The start of the year has slowly turned into a brief period where some of the most underrated and overlooked games come into the public mindset. Mainly because there is hardly anything with a big name coming out this early until they start to come out in February. But for now, we have a handful of indie games that come out to hopefully do enough to catch the attention of those looking for a good game. Some of them do have enough heft to keep in the conversation throughout the year, while others are good on completion but quickly leave your mindset when you pick up the next game on your list; this entry falls into the latter.
Children of Silentown is an interesting game when looking at it as a whole. Mainly because there are some things that really work and some aspects that don’t and, at times, become frustrating, but I won’t consider those aspects a dealbreaker because I was able to push through the relatively short game time, rounding out at 5-6 hours. But I did enjoy my time with this game; just an experience I won’t stay in my mind for a long time.
The game is structured like an old-fashioned point-and-click adventure game; think more LucasArts than Telltale. Where you will be clicking around the town in the title, trying to see what you can pick up, and then use on nearly everything to see what works. That being said, the game feels a bit outdated with its design because there were moments when you needed to do things in a specific order, but at other times you can do the puzzle in any order you want to. It’s the issue of balancing old-fashioned critical thinking while at the same time appeasing to the modern gamer of today. It works in some moments, but half the time, I just found it to be frustrating.
Then you have the story and art design, which after looking up the history online, and this game being promoted back in early 2020, I can this was the main focus when developing the game. You take control of a young girl named Lucy, who is a child in Silentown, a mysterious town in the middle of the woods that none leaves due to fear of monsters in said woods. Loud noises are forbidden as the older townsfolks think it will bring the monsters to their doorsteps after a personal tragedy affects Lucy; it’s up to her and her friends to figure out the mystery of what is going on in the woods. When the plot is explained like that, it starts to sound cliché in nature, and yes there are aspects that I saw coming, and moments that caught me off guard.
First of all, the tone is amazing, mixing this feeling of both warm and cozy, and then a minute, you feel like you’re in the middle of hell. The hand-drawn aspects help get the tone across perfectly, and this was my favorite aspect of the game. Mainly because I’m someone who takes appreciation when game devs take this approach to animation in the game; I was a fan when Cuphead did, and I’m a fan here as well. The music is ok; I felt like the game only had 4-5 tracks on repeat; they all started to sound the same to me as I was inching closer to the ending. I feel like the tone captures what it’s like in some moments of your childhood because things can one moment be cheerful and happy, but one slight rift at that moment can change the tone very quickly and become terrifying to some people.
In the end, I enjoyed my time with it, and I do hope it gets more attention before the heavy hitters start to roll out in February. Because, like I said, there are something in the game that is definitely worth your time. If you can look past the genre issues that are attached, the point-and-click games. The story was enjoyable enough to see it through to the end, even if I knew how it was going to end, and even with that knowledge, I still got a little emotional at the end before it copped out and did a moral choice ending out of nowhere. But looking at it as a whole, it’s very mixed; the gameplay was passable most of the time and frustrating at moments, but the story was good, even if it was a little cliché. The art style was great, except, at times, the game would have a fit and start clipping. But I can recommend this one when it goes on sale. But until it drops in price, stare outside into the woods that are softly breathing and go, “maybe I should wait to get this come Halloween to scratch that horror itch.”
Score: 6 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5