Silence (computer game)

Silence (English for "silence") is an Adventure - Computer game . It is the successor to The Whispered World (English for "The Whispered World") and was developed by Daedalic Entertainment . Marco Hüllen was responsible for the game design in collaboration with Ulrich Wanitschke (head game designer) and Anne von Vaszary (story). The game was released on November 15, 2016 for Windows, Linux, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

action

The game tells the story of sixteen year old Noah and his little sister Renie. During an air raid on their village, their bunker is hit by a bomb and they find themselves in a world between life and death. Noah loses sight of his sister and has to find her again in the fantastic and dangerous world. There is war in this world too. Here it is dark creatures who devastate the world on behalf of the queen and are fought by rebels. After Noah finds his sister with the help of the rebels, the siblings make their way to the palace and confront the queen. In the end, Renie has to decide whether she wants to rule "Silence" herself as queen or return to her world.

Chapter 1

The story begins in a snowy village in the mountains. A group of children build a snowman and are caught by an air raid. Sixteen-year-old Noah and his sister Renie flee into a bunker and can thus initially save themselves from the falling bombs. Since the little girl is scared, Noah tries to distract and cheer up his sister. He tells her about Silence and she reminds him that he was once its king. After another bomb strike, Noah finds himself under the rubble. Renie has disappeared. While looking for his sister, who is calling for him, Noah initially only finds a large egg - like the one that Spot hatched. When Noah, annoyed, smashes the TV, which is still running, the environment suddenly changes. Noah climbs outside over rubble stones and finds himself in a dreamlike environment that reminds him of Silence.

He climbs out of the mouth of a dead worm and is rescued from a “seeker” by the rebel Kyra - a gray-black, menacing figure with a white mask. Noah needs Spots' help to climb a rock face and follow the rebel. He helps the caterpillar to hatch. Thanks to Spot, Noah gets to Kyra and helps her to blow up a bridge - she doesn't want to tell him where to find Renie beforehand.

Chapter 2

Renie was picked up at the mouth of the worm by a rebel named Samuel before Noah got out of there. The two meet Horus, the messenger bird, who is being eaten by a carnivorous plant. Renie gets into dangerous situations and deals with them with naive ignorance. Renie does not listen to the whisperings of the unused viewfinder masks that are lying around in the swamp and want to be put on. But she also doesn't notice that she is almost discovered by one of the seekers. Renie helps the strong Samuel free the bird from the mouth of a plant. Horus has a message from Janus, but he flies away before Renie can take it from him. Samuel is then threatened by a seeker, and after Renie realizes that the seekers can't seem to see her, she rescues Samuel with a skillful throw of a javelin that scares the seeker away.

The messenger bird then reappears with Kyra and Noah. But he doesn't want to just leave the news to Kyra either. He drops it in the crown of a honey tree. Kyra and Noah try in vain to get Janus' message from the tree. As they kick the trunk, hoping the news will fall, angry honeydew ticks abducted Kyra. Noah follows her into a hole in the ground and gets into the queen bee's cave, where Kyra is already trapped in a cocoon. Spot can soothe the queen bee, who is flapping around with electrically charged tentacles, with a hum after he has sipped the “Royal Jelly”. After Noah frees the unconscious Kyra, he resuscitates her with the help of the electric tentacles. A strand of Kyra's hair is now gray.

Finally they get the secret message and make their way to the camp, where Renie and Samuel are already waiting for them. Noah makes Renie, who is so enthusiastic about this dream world, understand that the two have to leave this world if they want to live. When he mentions the throne room and the mirror, the rebels prick up their ears and want to know all about it. But Noah doesn't know the way from the rebel camp to the throne room. They need Janus to show them the way.

