Silence

Silence is a game that deserves to be played in docked mode on the Switch. It gives you a story you’ll be immersed in, while the vibrant graphics will keep you playing for just that little bit longer. You may feel like you’re wasting time when it comes to the multiple chat options, as they always conclude at the right outcome, but your curiosity will want you to keep going to find out more about the world of Silence, and to bring Noah and Renie home, whatever it takes. The lack of touch screen control is a disappointment though, and we can't help but feel this should have been priced a little cheaper, considering its age and how much it costs elsewhere.

Silence: The Whispered World 2 is a beautiful and polished experience with a distinct focus on its story. It still holds enough traditional gameplay to be considered a point-and-click adventure rather than a "walking simulator," but it sacrifices complexity and variety for a more streamlined approach. It's also a very short experience, which doesn't necessarily work in its favor. It doesn't overstay its welcome, but many of it is too short-lived to make the impact it's so clearly striving for.

Silence is a great game with some quirks. The artwork is beautiful and the animation is pretty good for the most part, and the story definitely takes center stage for me. However, the puzzles are rather simple, most of the dialogue (and puzzles for that matter) have no real consequence for choosing a wrong option, and the forty dollar price tag might be off-putting to some, especially since you can find it for half of that on other platforms. Silence is definitely worth checking out and it makes me want to play through The Whispered World, but I’d recommend waiting for it to go on sale.

This is an incredible game that is well worth experiencing, but there’s an elephant in the room. The Switch price is £35.99, which is sure to demoralizing consumers as it’s more than double the Steam price, for a port that doesn’t improve on the original. There aren’t even touchscreen controls, which would have been a perfect addition for the Switch.

Silence provides a fun, thoughtful, but brief experience on the Nintendo Switch. Its charms may be lost on younger gamers, but old-school adventurers will like the way it harks back to the days of yore while eschewing many of the more annoying aspects of the genre. Silence has a great story that’s well acted, wonderful environments to explore and puzzles that are fun to solve, but you may want to wait for a sale before you set off.

Functionally, Silence works as a basic point and click adventure game, but I feel as though it shows growth beyond the well-trod genre expectations. A blend of traditional old-school mechanics mixed with advances in storytelling and gameplay variation allows Silence to stand above what I have seen served up over the last few years. Some lackluster audio and a missed opportunity with the bevy of characters detract slightly, but not overly so from this generally decent package.

Overall, if you’re looking for a more open world experience or a narrative that takes one of many paths based on your various choices, you might be a bit disappointed by Silence. It is a linear experience, a straight narrative path with puzzle-gates to go through to continue on — much like other point-and-click games like Deponia, Monkey Island or Broken Age. Having said that, the writing is very good and I enjoyed the narrative very much even if it did feel like a visual novel at times. Added to that are the gorgeous visuals, haunting musical score and solid puzzle elements and you have a fun and entertaining package that feels right at home on the Switch.

Silence is a smart, inventive fairy tale that draws from the classics and tackles some weighty subject matter.

Its puzzles are challenging enough to keep you engrossed through its three- to four-hour play time, but its Silence‘s locations and environment design that will really make you fall in love with this game. And Spot, of course.

A magical fantasy journey with clever puzzles. Touchscreen controls are missed dearly, though.