Among the Whispers - Provocation Early Alpha Preview

Developer D&A Studios, known for their 2023 Conrad Stevenson's Paranormal P.I., is working on a brand-new title — Among the Whispers. Following in the vein of the original title, you take control of Stephanie as she embarks on a journey to understand the supernatural; this adventure leads her to the mansion on Magnificent Drive.

The preview I got to try gives you the opportunity to go against two ghosts. At the start of the game, you are given a brief tutorial on how everything works (including the apps that teach you about the provocation system and the one that shows you the family tree), and you are given three locations of possible ghosts.

From my experience, these locations were randomised, as every time I would jump into Magnificent Drive to give it another shot, I would be offered another area to investigate. You won't be able to see yourself on the map, so you'll have to find the locations by yourself, which led me to wander cluelessly for a while before arriving at the locations; once there, it was time to ghost hunt.

There are various tools you'll use during your ghost hunting (or, in this case, ghost tracking). You'll use the EMF meter and thermometer to find supernatural readings in order to verify the location before you set up shop with a camera on a tripod, a laser pointer (not the cat kind), and an EMF-Pod. Each one has its uses, and in my experience, I had to find it out through the tutorial and through sheer trial and error.

As a novice (some might say downright bad) ghost hunter, learning the tools took a major part of my experience. I fumbled around trying to figure out how to get things working, and the tutorials briefly appeared on the bottom left of the screen, which forced me into a reading frenzy to understand what was happening and how to handle it. One of these ever-essential tutorials was the one teaching how to place down your equipment, which I entirely missed, and I had to delve into the tutorial section to learn more about it after trying effortlessly for a fair while.

My woes with disappearing tutorials and ineptitude aside, however, once I got things running, Among The Whispers picked up dramatically. Unlike typical horror titles seeking to get a fright out of you via jumpscares, D&A Studios does so instead by making you feel on edge, knowing there is another presence in the room with you. There was an eerie feeling of analysing every single movement in the laser grid and paying attention for something to pop up.

This is where the new Provocations system comes into play. You can speak to the ghosts, prompting them to react to specific phrases, like asking questions or making statements. Depending on the type of Provocation you use, you'll elicit a response, causing them to either talk to you, interact with the environment, or appear before your eyes. But, if you're not sufficiently prepared for each Provocation, Stephanie's Nerve will deplete, and she'll stop working efficiently (if at all) until you return to the Base Station to recuperate.

While the game is timed, giving you seven in-game hours to figure out the ghost, you can disable any of the gamified mechanics you might not be interested in participating with — whether you want to have nerves of steel or an endless night. I opted to take things slow and learn more, so I disabled the systems and instead engaged with the paranormal aspect of it all, leaving behind the puzzle element for the full release.

Did I solve the mystery? No. I was unable to figure out either of the two ghosts that were haunting Magnificent Drive, but that was from ineptitude. Despite loving the fact that I had to get acquainted with the equipment organically, I would have loved a tutorial case that held my hand to explain to me what I might be doing right or wrong. I gathered a lot of evidence, both visual and auditory, from all of the ghosts in the house, but I was unable to make much sense of it all when it mattered most.

Specifically, I found the audio device to be a bit finicky to handle. While recording and getting everything to work felt smooth and terrifying in equal measure, once I was listening to what the ghosts were saying, I drew blanks. Their dialogue sounds like gibberish, and despite gathering nearly a dozen audio recordings, I couldn't make sense of a single one, no matter how much I slowed down or sped up the recording. I felt like I was missing something to understand it, but I didn't know what.

Despite my perplexing experience, Among The Whispers looks like a fantastic time. The preview shows promise, with a gorgeous environment made in Unreal Engine 5, and though it does lag at times, optimisation is likely further ways down the line. I can't wait to try more of Among The Whispers, and I'm definitely taking the dive to experience Conrad Stevenson's Paranormal P.I. after seeing the promise this sequel brings.