Noah and the rebels try to decipher Janus' cryptic message. The place where he is trapped remains a mystery at first. Since Noah and Kyra disagree in which direction to look, they go their separate ways at this point. Noah arrives at a ruin that looks familiar to him and discovers the Horus symbol from Janus. After Noah inhales the intoxicating pollen of an exotic plant, certain objects that he finds in the ruin turn into snakes. A voice out of nowhere tells him that he has to find three snakes in total. If Noah - who now realizes that he is Sadwick - has found a snake, a floating instrument appears in front of a relief and plays a melody. When all three snakes have been found and the instruments are in tune, the snakes become rigid and Noah uses them on a pillar as a ladder to reach the door with the Horus symbol.

From there it reaches the crater of a volcano. On the summit behind the crater is a locked stone gate with a whispering seeker lurking in front of it. Noah withdraws and is startled by a signal in the sky that Renie fired while playing with the flare gun. He returns to the rebel base and discusses how to proceed with Samuel. Since the two ignore Renie, she makes her way to the ruin.

Spot eats the way clear, but is allergic to the pollen in the ruin. Renie has to close the flowers again and transform the snakes back to get to the crater as well. There she can pass a viewfinder unmolested and meets the speaking stone brother Yngo on the summit. This tells her that he has seen Janus being dragged behind the stone gate by a winged creature. His missing brother Ralv knows how to open the gate. The opening mechanism seems to be related to prayer wheels, one of which is broken in front of the gate after the seeker rioted there. Renie breaks off a splinter from a quartz, driving the viewfinder away from the crater. Spot then drinks from a lava fountain and helps Renie to put the broken prayer wheel back together on the summit. Once again filled with lava, Spot also removes an annoying thorn bush in front of the third prayer wheel.

Thanks to the stone brothers' magical song that makes stones float, Renie can now move the actually heavy prayer wheels to their holders. The prayer wheels must be turned to match the story of life, sleep and death that Ralv tells. The gate then opens, but only a crack - and the repaired prayer wheel breaks again. Only Spot is narrow enough to slip through the gate. A dragon sleeps behind it - and the wanted Janus tries in vain to steal a splinter that the dragon is guarding. After Spot fails to communicate with Janus, Janus disappears from the scene. After Spot has eaten the dragon's nasal secretions, he can tear the splinter from the dragon with a sticky tongue. The sleeping dragon involuntarily teaches the caterpillar further transformations (the ability to ignite objects and to split up).

Back at the rebel base, it turns out that while Janus has a splinter of the magic mirror, he doesn't know how to get to the throne room. Janus tells Noah and Renie that the false queen should never get her hands on the mirror because she would be out of reach. Noah realizes that his reflection cannot be seen in the splinter, which means that he is no longer the ruler of Silence. Instead, it appears that Renie is now the true queen of the whispered world. Noah realizes that this time, too, he is only one character in her story. Renie hands him Sadwick's fool's cap, which she found in a rebel supply chest, and Noah surrenders to his fate to be the sad clown Sadwick in this story too. His character changes immediately and he makes himself unpopular with his companions with gloomy thoughts and sarcastic comments.

Chapter 3

Kyra leads the companions to the city of Kalimar, their home. There it is teeming with seekers and the companions take refuge in a hut by the river. A seeker attacks the house, but Renie makes him disappear into the river. Now the companions can make their way to the oracle to finally find out how to get to the palace in order to destroy the mirror. Kyra tries to distract the seekers with a bomb, but accidentally blows the bridge to the city. The companions build an improvised replacement bridge and get to the other side. However, Spot falls into the abyss.

The group splits up. Sadwick gets under the city through a manhole to visit the oracle Shana. She lives in the valley of the fallen gods. Between imposing stone heads, Sadwick discovers statues of Renie and Kyra, who is holding a splinter in her hands. The two statues are each under a small waterfall. The waterfall over Renie tears from the eye of one of the stone heads that reminds of Noah. When Sadwick meets the oracle, he learns that this is a test. He has to give Renie and Kyra their "lights of life" back and this time "do the right thing". After finding Kyra's candle, he breaks it several times to fit a protective lantern and hands it to Kyra's statue. The statue drops the splinter and Sadwick uses it to find Renie's candle, which is the only one reflected in it.

When Sadwick gives the statue of Renie her candle, Renie and Kyra transform back. Kyra's hair is now completely gray. The three step up to the oracle together and learn that the mirror that Sadwick destroyed needs to be put back together. Then the world will be healed, the false queen will disappear and lost souls will be able to return home. But only one of the three will be able to enter the throne room, which is at the end of the world - behind the sea. Kyra owns a ship and now wants to take the splinter by force so that she is the one who reaches the throne room. Sadwick tries in vain to calm her down. But Shana turns the two to stone. Renie should go alone. She doesn't want to go alone and asks the oracle to let Sadwick go with her. Shana transforms him back and the two set off.

Meanwhile, Spot is being held captive in an underground circus by furry creatures with big mouths called "Lumis". With the help of his transformation skills, a wig and a helium balloon, he can easily free himself.

Sadwick and Renie continue their journey on a cable car. But their gondola crashes over the city. The mirror falls into the hands of the Lumis, and Sadwick and Renie are separated again. Spot floats out of a well and rejoins Renie. At the market, she meets a viewfinder again. Meanwhile, Samuel and Janus are being chased through the city by other seekers. Meanwhile, Sadwick helps Renie fish the Lumis out of the sewers by getting lemon candy from a vending machine as a lure. While Renie is busy with the Lumis, Spot dares to go back into the sewer system and saves the splinter from the seeker who tried to get his hands on the splinter from the gully on the market square.

Looking for a way to get to Renie, Sadwick reaches a gate, but it slams in front of his nose. Upstairs, two children in winter clothes look out of the windows, but they don't want to open the gate for nothing. They look like the children Renie built a snowman with at the beginning of the story. Again it turns out that, unlike Renie, Sadwick cannot throw at all. Renie catches two Lumis for him and Spot helps her get them to Sadwick. But it has to catch the Lumis again first. He is helped by the fishing line that one of the Lumis Renie stole and lost in the fountain. Now the children open the gate for Sadwick and Spot returns to Renie with the broken mirror. The two swim through the canal to Kyra's ship and meet Sadwick again.

From the ship, the siblings Janus and Samuel watch as they hold up the angry seekers at the gate. Renie tries to help them, but Sadwick tries to set sail without them. There they are stopped by Kyra, who has escaped from her paralysis. Kyra threatens the two and demands that they give her the shard of the mirror. She doesn't want a child to sit on the throne of Silence. But the children can escape with the ship thanks to a distraction (by a spot or a cannon). Sadwick and Renie argue because Renie is unhappy that Sadwick didn't turn back to save Spot - or because he shot Samuel and Janus with the cannon. She wants her brother Noah back. Sadwick now has to find the way to the hidden palace with the help of the splinter, because he himself cannot comfort Renie.

Chapter 4

Sadwick locates the lighthouse that Shana prophesied would point the way to the palace. Meanwhile, Renie dreams that she is flying through the clouds with Spot, who has turned into a butterfly. The ship docks at the rocky island on the tip of which the lighthouse stands, and seekers are already waiting there. Sadwick sends Renie to the lighthouse with the splinter and says he's following her. Instead, he lets himself be surrounded by the seekers and sacrifices himself for Renie. His sister has to watch as he is also turned into a seeker. Renie has to cope on her own now. She climbs onto the lighthouse and directs the splinter towards the light of the stars, while the seekers now threaten her too. Constellations appear in the sky and crystal steps materialize in the air next to the lighthouse, leading to the palace. This is now visible before the full moon. Renie flees over the steps from the seekers, under whose claws the steps crumble so that they cannot follow the girl.

Once in the palace, Renie is right in the golden throne room and approaches the magic mirror. Meanwhile, the false queen speaks to her out of nowhere. She tells Renie that the Seekers' only job was to find the splinter and bring it to her. When Renie finally stands in front of the mirror, she sees her freezing reflection with a broken mark on her face. The Queen shows Renie the real world in the mirror - the ruined village in the mountains, where Renie and Noah lie frozen in the snow. Noah is dead, Renie is about to freeze to death.

The Queen gives Renie a choice - destroy the mirror or fix it. If she destroys it, the palace crumbles and Renie wakes up in the real world next to her dead brother. His hand can be seen twitching once while Renie leans over him. When Renie puts the mirror back together, she becomes the Queen of Silence and the Seekers - Sadwick too - transform into people again. Renie and Noah appear to have died in the real world, but in the end Noah opens his eyes.

Characters

Noah: Noah, sixteen years old, takes care of his little sister and tells her about a fantastic world called Silence - also known as The Whispered World. In this world he himself had adventures as Sadwick, the sad clown. Noah is stronger than his sister Renie, which means that only he can solve certain tasks in the game.

Sadwick: Sadwick the clown is a clumsy thrower and is always in a bad mood. He also has suicidal thoughts. He makes himself unpopular with his companions with sarcastic comments, but wants to help Renie to get her brother Noah back.

Renie: Six-year-old Renie, Noah's sister, is on the small side. She cannot yet differentiate between right and left, but is more curious and fearless than her brother. She can throw very well - be it berries or spears.

Spot: The caterpillar Spot is a loyal companion who supports Noah and Renie in all sorts of dangerous situations in the fantastic world of Silence. Spot can transform and has different abilities depending on its shape:

Air spot: In this form, the caterpillar can inflate itself into a large ball by means of sucked in air and can be used as a safety cushion.
Five-way spot: Spot can split up into five small balls and thus use paths that would otherwise be too big.
Flat spot: when the spot takes on its flat shape, it fits through narrow cracks. In this flat shape, it can also form an elastic bridge that Noah and Renie can cross.
Fire Spot: If Spot comes into contact with fire, it becomes a living torch. He can set other objects on fire and bring light into the dark.
Lava Spot: Spot can also suck up lava and transport it in order to repair destroyed objects elsewhere or to remove plant obstacles.
Water spot: If you let Spot drink water, he can water plants or mushrooms and in this way change the landscape.
Honey spot: If you feed Spot with sweet nectar, it can hum and soothe honeydew ticks, a species of insect that is native to Silence.
Helium spot: When filled with helium, the spot can fly around weightlessly and is also invisible.
Frog spot: If Spot eats some of the dragon's nasal secretions, he gets spots and a sticky tongue like a frog's. He can use it to pull objects towards him.

Kyra: The rebel Kyra is the leader of the resistance against the false Queen of Silence. Noah saves her life, but Kyra later turns against him.

Janus: The wise Janus is also one of the rebels. He sent a message to the rebels and seems to know how to get to the queen's palace. Noah and Renie meet him in the second chapter.

Samuel: Samuel is a lumbering but powerful rebel. He takes Renie to the rebel camp and tells her about Silence. Otherwise he is rather reserved.

Yngo and Ralv: Yngo and Ralv are two talking stones that already played a role in The Whispered World . You help Renie free Janus.

Shana: The oracle Shana, a humanoid being with a mouth full of pointed teeth, can be found in the Valley of the Fallen Gods. From her, Noah and Renie receive a prophecy.

The wrong queen: The fake queen has an army of seekers to find the lost mirror shard for her. She wants the magic mirror to be restored.

The seekers: The Seekers are black creatures with white masks that move on all fours. They can hear well but see poorly, which is why sound is the best way to distract them. These creatures are the formerly human inhabitants of Silence, who are transformed into their own kind by the seekers when they stand in their way.

Game principle and technology

Silence is controlled by means of point-and-click (English for "point and click"). The game character active in the respective chapter moves to the point on which the player clicked with the mouse. If the player is to complete a certain task or find an object, the standard mouse pointer is replaced by a corresponding symbol as soon as the player points to an object in the game environment. If the player still needs further help to find or recognize an object, there is also a hotspot function. If you press this button, objects in the game environment with which the player can interact are marked by a symbol as long as the button is held down.

