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:
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!
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!
