Children of Silentown Review (PC)

Daedalic Entertainment has a fine pedigree when it comes to point & click adventure games, both in the position of developer and publisher. Children of Silentown is the result of the collaboration between two studios – Elf Games and Luna2 Studio.

Children of Silentown reminds me of Edna & Harvey, but only when it comes to aesthetic. That being said, that’s where the similarities between the two games stop. Children of Silentown adopts a more Burtonesque art style with some great animations and a decent story.

Set in a small village surrounded by forest, Children of Silentown tells the story of Lucy, a young girl who loves singing, something that’s heavily disapproved by the local community. The unusual village lives by a very strict set of rules to prevent its inhabitants from being taken away by the monsters roaming the forest.

According to these rules, you’re forbidden from making noise or head outside when it’s dark. Most of the people who infringed on these rules have disappeared without a trace, which is also the main thing that enforces them. Basically, you’re free to break the rules as long as you’re ready to accept the consequences.

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The premise of the game sets the stage for a very interesting plot that involves some investigation and a lot of puzzle-solving. For the most part, the story managed to keep me engaged up until the end. I really wanted to unravel the mystery behind the disappearances from the village and find out how it all began.

Despite its premise, there are little to no horror elements in the game. The hand-drawn art style does a really great job of keeping the atmosphere very tense, but there are no scary moments throughout the game. The way all the characters look – big, hollow eyes, no mouths, and no apparent hands or feet, is quite chilling. It’s pretty much what you’d expect to see in a Tim Burton movie.

The predominant shades of black and grey emphasize the game’s gloomy, yet tense atmosphere. The soundtrack contributes to the immersion as well, I just wished we had more songs for each zone, not one that plays over and over again until you transition to another area.

Gameplay-wise, Children of Silentown plays like a traditional point & click adventure game. You solve puzzles to progress and learn more about the other characters and ultimately discover the secret behind the haunted forest that surrounds the quaint village.

The first few chapters take place in the village where Lucy is bonding with some of the other children of her age, as well as running some errands for her mother. It all comes crumbling down the moment Lucy’s mom is snatched by the monsters never to be seen again. Sadly, there’s no mourning after one villager disappears, as the community always blames the one that’s been taken by the forest for breaking the rules and putting themselves in danger.

Of course, Lucy isn’t the kind of person to let this all go away. She really wants to find her mother, despite her father’s opposition. Now, there are some interesting twists to the traditional point & click adventure game formula. Since Lucy loves to sing, you’ll discover notes throughout the game, which are part of multiple songs with various effects. Once you find all the notes, you can use the song on characters or items to learn more about them or unlock new areas.

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Performing a song usually reveals a puzzle that you need to solve to get a new piece of information needed to advance. There are a few types of puzzles that increase in difficulty as you’re progressing the story. I enjoyed most of them, but a particular set of puzzles felt downright frustrating, and these puzzles involve the use of cogs to line up one or more pathways to the correct destination.

I particularly enjoyed the puzzle that has you navigate a thread through several buttons, some with two holes, other with four holes, to repair stitching. These puzzles aren’t that hard but still require a bit of trial and error before you get them right. They become increasingly more difficult in the later chapters, but I didn’t feel frustration solving any of them.

One other puzzle that I think it suits the game perfectly involves lighting up a series of tiles avoiding certain obstacles. Since they pop-up mid-game, they won’t become so difficult as the other ones, but they’re a nice chance of scenery when it comes to puzzling.

The first few chapters have an average amount of puzzles and a little bit of backtracking since the village is rather small. However, the last two chapters are full to the brim with puzzles, so you’ll be left with even more questions unanswered. The pace is quite uneven and while I did enjoy the first chapters of the game, the part that has Lucy explore the forest was quite obnoxious due to the high number of puzzles and very few story bits.

On the bright side, there are some tense parts in the last chapters that make it worth playing to the end. If you actually manage to solve the avalanche of puzzles in the last chapters and reach the end, you’ll have an unpleasant surprise. For all the tension it built throughout the game, the ending is very unsatisfying.

Depending on how many songs you manage to complete, you can choose one of four possible endings. There’s no conclusion offered, and you’re left filling in the blanks yourself. Although I can understand some of the narrative choices, I would have expected something more concrete rather than what I got.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion