Silt - In the deep ocean | Review

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In the deep ocean, in the darkness.
Silt is a creation of Spiral Circus developer, launched on June 1st, 2022, the game promises an adventure in the ocean deepness, mixing several puzzles with a bit of horror since we are not entirely alone in the abyss. Nature is going to scare us; strange creatures and abandoned ruins are going to be on the path of our abandoned swimmer.

Prepare yourself, the animation is entirely in black and white and can cause some strangeness, but some mechanics you should know, the gameplay is extremely similar to other games, such as Limbo, Inside, Abzu, and Little Nightmare.



First challenge

Well, when I started, I admit that my expectations were completely different since I never had seen anything like that yet because it was new, I imagined that would be a horror game inside a submarine, and, it’s not something negative, but it was the complete opposite. Said that, when we begin, our character, a person with diving equipment, it’s stuck in a chain that impossibilities any initial movement, at this point, the first tutorial will appear and teach us one of the most important mechanics of Silt.

The mechanism that I talk about is possession, yes, we are going to possess another living being when we press a specific key, don’t worry, the controls are simple and easy to learn. That way, when we control animals, of course, marine creatures, some are sinisterly weird, we can use the unique abilities of each specie, at first, we are going to take advantage of a fish with a powerful bite to release us from the chain.

Since we are talking about mechanics, there are some special ones, basically, this one is going to make us progress easily on the entire game, it’s going to be used a lot, possessing several animals in sequence and using a poison of aquatic plants in carnivorous plants to kill it, besides this, other two main techniques are turning on and off lights and swimming faster, is not hard, right?



Where’s the story?

Particularly, I like the dark style mixed with puzzles that were placed in the game, but, if Silt has a story, they forgot to tell us, you are not going to worry a lot when you play it because you’ll be busy thinking about how you can progress, but, at the end of the gameplay, that has about 4 hours, you’ll be asking about the narrative and probably won’t reach to any conclusion, so this is a negative point of this creation.

Let me explain when we pass a phase, we always defeat a final boss, usually a grotesque creature, giant and hostile, we are going to be placed in a place like a limbo, with several objects scattered through the water, somehow, they are similar to industrial items, here we are going to swim until we find a kind of nave, which has inside it abandoned ruins that will allow us to access the next level. And all of this doesn’t have an explanation, especially because Silt is totally mute, it doesn’t have dialogues, and you’re all by yourself against several marine monsters



Complicated, but in the right dose

One of the Silt’s aspects that I liked the most was the puzzles, despite it being extremely challenging, they are on the right measure, you only need to think for a short time and probably will be able to advance, so, it’s not exhaustive gameplay to the point that you get sickened of it, and this is important since the game doesn’t have a lot of interaction between the player and the story that makes us continue playing to conclude a narrative, so this is essential together with the short duration, to not become a boring game.

For example, at certain points, you won’t be worrying about puzzles, but to survive, here dying is a common thing, our character is made of sugar, any living creature is a thorn and the poison can kill you, so there is an accurate combination of the difficulty of survival and the progression.



Art traits

Another extremally strong detail adopted by Spiral Circus (developer) was the animation, the game graphic art is absolutely well-made, the details are well-produced and they complete a clearly defined a dark bottom of the sea, despite everything being black and white, these small details such as shading and ornamentation, present a complete experience to the player that put a new game like this in the radar of several other players.

Is not only the art, of course, especially on ruins, it’s going to be almost impossible not noticing the details and be intrigued with the reasons to be there, in the deep ocean, a curious place still unknown by humankind so far, but here the animations were made of excellent quality, walls being knocked down, plants and fishes trying to attack and several other details.

One of the mechanics that drew my attention was the one that absorbs a kind of energy in some moments, when we defeat the final boss and when we found corpses trapped in chains, to be honest, I didn’t understand the functionality, but it’s, in fact, something curious, “follow the light” this will be your motto.



A deafening noise in the silence

As I mentioned before, we won’t find dialogues here, so, about the audio which is important in every game, we are going to see some factors, especially in the ambiance and animations moments, monsters, fishes, and even in our main character, because this also executes some tasks.

Well, what’s the sound of the bottom of the sea? It’s possible to imagine a lot, but everyone agrees that the most possible sound is a total and insane silence with some of that standard sea sound, put this together with the darkness, and it’s done, you have your horror. Exactly this, the noise is going to complement the dark experience, it’s funny to think that a sound effect would make you feel even more alone, but it’s exactly this that happens.

Besides that, fishes sounds, carnivorous plants, and bosses attacking, everything is kind of dry, that is, the movements are simple, such as the audio in this part, showing how everything aims to solitude, because not even when we are attacked, we feel that we have some companion. Combine everything, the feeling in this part is something well delivered and well produced.



Is it worth it?

Well, if we put together factors of gameplay, graphics, and audio, Silt is one excellent recommendation, since it has a mix of dark and puzzles, something really cherished for many players.

And also, the game has a short duration, it will be possible to play at once and finish it fast, with that feeling of pleasure of surpassing several challenges, it also has 21 achievements to be searched for, most of these you’ll reach when you follow the standard path, to be honest, some has funny names, it’s worth it.

So, despite the lack of story and of being extremely similar to other games of the same genre (this is not something negative, because comparable are also good), the accessible price and other details benefit a positive evaluation for this beautiful animation released by Spiral Circus.



We thank the PR team of Fireshine Games for Silt’s key, which allows us the creation this content.

Silt is available for Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows, and PlayStation 5.
 
Veredito
82
Excelente

Come experience the adventure into the depths of the ocean, face monsters and complicated puzzles to progress, in a combination of beautiful graphics and well-produced audio.

Scoring

  • Gameplay
    80
  • Graphics
    50
  • Audio
    95
  • History
    95
  • Controls
    90
Scoring Criteria
About the author
#
Felipe S.
Redator
Aficionado por games, e todas as co-relações a tecnologia e seus avanços. Admirador dos E-sports e suas ramificações.
About the game
Silt

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