Our horror game expert, Alex, has taken a closer look at the voice recognition feature in the game Supernormal. He explains how and when players can communicate with the ghost.
In this guide, you'll learn:
In its latest horror adventure, Supernormal, Hitori de Productions seems to have drawn significant inspiration from the P.T. clone Allison Road and, notably, from Phasmophobia. Just like the latter ghost-hunting hit, Supernormal also features voice recognition, allowing the player (playing as Detective Wyatt) to communicate with a haunting ghost girl at certain times.
But how exactly does initiating contact work? If you select "Voice Recognition" in the main menu of Supernormal (located at the bottom of the screen), you'll find explanations about the symbols, syntax, and basic operation. Check out the screenshot provided for more details.
Three icons are important during gameplay:
The screenshot below shows the active voice recognition symbol within a green marker.
Next, how exactly does one contact the ghost of the house? Supernormal uses a push-to-talk function, meaning your microphone is activated by pressing a button. Releasing the button stops the game from recording any further voice commands.
The key that activates the microphone is also revealed in the main menu, not under "Voice Recognition," but "Controls." Therefore, you activate voice recognition...
The house's ghost fortunately understands more than just a few sentences, and it's not completely fixed which voice commands or questions are recognized. In any case, the presumed ghost of 14-year-old Sophia understands the following phrases:
The ghost answers your questions in an unconventional way, namely with knocking sounds. Here...
Important: In the early phase of Supernormal, voice recognition is generally disabled. When you first enter Masato Sakamoto's apartment, you'll quickly witness paranormal phenomena, but communication with the ghost is only possible from a certain point in the game.
This occurs the moment you first see the little girl. This happens in a short film sequence upstairs, where Sophia is lifted and spun in the air by invisible forces. After this cutscene, you'll also get a hint that voice recognition is now active (see the image below).
However, it's worth noting that the supported voice commands only guarantee an effect when the white microphone symbol is displayed. Outside these times, we were also able to provoke reactions; however, they were mostly limited to a slight increase in paranormal activity.
Supernormal has been available on PC via Steam since January 8, 2023. Whether developer Hitori de Productions plans versions for popular consoles like Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X/S is currently unknown.
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