Game review: Silence – simple brain-teasers and lack of challenge tarnish a beautiful idea
A cool concept and gobsmacking visuals hint at greatness, but a mostly dull story and crappy gameplay fail to lift this point-and-click adventure from ordinary to awesome
Daedalic Entertainment
3/5 stars
Martin Scorsese has a new film out this winter titled Silence – that’s kind of what turned me onto this game of the same name. I had hoped that maybe an art-house film about Portuguese missionaries in Japan would have a video game adaptation. No such luck – the marketing folks don’t think gamers are that advanced, apparently
But this game isn’t half bad. It looks absolutely beautiful, a stunning blend of hand-painted 2D and computer-generated 3D that puts many of the major developers to shame. I could just look at the game all day without actually playing it. But that’d be boring, so let’s continue.
Silence is a sequel to The Whispered World, a point-and-click adventure game from 2009 that I’d never heard of, but it seemingly has a cult following. Fans have been pretty disappointed by the follow-up so far, judging from the reviews, but if you come into it without any preconceived notions, you’ll be rewarded with a game that hints at greatness.