Review: Whisper of the House Builds on the Unpacking Idea

Unpacking led to the release of many independent, cozy games that felt like the wanted to clone that magic, soothing, room organizing formula that stuck with people. Some of them were very obvious rip-offs. Others tried to tell similar sorts of stories, but with different themes. While Whisper of the House, an indie game from GD Studio, does also involving moving and unlocking rooms in the same vein as Unpacking, it’s also incredibly strong with its own, compelling identity and different sort of organizational experience.

Whisper of the House starts with our avatar moving to Whisper Town to become its newest housekeeper. Our goal is to offer our services to assist individuals as they maintain their homes. That could mean helping them move into new places, assisting when someone else moves in, helping a new business get organized and established, and even just cleaning up. As we do, we gain access to money or opportunities to explore the city to find things for our own customizable spaces. At the same time, this is a living, breathing community. Things we discover and investigate could end up changing others’ stories or leading to the discovery of potentially dark secrets or anomalies. So while it is generally pleasant, relaxed, and cozy, there’s an edge if you keep probing. 

Whisper of the House assignments tend to start in the same way. You’ll get a letter asking you to assist with a task in a person’s home or business. This could involve totally unpacking a place and arranging it or tidying up. In some cases, some items or furniture may already be placed, but you can likely rearrange, adjust, and interact with it. You might notice odd “noise,” in the form of black lines or animations suggesting an anomaly. Constantly poking at them can lead to the discovery of new areas and interactions, which can then lead to additional missions. While this is a cozy game, some of these can be dark and even suggest some horror elements, so keep that in mind when playing. It’s generally very relaxing and fun, but it can have an edge!

Placing things is pretty simple, which is great. However, you can’t really pick what and when comes out of your assistant robot that supplies furniture and pieces of people’s lives. They automatically come out in a predetermined order. You might also need to actually place it, then check it out, to see the description to better understand what it is and where it may be best to place it. A circular gauge on the robot’s screen lets you know how much is left to unpack in a space, but the nature of that means it might not feel 100% exact when a ton of pieces need to be set up. Items can be rotated, for proper positioning, and I appreciated that there is a separate button to help with layering to ensure things fall in what I feel are the right spots.

Another thing that helps Whisper of the House stand out is the pixel art. This is a gorgeous game. It’s incredibly detailed. From the zoomed out cityscape showing Whisper Town to each scene we visit and organize, it’s all so intricate. You can really pinpoint what everything is, no matter how small, and there are these little extras to enhance things like variants on some objects or different looks if they’re placed on a wall or on a shelf. Add to that the animations for some, and it’s just lovely.

But what really makes Whisper of the House special are the extra interactions. We can trigger responses with certain items in places. At first, I thought this was fun! Cool! There’s a little animation that plays, and I get an achievement for that. Except once I got to the alchemist home, I suddenly realized that when I was returning pages to a notebook, I was actually getting access to recipes! And when I started exploring around that space more, I started to find the ingredients for the cauldron to actually create things. And it isn’t in just that space. Once I started to get further in the game, I’d either take more time to play around or revisit and spend more time in spaces I already decorated and unlocked, and then realize there were other secret interactions. This is a game that constantly rewards you for taking your time and exploring.

I absolutely loved Whisper of the House and the way in which I felt like I connected to characters and experiences while organizing. While it isn’t telling stories in the same way as Unpacking, it is a similar sort of game that builds on that kind of concept. I do wish that some of the mystery and organizational elements perhaps had been handled a bit differently. Especially if the design decisions kept me from easily discovering or accomplishing something. But Whisper of the House is a truly lovely experience in the same vein as Unpacking, but adds its own unique flourishes.

Whisper of the House is available on the PC via Steam.

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