Silence Review

Silence, developed by Daedalic Entertainment, has been the much-anticipated sequel to The Whispering World, which was released on PC in 2009. After originally being announced to be released in 2014, and suffering delays, the game finally made its way on to the Playstation 4 back in 2016 and was met with open arms from fans. Fast forward to April 2109 and it’s just landed on the Nintendo Switch.

Silence is a point and click game, a genre I have played a lot of recently, so it is difficult for me not to compare between them. This game is probably the best of the lot, because it mixed things up. This is not your traditional point and click game and I am comfortable with that, as it feels refreshing for its genre. I thoroughly enjoy the style of Telltale’s games, such as the new Batman series that I have not been able to get enough of, and this game plays a lot more like that than the traditional style.

The story follows on from The Whispering World, and while you will understand most of what is happening without playing the prequel, there are times when it feels as though you had to have played 1998 original, which can be a little frustrating. The story at its basic form is: 16 year old Noah, who was a character from the previous game, has woken from a coma. Noah meets with his younger sister, Renie, and, by some strange circumstance, Noah goes back in to a coma (crazy, right?). In his comatose state, during The Whispering World, Noah was alone, but now, his sister is in the world of Silence with him. But they are not together, and it is up to Noah to find her.

The story is great and it is very well-developed, it feels real in the way it works out. There is no time a character does something and it feels unnatural or not true to them and I thoroughly enjoyed that feeling. The characters themselves are very intriguing, and even though there were times when I felt like I did not fully understand what was happening, due to not playing the first game, I still wanted to continue.

The look of this game is beautiful. The graphics are nothing short of stellar and there is something about the game that makes it appear almost like it was painted. All the backgrounds are in 2D, but the characters are in 3D. When put together, the game is something you enjoy looking at, it is aesthetically pleasing and really enjoyable. I never really felt like I has played too much, some games you need to take a break from because it can be overwhelming, and this game is not one of them.

Saying that though, the voice acting can be rather out-of-place. It is not that it is not bad, the emotion works with the words and the characters say things that are appropriate, but the actual voices just sound too old for their characters. Considering you are playing at two children, their voices are mature and it can be quite off-putting. You eventually just accept it, but it is a struggle to feel what they are feeling when all you can hear are voices that do not match the characters.

Do not get me wrong, there is a lot of room for improvement with Silence. But I found the game rather endearing and I finished it feeling happy that I had played it. The story, characters and graphics are so charming together, that I am already thinking about playing through it again soon. I will be keeping it in my library for quite some time.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Switch code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.