Whisper Trip

Genre: Action-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Whisper Trip, released on PC in 2021 and ported to PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2022, is an Action-Platformer where players take the role of a mysterious katana-swinging assassin slicing their way through enemies in a modern facility.

This game’s visuals are decent but nothing spectacular, making use of fairly simple 3D graphics with gameplay on a 2D plane. The part of the presentation that really works well here is the soundtrack, which has some absolutely fantastic synthesized tunes that perfectly fit the game’s cyberpunk setting, Some good examples of this are the Menu Theme, First Levels, Kochki, Bunker, and The Boss. Easily my favorite thing about this game is its excellent soundtrack.

Whisper Trip has aspirations to be a fast-paced, challenging Action-Platformer where players get killed a lot but go on to make a successful run look like a true feat of acrobatic bloody ninja efficiency. When this game works, it does a fantastic job giving players the sense that they are a swift and unstoppable killing machine.

Unfortunately, it very rarely works. The controls are clunky, it feels like there’s input lag for everything you do – absolutely unacceptable in a game that requires split-second reflexes. Moves have absurd amounts of recovery time after attacks, players stick to walls like glue even when trying to separate from them, And the game requires a frustrating amount of precision when aiming mid-air attacks. As a result of this, many of the deaths you suffer will feel unearned – you pressed the button well before you were hit, you were obviously trying to attack that enemy, you were trying to move out of the way of that bullet, but the game refused to let you.

As a result, even with the low $5 price tag, I cannot recommend Whisper Trip. This game clearly had elements in place to be a solid fast-paced and challenging Action-Platformer, but it seems to forget that if you demand perfection from the player, you need to provide them with perfect control to be able to do that, and the controls here are anything but perfect. As a result, this game is far too frustrating to be worth bothering with… though you should still check out the soundtrack on YouTube. That part of the game at least is outstanding.

tl;dr – Whisper Trip is a fast-paced and challenging Action-Platformer that has you speeding through a modern facility as a katana-wielding ninja… in theory. In practice, the controls are so terrible that you’ll spend most of your time dying because the game’s mechanics just do not provide the sort of precision control that the gameplay calls for. Do not play this game. Definitely check out the soundtrack, though – it’s outstanding.

Grade: C-

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