The origin story of Children of Silentown is remarkable. After seeing an unpublished short film by artist Francesca Presentini, the two permanent members of Elf Games saw the basis for a video game in it. So Presentini’s own Luna2 Studio teamed up with the developers to complete their idea accordingly – with the peculiarity that Elf Games is not a professional studio. In other words, the team spent four years working on Children of Silentown entirely in their spare time before finally releasing the adventure a few days ago.
In fact, it’s a classic point-and-click adventure mainly aimed at younger players, where you have to figure out which items to use with which objects to open doors, seal pipes or elicit answers from different people.
To be more precise, that’s what Lucy does, who lives with her mother and father in a small town whose inhabitants know one rule above all: never go into the all-encompassing forest! Monsters dwell there and in fact quite a few residents have already disappeared after breaking this rule. What can happen, among other things, when people no longer appear who are very close to the heart of a young person like Lucy…
Of course, she still wants to help these people, or at least try to, by gradually uncovering secrets that nobody else in Silentown talks about. And for this she learns to hum melodies, the sound of which opens people’s hearts and reveals hidden information in other ways. Don’t worry, you don’t have to play music. All you have to do is press a button and select the person you want Lucy to hum to, and she starts chatting away.
Children of Silentown is available on all current platforms. On PC you have the choice between Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Storewhile checking out the console versions Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony finds.
Well, it’s not that easy after all, because after the humming of the melodies you have to solve a puzzle that belongs to a certain type depending on the melody. And one of them in particular was unfortunately not much fun for me: You have to build paths there by correctly turning the required fields of a square using gear wheels. It may be because I dislike this particular type of combination problem, but at some point I just couldn’t see these representatives anymore – which wouldn’t be a problem if you didn’t have to solve them over and over again.
On top of that, I don’t find some of the classic point-and-click puzzles all that great either. Since you sometimes block the possibility of finding a bonus item if you unknowingly open the door to the final exit. Sometimes, even in hindsight, I wasn’t sure why Lucy had to combine certain items. Sometimes the explanation of the current task is missing or it is so misleading that I have tried for a long time to achieve something completely different. And when I give a correct answer in a multiple-choice dialogue, it feels lousy if that’s the option that subsequently calls Lucy a liar.
There are also many good puzzles and logical tasks for the most part. In addition, some of the combination puzzles are very successful brain teasers. Last but not least, all the characters are well-written character heads that don’t strain your patience in pleasantly brief conversations, while the controls with mouse and keyboard as well as a gamepad work perfectly, so that you click your way through the adventure quite energetically. This adventure feels more like a snapshot because you are in front of the same few houses almost the entire time. On the other hand, I really like the resolution of the story with its different endings.
Now it’s not hard to make sense of a place called Silentown and a girl who’s slowly finding her voice. And even later, the game does not turn into a profound milieu study with surprising insights. For children and young people, the narrative style and content should come together in a very meaningful way. And apart from the frustrating moments, that also goes with the relatively easy puzzles.
Test to Children of Silentown – conclusion
Francesca Presentini and Elf Games have brought a children’s and youth book into the form of a point-and-click adventure, which lives from its clearly manageable, but also very atmospheric and meaningful narrative. In order to be a great adventure, the constantly same setting is far too static and the development of the events too manageable. Some illogical and poorly explained connections and always the same combination puzzles also disrupt the flow of the game, so I can’t recommend Children of Silentown without hesitation. The game can only convince in the narrative area and not least because of the striking drawings.
Children of Silentown – Rating: 6/10
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Well-written story about growing up and social cohesion
- Striking art design
- Largely easy puzzles motivate to play through quickly…
cons
- … however, some puzzles are illogical or poorly described
- Always the same combination puzzles
- Constantly the same, very manageable scene
- Much of the narrative is very predictable for adult gamers
Developer: Elf Games, Luna2 Studio – Publishers: Daedalic Entertainment – Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One – release: 01/11/2023 – Genre: adventure Price (RRP): almost 20 euros
