Platform: Windows / OS X / Steam OS + Linux / PS4 / Xbox One Price: $29.99 / £23.99 / 29,99€ / C$39.99 / ¥ 3980 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure Developer: Daedalic Entertainment Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment Rating: ESRB: T / PEGI: 12 / USK: 12 Release Date: PC+PS4: November 15 / X1: November 18 Download size: PS4: 4.2 GB (?)
As a war rages on, Noah seeks shelter from an air raid in a bunker with his little sister Renie. To comfort Renie and keep her mind off of the deadly bombardment, Noah tells her the story of a strange world that is between life and death: Silence. Events soon unfold and quickly, Renie becomes lost in Silence, and Noah is forced to venture out to find her.
Although a world unto itself, and seemingly idyllic, Silence has its own scars from wars and suffering, not too unlike the world that Noah and Renie came from. Towns are stalked and the world is ravaged by dark creatures, only held back by a small group of rebels that dare to stand against the rising menace. Noah and Renie will be forced to join their cause to save Silence and to save their own lives.
If you've played a Daedalic title before, you should know what to expect here. This game was originally announced as The Whispered World 2, but that title was eventually dropped in favor of "Silence" (although many nods to that game are peppered throughout). The puzzles seem like standard fare, with a few unique mechanics such as switching between characters to work together.
What springs to mind first is Silence’s visual style. At Daedalic, we have an incredible art department, drawing beautiful backgrounds, locations etc. We used to show these in 2D games. For Silence, however, we now use 3D technology, by following a method we call ‘camera projection’. We place 3D objects and 3D characters in 3D environments, but then project 2D art on everything. Marco calls this ‘three-dimensional artwork’ when creating all these magnificent backgrounds.
Puzzle design for us internally is the biggest part of the game that will see a significant makeover to how we usually expect games in this genre to be. We have designed puzzles in a way that makes them part of the story experience. Puzzles are supposed to never keep players in Silence from moving forward within the story. They’re designed in a way to let them be solved intuitively while also being part of the current on-screen experience.
So, players are supposed to explore the environment around them, listen to dialogue, talk to other characters and observe what’s happening around them – just as they’re used to in adventure games or RPGs. The puzzle solutions are always kept on a logical, comprehensible level, and stay within the current area.
This also means that we won’t be needing an inventory. Players can focus on one puzzle at a time, and one item at a time. Thus, we’re eliminating puzzles for which you have to try a huge number of item combinations to find the answer, for example.
We’re also re-designing the game’s cursor in a way that helps you to determine the task that you’re currently working on. It will shift its shape and show you options for what you can do – however, without spoiling the actual solution of a puzzle, of course. For PlayStation 4, we’ll offer a mix of direct control options as well as direct hotspot interactions and selections.
Silence will feature two playable characters – Noah and Renie – as well as an important sidekick named Spot. Noah and Renie will both come with different abilities, which players need to consider in order to solve puzzles. -Playstation Blog
But if P&C puzzles aren't your thing, never fear! There are plenty of hotspots and hints to be enabled or disabled as you see fit if you just want to enjoy the story!
I hate putting system requirements in the main body of an OT, so here they are:
Requirements:
Windows Minimum:
OS: Win 7
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 / ATI Radeon HD 5800 / Intel HD 5000
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
Windows Recommended:
OS: Win 7, Win 8.1, Win 10
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core CPU
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / ATI Radeon HD 7900
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card with latest drivers
OS X Minimum:
OS: Mac OS X 10.7
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 / ATI Radeon HD 5800 / Intel HD 5000
Storage: 20 GB available space OS X Recommended:
OS: Mac OS X 10.7
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core CPU
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / ATI Radeon HD 7900
Storage: 20 GB available space
Steam OS + Linux Minimum:
OS: Ubuntu-Linux 12.04 LTS, 12.10 and 14.04 LTS
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core CPU
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 / ATI Radeon HD 5800 / Intel HD 5000
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: OSS compatible sound card Steam OS + Linux Recommended:
OS: Ubuntu-Linux 12.04 LTS, 12.10 and 14.04 LTS
Processor: 2 GHz Dual Core CPU
Memory: 6 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / ATI Radeon HD 7900
Storage: 20 GB available space
Sound Card: OSS compatible sound card
Also, not an official review, but here's the OP from the thread SilentRob made to talk about how much they enjoyed the game:
Silence.
That's what the game is called. Please talk as much as you want
A few of you will probably know of german game developer Daedalic. They were responsible for many of recent years' point&click-adventures, among them the Deponia series. They are a big deal in Germany because, as you all know from Tim Schafer, we are the only people on earth who actually buy these things and it seemed like they were slowly but steadily able to build an international audience, too.
A few years ago they released "The Whispered World", a point & click adventure as old-school as they come. It was about a sad clown called Sadwick who was destined to destroy the world and managed to mix comedy, beauty and melancholy in a way I have seldom seen in video games. I like it a lot. However, I heard mixed things about the english voice overs.
On November 15 they'll release the unofficial sequel called "Silence" - when it was first accounced it was actually called "Silence: The Whispered World 2". I played and talked about it in my german show and podcast but figured I'd have to talk about it here, too, because many of you would probably never even notice its existence. It's an amazing game. Daedalic mixed their classical approach to point & click adventures with the more story-focused approach of Telltale Games. That means it's a very easy game, there is no inventory and very few chances of actually getting stuck. However, you still have to solve puzzles - only that your character now always uses the relevant items automatically and all the clutter from classic point & click adventures have been removed. I'm terible at classic Point & Click puzzles and am pretty confident that it's almost impossible to get stuck. If you like the style Telltale are going for but wish for a little bit gameplay and better production values, this is exactly what that is.
