PC Review Code Provided by Daedalic Entertainment.
It’s usually the way that we’ve got to look to smaller developers to bring strong art direction to games. Children Of Silentown is a big example of this. Published by Daedalic Entertainment and developed by Elf Games and Luna2, the game is a point-and-click adventure with a very distinctive style and flair. Once I took a look under the hood, I found a game absolutely worth playing.
Story
Children of Silentown is a mystery, with some definite horror elements. It is set in the titular Silentown, a small settlement in the middle of a vast forest. People who live there abide by very strict rules, and keep their voices down at all times, to avoid provoking the things that live out in the woods. People sometimes disappear, and everyone knows to stay inside after dark.
You take on the role of Lucy, a twelve-year-old girl who lives in the town, and who has become increasingly frustrated with the adult citizens’ secrecy about the strange happenings in Silentown. It doesn’t help that she’s plagued by recurring nightmares.
Lucy is a good protagonist. She is clearly a child, but she doesn’t fall into tired tropes. She’s witty, quippy, sarcastic, and has a love-hate relationship with her cat Squinty that’s fun to watch. Other characters are similarly well-drawn. The character writing is not only a bonus but really essential for getting you invested and anxious in the disappearances.
Gameplay
Old-school point-and-click adventure games heavily inspire the gameplay of Children Of Silentown. The first thing thought of when I started playing was nostalgic memories of playing the Discworld adventure games. You walk around the town and try to complete whatever objectives you have, using objects you can find. You can also combine these objects together to make something else.
This kind of puzzle-solving is the bread and butter of the genre, and if you’re a fan of this kind of play you’ll probably love it. If you’re not familiar with it, it might be a slightly harder sell. I spent a lot of time wandering around trying to figure out what the game wanted me to do to advance the story. I didn’t mind this too much, as the art, atmosphere, and music kept me engaged. It does delve into object-puzzle-moon-logic from time to time, but not as much as similar games I’ve encountered.
Another part of the game comes from melodies. You learn these by acquiring notes around town, and once the right ones are put together, you get a song that can be used on characters or objects when you’ve hit a dead end with items. For example, one song lets you see someone’s childish thoughts, which can be used to look into memories relating to their childhood.
When the songs are used in a way that will advance your progress, it will trigger a puzzle minigame. These puzzles can be quite tough, but add an extra dimension of gameplay beyond just trying items on things.
Visuals And Audio
Children Of Silentown is visually gorgeous. It achieves this not through fancy graphical fidelity, but through an art direction that absolutely oozes a creepy charm, and through the hand-painted visuals that make you feel like you’re in a book illustration. Everything feels incredibly cohesive and it’s a treat to look at. It’s clear that a huge amount of effort was put into the development of the game’s look.
The sound is similarly well thought-out. Part of the gameplay is routed in songs, so as you might expect there are some excellent tracks. There isn’t much voice acting outside of cutscene narration, but the songs have real vocal work attached, which is nice.
Replayability
One of the issues with games that lean on object puzzles is they can make replaying a bit pointless, as once you’ve figured out the solutions, most of the novelty is lost. Children Of Silentown does do some work to avoid this, with multiple endings and choices you can make sprinkled throughout the progression. It was enough to make me want to have a go trying other options I ran into.
What It Could Have Done Better
Children Of Silentown is not a fast-paced game. When you start out you will spend a lot of your time doing mundane tasks around town. Even when the story picks up, a lot of your time will still be spent walking around looking for berries or pruning shears. I didn’t mind this too much myself as I felt like the town’s charm did a lot to get me through it, but I think it could put some people off the game before the story gets really interesting.
It’s sometimes hard to really figure out what to do next, as your instructions are not always explicit. I spent some time looking for an additional objective. I did need to check a walkthrough a couple of times as there’s inevitably a bit of an arbitrary nature to the object puzzles.
Verdict
I really really enjoyed Children Of Silentown! It’s very much one of the better point-and-click titles, and I feel like your mileage may vary a ton depending on your tolerance for just wandering around trying items and songs on different things. Ultimately, if the quirks of this type of adventure game grate on you, you will probably dislike it. If you enjoy the gameplay though, it’s a gorgeously rendered and well-written experience that is so worth the effort to get into.
Children of Silentown is available now for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
