I’ve never really held back my obsession for Final Fantasy, in fact if anything I succumb to it probably more than I should. If it was up to me I’d be dashing all over the realm, fighting things with greatswords and firing off thundaga spells like there’s no tomorrow, but unfortunately I’ll have to settle for the simple life as an office worker. It should really come as no surprise to you all that most of my time lately has been spent slashing up behemoths with Final Fantasy XV. It does occur to me though that I always need a break once in a while, and thus enters silence. It’s still enough fantasy that I get my fill, but not enough that I spend the next 25 years in prison for trying to free the empire…
Silence is the modern adventure point and click puzzle game brought to us by developers and publishers Daedalic Entertainment. You might know of them as the masterminds for Valhalla Hills, Doomsday Deponia and well a ton more adventure games. It was released a short while ago on 15th November 2016 and has hit the PC, MAC, Xbox One and PS4. The game already has several really glowing reviews about it, both from other review sites and fellow gamers, so let’s dive right into it, shall we?!
The game begins with a somewhat emotional and mixed cut scene. Silence is set in the middle of a war that’s ravaging towns. During an air raid we see a young, 16 year old figure by the name of Noah, grab his little sister Renie to go and seek the shelter and save their lives from oblivion. Unfortunately, Noah doesn’t inform any of the other children who are stood right next to her. Whilst it’s understandable that the game won’t allow it, it does give me some pretty mixed feelings about Noah right from the beginning. Regardless, they make it there just in time to avoid the destruction of the air raid.
Once the cutscene ends, you’ll be talking with your little sister Renie, only to find you’ve been in the bunker for some time now. She wants to go outside, but clearly it’s not safe, so after a brief argument which results in Noah making Renie cry, you’ll have to cheer her up again. The game is a typical point and click game, so you’ll have to hover over items, try everything and find out what you need to do in order to cheer her up. Eventually you’ll get her to be happy again and you’ll begin hearing the story about a heroic clown, Spot, the magical caterpillar and the world of Silence.
Noah portrays the story of how a clown who hated to be laughed at and hated laughing travelled the world with Spot, a magical caterpillar and eventually came before a very sick king. Sadwick the clown was foretold to be the saviour of the sing and bring him a magical elixir but as he entered the throne room, he noticed there was no king, just a mirror. As Sadwick grew closer to the mirror he noticed that the reflection was not his own, the king of Silence. I can’t tell you much more without ruining the story, but moments after your struck by the air raid and transported into the magical world of Silence.
Once you’ve awoken and dusted yourself off, a brief interaction will have you journeying around Silence in order to find your sister who has become trapped in the world. Now, Silence may sound like a magical place… Well maybe not, but the world is currently undergoing it’s own problems. Monsters have taken to attacking the towns and causing problems, fortunately though there’s a small team of freedom fighters who will stop at nothing to save Silence!
After a few puzzles, you’ll gain access to Spot the adorable little caterpillar that can change it’s body to help you solve all your puzzles for you (yay!). You’ll still obviously need to control Spot and he won’t solve everything for you, still it’s always nice to have a lovable and adorable little caterpillar sidekick so I’m not going to argue.
The story line is actually really fascinating, and whilst I do struggle to associate to Noah because, well let’s face it, he does have his moments where he’s a bit of a jerk, I do really feel that Silence has a great story that needs to be heard. After the first 10 minutes, you’ll want to keep playing just to know what happens next and you can expect it to come around pretty quickly, so don’t expect to spend an hour trying to make a stick to progress the story.
The game offers some nice little hints to help you on your way if you get a bit stuck, which is always welcome to any gamer like myself who just sucks as playing point and click games. Holding down the mouse wheel will show you all the different items and areas which you can interact with to progress the story and if you do mess up and pick something you shouldn’t have, there isn’t a 20 minute voice over about how much of a dumbass you are because you tried to use a mirror to light a fire (which by the way is completely plausible… kind of).
I’ve played several Daedalic Entertainment games throughout my times as a reviewer and I can honestly say that whilst all of them have graphics that will make your eyes pop out, Silence is the best I’ve played so far. The graphics are visually amazing, the amount of detail that is in each scene and environment are astounding and the interactions during cutscenes and with objects is extremely smooth and spectacular. The game has an almost artistic hand drawn graphical detail about it which is easy on the eyes and not too crazy, so all in all it’s a real plus towards the atmosphere the genre and story are trying to portray.
The sound in the game is great too, the sound effects are relevant towards the situations, the characters voices are crystal clear and the music is just amazing. It’s always nice when a game adds music and effects which really contribute towards the tone and atmosphere that the game is trying to display and I wouldn’t change a thing about this in Silence.
In all honesty, I’m not actually a massive fan of point and click games, and whilst I find them a bit boring most of the time, Silence isn’t. It’s one of the few point and click games that I can actually play without falling asleep, so I’d say that that the Daedalic are doing something right, as there’s now two point and click games that I like by them.
Overall the game is pretty great. The story line is very interesting and will have you eager to continue on your quest to find your little sister, the puzzles are difficult but not so difficult that you want to give up complete, the graphics and sound really do set the atmosphere of the game and give you a fantastic view into the wonderful world of Silence, and on top of all that you get an adorable little caterpillar to keep you company, sounds like a win-win to me!
Quote: “Enter the magical world of Silence in Daedalic Entertainment’s new point and click Modern Adventure game”
You must be logged in to post a comment.