The true highlights, though, are the story and presentation. This game looks incredible.
Adding to that are the great animations. Contrary to every Telltale Game I have ever played, the characters' animations are extremely well done with a huge focus on detail. The pure production values here really, really surprised me. It looks even better in motion, so you should probably watch this trailer. If you want to see a little bit more, here we played the first hour of the game - it's in german, however.
And then there is the story. It's a bonus if you played the first game - but if you didn't there is a short summary included in the beginning of the game, since the events of Whispered World 1 are actually a kind of bed time story in Silence. It's a great, natural way to connect these two games without making it necessary to play the first one but giving fans quite a bit of fanservice nontheless. If you want to know the setup for this game, I have to spoil Whispered World for you, so I'll put it in Spoiler Tags, just to be sure:
Sadwick the Clown was actually a dream-version of a kid lying in a coma between life and death. Silence, the world Sadwick lived in and was destined to destroy, is kind of a place between life and death with Sadwick being the avatar of the Kid in the hospital bed. At the end of the game you have to decide, if you want to leave and destroy Silence, thus deciding against death and waking up from the coma, or to return as Sadwick to Silence, thus dying in the real world. The canon ending is Sadwick destroying his world, with the kid waking up. That kid is the new main character, Noah, who is now in the middle of a war. While he is outside with this sister, bombers arrive and both Noah and his sister end up in Silence again...fully aware of what this means.
It's a tragic, beautiful, funny, melancholic story with very few characters that will only take up about 5 to 6 hours of your time. I ended up playing through the game in one go since it was such a well told tale.
So if you are at all interested in great stories and Telltale-like Games: Try it! There's a demo on Steam. It's great. Yay!
Edit: It's not only out on Steam but also on PS4 & Xbox One! Also of note: It's a Play Anywhere title on Xbox One & Windows 10!
I didn't know this game existed until this week and now I'm ready to pick it up. The art style is what sold me on it. I think I can use a (presumably) comforting game after Dishonored 2 and BF1.
I didn't know this game existed until this week and now I'm ready to pick it up. The art style is what sold me on it. I think I can use a (presumably) comforting game after Dishonored 2 and BF1.
Some of the reviews I've read seem to indicate it's a bit more heavy than The Whispered World was. I don't think it'll quite go Grave of the Fireflies on us, but just a forewarning
Thanks for doing an OT. I'm currently playing the game on PS4. I do wonder though, i read somewhere that there was a recap video of what happened in the first game. Is this an actual video separate from the game or are they just referring to the start of the game?
Just finished it on PS4. It's surprisingly short for a game that has been in development for such a long time, though it's obvious that a lot of care and attention, hard work and passion was put into it.
I'd rate it 7/10. I found it quite solid if somewhat safe (with a certain cuteness overload) and unremarkable. Also, i have a feeling i would have gotten a lot more out of this game if i had (re)played the first game since there are a lot of references to that game. In fact, i can't say i got a lot out of this story as a standalone game. I didn't get the emotional attachement that i was supposed to get, especially towards the ending, which i feel was somewhat rushed (the last hour had virtually no gameplay anymore).
Visually, it's beautiful. I'm not the biggest fan of the character look but the backgrounds looked amazing. Though i can also appreciate, maybe even more, the simpler and less detailed 2D paintery artstyle from games like The Dark Eye, The Whispered World 1 and the upcoming The Devil's Men and Pillar's of the Earth.
Voice acting was ok for the most part but i didn't like the voice of Noah all that much. The music and sound effects were ok but i had the impression that the sound quality, volume and mix were a bit off sometimes.
Gameplay wise, it's a mix between a traditional point & click adventure and a typical Telltale cinematic adventure. It has to be said though that the game has more gameplay and puzzles than the Telltale ones. It's just that without an inventory, the puzzles remain very simple throughout. As with any other "modern" adventure game (e.g. the new Sherlock Holmes game), i didn't feel that the "action" sequences/gameplay added anything interesting or fun to the game and i find them a waiste of precious development time that could have been spent elsewhere. Also, since the gameplay is so light, there is a constant mix of gameplay/cutscene/change of screen going on and due to the somewhat long loading times in between each, it hurts the flow of the game.
I might buy the first game on my iPad and replay that now (which i should have done before starting Silence). Maybe i'll get more out of the story that way. All in all though, i don't regret playing Silence but i found it quite forgettable. I have higher hopes for The Devil's Men, Pillars of the Earth and State of Mind, which should release sometime next year. Hopefully, Daedalic is going to continue releasing their games on console. As long as they do, i'll keep buying them.
I'd rate it 7/10. I found it quite solid if somewhat safe (with a certain cuteness overload) and unremarkable. Also, i have a feeling i would have gotten a lot more out of this game if i had (re)played the first game since there are a lot of references to that game. In fact, i can't say i got a lot out of this story as a standalone game. I didn't get the emotional attachement that i was supposed to get, especially towards the ending, which i feel was somewhat rushed (the last hour had virtually no gameplay anymore).
Just played the demo on Steam, and I really loved it. It looks incredible, you can see how much they cared about that world and were excited to explore it again with this game. But it also made me really want to play the first before going into the full game, so I installed it
The way they told the first game's story was so brilliant, and even though it pretty much spoiled the whole thing, it made me really interested in seeing it for myself.
