How do you discuss a game like Silence? Its very name seems reflective and deep, which is surprisingly indicative of the game itself. Silence is a port of the PC title of the same name from Daedalic Entertainment. Generally, point and click graphic adventure games are a niche market and definitely not something that appeals to a wide audience. But since the indie boom of the last five years or so, they’ve made something of a comeback, ranging from things like Thimbleweed Park and Gemini Rue to remastered classics like Full Throttle and Day of the Tentacle (ahhhhh, Lucasarts *sigh*).
During the course of this boom, a new IP snuck its way out of the mix, one called The Whispered World. It was bold, artistic, and genuinely fun, something that is difficult to pull off in a genre like this one. In short, it was a spectacular game published by the makers of the Deponia franchise (also point and click). The Whispered World got noticed and it was a solid game, but it never quite made it to mainstream recognition. What hadn’t been anticipated was that Daedalic would produce a sequel that basically had no press whatsoever, snuck out on Steam and now has been ported to the Nintendo Switch!
That’s right, Silence is a sequel to The Whispered World, and a damned good one! It dropped essentially without fanfare in late 2016 and thankfully, some entrepreneurial soul decided that it would be a good fit for the Switch! They were more than correct! Silence tells the story of 16 year old Noah and his little sister Renie. They’re in a war zone of some sort, one strangely akin to the Blitz during WWII. As they race towards a bunker for safety from the bombings, you’re led into one of the most powerful story introductions in a game in quite some time. Let’s not spoil anything though, because the bread and butter of Silence is story.
Silence manages something that few other games do. It’s utterly compelling with a virtually completely story driven experience. From the opening cinema, you’re sucked wholly into an otherworldly experience you can barely explain with characters that are easily relatable. It’s a formula that just works. Once you survive the attacks, Noah and Renie find themselves lost in an unexplained world where nothing is predictable or familiar. As the story progresses, you’ll learn what’s going on and why they’re there, but there’s no reason to give anything away, especially with a game that clocks in somewhere loosely around 4-5 hours or so. Silence is by no means a long game, but that honestly doesn’t matter with the immersion level.
A large part of that immersion has to do with the graphics of the game. Silence is beautiful. And that’s no exaggeration. It’s an utterly gorgeous game and some of the scenes could easily be art prints worthy of hanging on the wall. The graphics are simply spectacular, even if a large part of the scenery is static. It simply doesn’t matter. As you play, it’s hard not to simply goggle at the sheer beauty of some of the areas, actually lengthening the game simply by engaging the player so fully. Add in a cast of unique and compelling supporting cast members and you have an experience that’s hard to match.
But it’s still a point and click, right? Well, yes. It certainly is. But honestly, that doesn’t matter one bit, especially with the Switch. Point and click games are notorious for being difficult to find the things you’re supposed to actually click on and determine the order. Not so with Silence on the Switch. Your cursor automatically jumps from selectable item to selectable item, saving you the rather irritating hassle of searching the entire background for the one thing you might need to click on. This streamlines the point and click experience, making it more of a problem solving exercise and generally improving the flow of the game.
But what’s so special about Silence? Well, it’s just as the title says: The Sounds. Silence is such a spectacular game partly because of its visuals, but at least equally due to its fantastic dialogue. Noah, Renie, and the supporting cast feel real. Their dialogue is smartly written, excellently voice acted, and synced extremely well into the game. Everything simply feels organic and natural. Every bit of dialogue, every graphic response, they all flow into a cohesive narrative that simply oozes charm and character. You feel for the characters almost instantly. You care what they’re doing and what’s happening to them and you genuinely want to help them. It’s such a rare thing to experience in a game that it’s hard not to drone on and on about it. Suffice it to say, Silence’s voice acting and script are some of the best out there for virtually any game. It’s just plain good.
If you’ve got fantastic visuals, fantastic dialogue, and fantastic voice actors, what are you left with? Pretty simple – A fantastic point and click adventure. Sure, it might be a few years old, but it definitely doesn’t show it on the Switch. The game plays excellently in both docked and undocked mode too, and it’s easy to wander up to bed and play as well. Even if point and click isn’t your style, Silence is something special; something that has an almost universal appeal. Basically, unless you only want to play FPS games and sports titles, you’re going to love Silence.
If you’re not sold by now, you’re likely not going to be. There are really only a couple of negatives to Silence. First is the price point. It comes in at a hefty $39.99 on the Switch eshop, a full $20 above its price on Steam. That’s a bit of a risky price for a game that’s as short as Silence is, but it’s so damned good that it’s hard to say it’s not worth it. Aside from that, the game isn’t really incredibly challenging. Sure, you might have to think a bit to figure out the order you need to accomplish things in, but it’s not particularly difficult. As downsides go, that’s fairly minute.
Ultimately, you pretty much can’t lose with Silence. There isn’t really any replayability, but at the same time, you’re getting one of the best told stories in recent years. It’s difficult to say there’s anything negative in that sense. Silence is simply a masterpiece, told in a clear and concise way, and drawing you into a unique and gorgeous world. This is what point and click games should be and hopefully is the direction that indie gaming is headed in: Manageably sized experiences that focus on nothing but quality, immersion, and accessibility. Go play Silence. Go tell your friends about Silence. This is where gaming should be, and for once, instead of heading in the right direction, it feels like we’ve reached our destination.
This review is based on a digital copy of Silence provided by the publisher. They rather deserve hugs for it. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes. It is also available for PS4, Xbox One, and Steam. Why are you still reading this? Go enjoy Silence!