Empathy Path of Whispers Review
Empathy Path of Whispers Review: If you can get invested in it, Empathy: Path of Whispers can take you on an emotional journey by attempting to rebuild the broken world.
In a world so broken, is it really worth fixing?
Empathy: Path of Whispers is an adventure/puzzle game that focuses on exploration and collectibles to sell the story it’s trying to tell. As you roam the ruins of Atlas Park and Eagleview, you find the thoughts and memories of those who passed, unraveling mysteries and covering a plethora of topics, all the while searching for mementos and solving puzzles. The question remains though, is it a story worth experiencing? Without further ado, here is my Empathy Path of Whispers Review.
Story (Spoiler-Free)
The story presented in Empathy: Path of Whispers is an eerie tale of finding out what happened to the people of the world. While your character is silent, you have a partner who discusses the various topics and memories you come across. While developer Pixel Night tries to appeal to the player’s emotions in Empathy: Path of Whispers through its vivid storytelling techniques, I generally felt nothing towards the fallen. The story just didn’t seem to really reach out and grab my attention.
In a way, I would compare Empathy: Path of Whispers to The Witness. The Witness is an open-world puzzle game very similar to this one but does everything right. The Witness‘ very vague story that is teased throughout the world leaves you grasping and reaching for more with each puzzle passed. The story being left to interpretation, with almost no direct instruction of where it leads you, doesn’t really leave you begging to find out more.
The puzzles in The Witness are intriguing enough and not too challenging but definitely not too easy, unlike Empathy: Path of Whispers. That may be a bit unfair, considering Empathy: Path of Whispers is more of a walking simulator than a puzzle game, but if the story of the game isn’t interesting and the only other component of the game is really easy to breeze through, what’s left?
There are a whole cast of characters to come across and memories of those characters, so you’re bound to find at least one interesting. However, I wouldn’t necessarily say finding one character to like in a game about all these different people’s stories makes the game worth playing.
Gameplay
In Empathy: Path of Whispers, your main goal is obviously to get through the entire world by solving various puzzles and collecting mementos in order to figure out how the apocalypse was triggered and how to rebuild and prevent it from happening again. Using the E-15P device, you match up the wavelengths of the device to the wavelengths of the mementos you find around the world. This starts up an audio clip that gives you a clue into what happened to the world. It’s usually a just a short monologue or conversation between the different cast of characters.
Finding these mementos opens up different parts of the world for you to further explore. Boom. The End. That’s what this game is. You walk around exploring, solve puzzles, and collect mementos. For being an indie game, the visuals for the world are well done, so for that, I applaud Pixel Night. However, just because the game has a pretty face, does not mean it is worth the time that would be needed to be invested in it. If you are looking for some sort of great expedition or adventure, Empathy: Path of Whispers is not the game. If you are looking for something that you can just walk around and explore, then maybe you might have a nice time playing this game.
Mechanics
The only mechanic besides walking that is used is the E-15P device that you use to match up wavelengths with memories. All you have to do is match up one set of lines with the other and bam, you’re done. Puzzle solving is a different question though. While the few puzzles you come across usually work pretty smoothly, I found they weren’t really as challenging as you would think.
The majority of Empathy: Path of Whispers is spent just walking; there are vast open areas in which you are supposed to explore every inch without the game ever really specifically telling you that you need to do so. That leaves you wondering what to do next with no instruction or hints guiding you at all. But even with the walking mechanic, it is iffy at best. I found myself glitching forward all the time. Which is surprising, considering how much just walking is involved. By the time you read this, they may have already fixed the issue, but since it was there through my play through, I felt the need to address it.
Overall, I feel Empathy: Path of Whispers leaves a lot left to be desired. The story could be a little bit more captivating and clearer, the puzzles could be a little more challenging, and the mechanics could be smoothed out more. If you’re looking for adventure, pass. If you’re looking for exploration, you might want to give Empathy: Path of Whispers a try.
Empathy: Path of Whispers
- Story - 3/103/10
- Gameplay - 4/104/10
- Mechanics - 5/105/10
The Verdict
Overall, I feel Empathy: Path of Whispers leaves a lot left to be desired. The story could be a little bit more captivating and clearer, the puzzles could be a little more challenging, and the mechanics could be smoothed out more. If you’re looking for adventure, pass. If you’re looking for exploration, you might want to give Empathy: Path of Whispers a try.