#577: The Whispering Valley
Folk-horror Myst clone more creepy than scary, but that’s fine too
Initial release: November 30th, 2022
Platform: PC
Developer: Studio Chien d’Or
It’s an old tale: indie developer bangs together something real quick for a contest or for their portfolio, realizes they got something with potential, and turns it into a huge whole thing that takes them way longer than the original project. A lot of indie horror games seem to turn out this way, and Studio Chien d’Or’s cult hit The Whispering Valley is no different, as confessed by its lead developer himself.
So what is The Whispering Valley? Well, it’s also an old tale: a little village torn apart by dark secrets, some of which may or may not be supernatural… it’s 1896 and you are a priest, summoned by a friend in the cloth to look into Sainte-Monique-Des-Monts, a quaint little village in the wilds of Quebec, Canada. It seems something terrible is happening, the place under some kind of curse. When you arrive, the village is almost empty. It’s little more than a wide place in the road, once home to a population of maybe a few dozen, but now there’s barely anybody. But if you’d played the brief prequel set in 1814 — The Whisperer, sold separately — you’ll know that this curse is older than the village, perhaps older than man’s presence.
Gameplay for both The Whispering Valley and its prologue is as straightforward as it gets. In practice, they play like a modern take on Myst: rather than being able to move around the game world with WASD, you click on hotspots and basically teleport from one spot to the next. Now, to be fair, old 2D point and click games did this too, but it can be jarring when the environment is fully 3D rendered and you can look around in 360 degrees. Still, once you get used to it, it plays like any other point and click game, with the minor frustration that given how dark the game is at times, it can be hard to spot items you’ll need (for example, I had to travel all the way back to the ruined cabins to get a knife that I needed to cut a rope in the village, a knife that I didn’t see the first time.)
This is really a minor issue, though. The game is pretty short on puzzles — the most obtuse one being a piano with a couple of dead keys that, if pressed in the correct order will drop an actual door key. It’s not immediately obvious what you’re supposed to do, until you look at the front of the piano. There are also no death scenarios, no moment where you’re in danger, though the game certainly likes to slip a few nightmare sequences and even jumpscares your way, as if suggesting that the curse is getting to you, too.
Probably what makes The Whispering Valley work is that in spite of its idiosyncratic design, it’s actually really pretty for the Unity engine, with every building able to be entered and explored eventually (you can’t go upstairs at the inn, though, that’s the one place that remains barred forever.) There’s almost no music whatsoever as well, with lots of ambient sound taking its place instead, really giving a sense of an isolated village out in the wilderness. As you play through the game, time does actually pass, with the sun rising and setting as you hit milestones in the game’s progression.
The Whispering Valley isn’t a long tame, even if you play The Whisperer first, but it’s a decently realized little chiller with a dark story that ultimately touches on themes of misogyny and how women, especially isolated, small-town women, were treated in the late 19th century. The shadow that lurks just out of sight is less monstrous than the men who ruin a young girl’s life.
I had a good time with The Whispering Valley, and you can pick it up as well as its prelude for less than twenty bucks, which isn’t a bad price for what the game ultimately is.
Oh, and yes, the dog and cat survive and can be petted. 10/10
The Whispering Valley is available now on Steam and gog.com.
The Whisperer is also available on Steam and gog.com.
