Empathy: Path of Whispers

Between the graphics and exploring this abandoned world and piecing together what happened, Empathy: Path of Whispers is incredible and highly recommend, even if you might not usually play an exploration-driven title.

If you cherish piecing together clever, dramatic plot fragments and don’t mind lots of backtracking while rummaging through dimly-lit locales, then you owe it to yourself to play Empathy: Path of Whispers.

Empathy: Path of Whispers has a barely good story, but the lack of gameplay is something really unforgettable.

While it may not indulge as much on its aesthetic to better hide the distinct lack of gameplay, Empathy: Path of Whispers can’t excuse itself for letting its eye go too far a stray from keeping its player both focused and interested in the tale being spun. Though it’s far from the actual narrative’s fault for the game’s all-round mediocre delivery, the insistency on following an established formula across a bulk of the game’s all-round length doesn’t excuse the choppy, blurred and fairly average quality of its visual design. The warranted need to fine-tune its brief puzzles aside, Empathy: Path of Whispers is intriguing in moderation, but little else.

Playing through Empathy: Path of Whispers didn’t take me much time, yet I found myself wishing it were shorter.

Pixel Night makes a brave foray into the exploration genre that doesn’t quite pan out in the end due to detached storytelling and repetitive mechanics. If you’re a dedicated adventure game player, Empathy: Path of Whispers will offer little challenge, except maybe in the way of overcoming boredom. It is, at the end of the day, a walking simulator that knows exactly what it wants to be, but falls a few steps short of actually being it.

Empathy: Path of Whispers attempts to tell a series of intriguing personal stories in a mysterious, abandoned world. The end result however is a visually dated, largely boring, and technically broken game that doesn't deserve your time and money.