandfather in their circus. He does what he is told to do by his brother, his opinion does not interest anyone, he is bored with performing the same show at the circus, and he is constantly told he is useless, or clumsy, or just never good enough for anything. But at some point he starts having recurrent nightmares about a giant mouth, which tells him that the end of the world is approaching.
Nobody in the family listens to Sadwick’s concerns about his nightmares, but his life changes when an oracle tells him that he is the one who is going to destroy the world and that horrible monsters called the Asgil are attacking the king’s castle. The Whispering Stone, an irreplaceable mineral, must be returned to the king. Sadwick, having no interesting life at the circus, decides to go on a journey to prove the oracle wrong about him and save the world. He and Spot have to stop the Asgil and return the Whispering Stone to the king’s castle in Corona.
Depression
Certainly, Sadwick’s personality evolves through the course of the game and he learns to dare even if he believes he will fail, but his overall attitude does not make the player feel good while playing this game. I am not saying that all the characters have to be happy and confident throughout every adventure game, but there has to be a balance, or at least, a stable character progress. One would expect that Sadwick would realize his self-worth much earlier in the game, after having succeeded with many tasks he was told he would fail. But his sense of no self-worth is always there, either to a larger or smaller extent, throughout the game.
Perhaps a different approach regarding voice acting would have shown Sadwick’s character development more clearly, but when he sounds desperate and lost from the beginning until the end of the game then we can only assume that he has changed. We have to reach the end of the game, where another character is locked in a cage right next to him, to see him raise his voice and demand courage and action.
Spot is actually the most adorable character of the game. He does not talk at all, yet he responds to Sadwick’s comments and suggestions. His shape shifting will definitely make you smile, and he is important in the game’s story. You are not going to use Spot much in the beginning of the game, especially not his default form, so it is possible that when you are going to need his help later on the thought of using him instead of an object may not cross your mind.
Darkness
Most of the locations in The Whispered World are dark, with the exception of the beautiful surroundings we find in the beginning of the game. Black clouds, night scenery, dark caves, basements, secret rooms. These locations are the opposite of what you face when you first start the game. From the second half of the game and on it’s almost all about darkness. This may make sense, since Sadwick’s world is threatened by the Asgil and not everything can be bright and colourful, but this is not easy on the eye. If we add to this the swarm of Sadwick’s pessimistic comments and attitude, then there is a good chance that many players will either become physically tired, by straining their eyes, or emotionally tired, by having had enough of Sadwick’s feeling of inadequacy.
Gameplay
The Whispered World is a classic point & click adventure in full 2D environment with full 2D characters. Everything is done with the use of the left mouse button, where the right mouse button can be used to skip lines during dialogues. Left clicking on an item or character brings up a menu of three choices: a hand (to use or pick up), an eye (to examine) and a mouth (to talk, or interact with objects). The controls are simple and the inventory practical. You have new items (or no items at all) at the beginning of every chapter, so you never end up with an inventory full of useless items you have to carry with you throughout the game.
Items in the inventory can also be combined. Several of the puzzles are reasonable object-oriented, yet some times you have to combine crazy items with each other even if the reasonable solution would be something very simple and different. For example, you have a puzzle piece you know it has to be painted in a certain colour. It is also quite obvious to you how to give this colour to the puzzle piece. When you look at the puzzle piece Sadwick even comments on what colour it should be. Everything is right there. However, Sadwick only agrees into making the necessary steps to change the colour AFTER you have placed the puzzle piece in the actual puzzle board and only after you have completed 99% of it. He could have easily painted the piece first and then put it on the board to complete the puzzle in one go, instead of having to go back and forth.
Another example is the classic ”key in the keyhole – mat under the door” situation. You have all the items you need to solve this, make the key fall and pick it up. You have done it hundreds of times before in almost every adventure game. However, this time you have to combine one of the items in your inventory with something that does not make sense, just to fit that item through the keyhole.
Up until the first third of the game, the puzzles are reasonable and pleasant to solve. However, the last two-thirds mainly consist of illogical riddles, levers, a labyrinth, and hidden objects.
Spot’s puzzles are the most reasonable ones, since you know that if he becomes big then he is heavy, if he is flat he becomes very flexible, if he is on fire he burns things and so on. But when it comes to how many of the items are used within the world or combined with each other, then there is a significant lack of common sense.
The integrated hotspot-revealer system (spacebar) is a very nice addition to the game, which will save you from pixel hunting. Considering the game’s hand-drawn graphics and its significant number of dark areas, it can be hard to spot every object. Especially objects on the ground, which you may think they are part of the environment, when you can pick them up. I highly recommend the use of this hotspot system before exiting every new location.
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The Whispered World 
