Among the Whispers – Provocation Review (PC): All the Potential in the Spirit World

Ghost hunting games are a dime a dozen with very few having what it takes to stand out in the crowd, but if you happen to discover a hidden gem, you’ll be pleasantly surprised with what developers are doing in the space. Having sunk my teeth into Among the Whispers – Provocation, I found this game did a lot of things right when it came to expanding on the overall core gameplay, but at the same time there were a few things that made this experience a lot more complicated than it needed to be.

A Tragic Tale

During my time with Among the Whispers – Provocation I was thoroughly impressed with what this game had to offer. Being a fan of modern ghost hunting sims for years, you’ll come to expect the same base formula here when tracking down spirits. What this game does to add more flair to the gameplay experience is giving each ghost a backstory that catalogs all stages of their life right up until their timely, or not so timely, death. 

This can be seen in a multitude of ways such as various newspaper excerpts that catalog a victim’s passing or you could opt to ask the ghost a series of questions called provocations. These provocations are a series of voice prompts you can choose from that will get the ghost to either verbally respond through the parabolic mic or manifest themselves in their spiritual form and reenact their death before you. In one case, through my investigation I found that the ghost choked to death in the dining room, and I could easily see the ghost grasping for his neck in hopes to dislodge the obstruction. 

The ghosts themselves were consistently working to surprise me at every turn in the best way. There were often times where I was deep within the evidence collection process as I lost track of the ghost, but the ominous feeling of constantly being watched was always present. Turning around to pick up my equipment, there was the ghost staring at me, watching my every move. Not all of the ghosts are silent like the first one I came across. I quickly found out a ghost that was linked to a murder could be heard screaming for help, and in my experience, I was jumpscared out of my skin quite a few times.

Rough Around the Edges 

While there are things that make this game fun and unique, other aspects that I encountered stalled the experience entirely for me. One of the major gripes I had with this game is the sheer size of the map. In a rather ambitious choice you have complete access to a four story mansion with over 30 rooms to sift through. While this would be a welcome feature in any sort of multiplayer ghost hunting game, I think being a single player only title makes this environment daunting for just one player. 

This problem came up the most when I had to prepare the ghost for release and search for the object my ghost was tied to. During this time, I came to the conclusion that my ghost was tied to a firearm which was luckily located just two rooms over from the dining room. Having spent some time walking around the various levels of the mansion, I came across items that would be useful when hunting down other ghosts on the complete opposite side of the map, which adds a lot of unnecessary travel time to a hunt if you don’t know where you’re going. A simple remedy here could possibly be to gate off sections of the map to scale down the experience for a single player. 

Another aspect that removed me from the experience entirely is the lack of definitive evidence that alludes to the fact you’ve found the proper ghost location. At the start of the hunt, you are tasked with finding EMF and temperature readings to establish a baseline for evidence. After a few moments of wandering, I did successfully find the ghost room. What became confusing was when I was tasked with exploring the room with my EMF reader to find what triggers the device versus how a ghost triggers it. This little bump in the road caused me to spend way more time in a room than needed to precisely locate a ghost. 

Unfortunately in my experience,, there were a few instances where the tasks were outright glitched and prevented me from completing my goals. This was on a very case-by-case basis but it is worth bringing up simply because there were times I got near the end of my hunt and the last task was bugged to the point where I could not complete the mission even after a hard reset. The glitches didn’t stop with just tasks; there was another instance where my data pad – which grants you the ability to go over evidence and piece the hunt together – was blocked from being pulled up as well, which was a very frustrating game breaking glitch.

Final Verdict

Outside of some rough edges, Among the Whispers – Provocation has a lot going for it. The things that stood out the most for me were the in-depth stories that were crafted for each individual family member that spans a rather large family tree. Keeping that in mind this excites me even more when I think about the prospect for future maps, families, and maybe even new ghost hunters. That said, with a large map available to the player I expected a lot more substance in the various rooms and corridors of this now vacant mansion. The ball is now in the court of D&A Studios to build on a pretty solid foundation of a game. If done correctly, I do think they have a hit on their hands and would surely revisit this title when the game is refined and realizes its full potential. 

Among the Whispers – Provocation was reviewed on PC with a code provided by D&A Studios.

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