It is time again to don the brown pants and prepare to have the living daylights scared out of me, as I prepare to step into the supernatural world and try to ease restless spirits. MKAU Gaming has been fortunate to get early hands-on access to the upcoming title from D&A Studios, Among The Whispers: Provocation. 

Players will take on the role of Stephanie, a determined young woman seeking answers to her harrowing brush with the supernatural. Her quest for answers has led her through several homes and locations in the quiet town of New Eidolon and now to a labyrinthine mansion on Magnificent Drive. To learn about the entities that plague this location and what binds them to this worldly plain, you will employ various provocations to set them free.

Before we can embark on our quest to release the spirits tethered to the mansion, we must prepare for our investigation at base camp. Here, you have access to Stephanie’s laptop, where you will access emails, a program called Fallen Apple, and the Spirit Blog. Accessing emails provides you with important information about potential haunting locations, as well as giving you a little insight into the family’s history. After selecting the highlighted locations within the email, it is time to start looking into the family history found in Fallen Apple. 

Fallen Apple provides the player with a family tree that details the lives and deaths of those who have passed. Using this information, the player must narrow down the list of potential spirits haunting these locations. Once you’ve got a solid lead, you can upload those details to your deduction board. In general, the more suspicious the circumstances of a person’s death, the more likely it is that the spirit is lingering in the mansion.

Now armed with your knowledge it is time to grab your backpack and trusty tablet and gather evidence of the hauntings so that you can eventually set these spirits free. Sadly within the alpha, you aren’t able to achieve the goal of setting a spirit free. However, you do get a good understanding of how to gather the evidence needed to achieve the goal.

You will use a variety of equipment to gather evidence. Placing a camcorder will record video footage of your encounter. A well-placed EMF-Pod can detect EMF changes in the area, though this does not collect evidence you’ll need your EMF Meter for that. The laser grid can detect movement and is a huge help in tracking a ghost’s movement. Record disembodied voices with the audio recorder to gather audio evidence, weaker ghosts aren’t able to be heard clearly and will need provoking. 

Seen a ghost? Take the perfect ghost photo with the camera for more visual evidence. With the IR-Thermometer you can capture temperature evidence by pointing the device at an object. Using the Parabolic Microphone you’ll be able to hear distant sounds you’ll need to use the recorder with this device if you want to record them. 

Provocations allow you to directly engage with the spirits by asking questions categorised by Who, What, Where, When, and Why. While these are all important questions to be asked they also share a downside. Provoking the spirits while unprepared has a cost, firstly to your nerves and sanity, lose enough of your nerves and you will need to travel back to camp to recover. Provoking a powerful spirit is sure to lead to a whole world of hurt.

During my time with this alpha build, I felt as if I wasn’t making a great deal of progress in my investigations. When I did make some progress it was usually because I had just had the pants scared off of me. I often felt lost within the Mansion as the map didn’t include a defined waypoint marker. I think that the game would benefit from having some more subtle visual cues like a frosted breath when the temperature drops.

The visuals are stunning and as expected from a game being developed in Unreal Engine 5. I love the attention to detail and the feeling of grandeur I got while walking the halls of this massive mansion. I look forward to seeing everything the mansion offers and discovering all the secrets that lie within.

There is still clearly a lot of work to do in regards to the audio with my biggest complaint being that I didn’t get to hear Stephanie ask the questions when using provocations unless I had headphones on.

I’ve always admired the field of paranormal investigation, now that I’ve had the opportunity to experience what this would be like for myself in this alpha build, I can safely say that I’m happy to leave it to the professionals. I’ve enjoyed my time with Among The Whispers: Provocation and can’t wait to see more from D&A Studios moving forward.

Written by: Gary Nielsen