Unlike its predecessor, Silence is based on more modern games in its handling. The game automatically saves the game progress in a single game, manual saving is not possible. In favor of the staging, complex inventory puzzles were dispensed with, instead the player interacts exclusively with the environment, for example in the form of small games of skill or reaction. Dispensing with an inventory leads to the fact that what is happening in the game is covered by less abstract menu elements. On the other hand, the player is less challenged with puzzles that require combinations of many different objects and / or complex trains of thought in order to achieve the goal.

In Silence, the player character Noah can also die if, for example, he does not hide from a seeker in time by reacting quickly enough and making the intended decision. In this case, an automatic save point will be loaded right before this decision so the player can try again.

The Unity development environment was used to develop the game .

graphic

Graphically, Silence is reminiscent of its predecessor The Whispered World , but the characters are no longer animated in 2D, but consist of 3D models with painted textures. As before, the graphics are not realistic, but are still reminiscent of a cartoon. The character Renie in particular is extremely stylized (big eyes, very small mouth). The parallax technology already used in The Whispered World for displaying the game environment was further developed in Silence . The developer uses a 3D technology here, which he calls camera projection . Here, 2D textures are projected onto the 3D models of the level.

reception

Silence received mostly positive reviews. The Metacritic review database aggregates 29 reviews to an average of 75. The specialist magazine Adventure-Treff praised the “stable and excitingly told” story, the soundtrack and the “fantastic graphics”. Editor Hans Pieper pointed out that the audiovisual, “massive” presentation borrows from the previous game, but has its own character. Camera work and “cinematic staging” of the cutscenes set standards in the genre. In addition to a few minor technical inadequacies, the Adventure-Treff primarily criticized the puzzles that would not challenge or even “offend” experienced players. In sum is Silence worth playing, but will the whether the previous track high expectations not just. According to PC Games , too , the game has a cinematic story, but only a few puzzles. According to Gamestar magazine, Silence sets new standards in the adventure genre and looks amazing.

Web links

Official website
Silence at MobyGames (English)

Individual evidence

↑ PC Games : Silence: The Whispered World 2 - Raupe Spot is back with new transformations from February 18, 2015, accessed on August 29, 2019.
↑ Demonews : Silence: The Whispered World 2: Spot! A caterpillar just in case! dated February 18, 2015, accessed on August 29, 2019.
↑ PlayStation.Blog : The adventure Silence: The Whispered World 2 will be released soon for PS4 on January 23, 2015, accessed on August 30, 2019.
↑ ^a ^b Metacritic.com: Silence: The Whispered World 2. Accessed August 27, 2019 .
↑ ^a ^b Adventure-Treff.de: Test: Silence - The Whispered World 2. Retrieved on August 29, 2019 .
↑ ^a ^b Gamestar.de: Silence - The Whispered World 2. Accessed on September 22, 2019 .
↑ Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Silence - The playable painting. Pc. In: 4Players . November 16, 2016, accessed September 29, 2019 .
↑ Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Silence - The playable painting. Switch. In: 4Players . April 4, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .
↑ PCGames.de: Silence: The Whispered World 2 in the test: Is the cinematic staging of a fairytale story also suitable for die-hard adventure professionals? Retrieved September 8, 2019 .

[1] PC Games : Silence: The Whispered World 2 - Raupe Spot is back with new transformations from February 18, 2015, accessed on August 29, 2019.

[2] Demonews : Silence: The Whispered World 2: Spot! A caterpillar just in case! dated February 18, 2015, accessed on August 29, 2019.

[3] PlayStation.Blog : The adventure Silence: The Whispered World 2 will be released soon for PS4 on January 23, 2015, accessed on August 30, 2019.

[MC-4] Metacritic.com: Silence: The Whispered World 2. Accessed August 27, 2019 .

[AT-5] Adventure-Treff.de: Test: Silence - The Whispered World 2. Retrieved on August 29, 2019 .

[GS-6] Gamestar.de: Silence - The Whispered World 2. Accessed on September 22, 2019 .

[4P_WIN-7] Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Silence - The playable painting. Pc. In: 4Players . November 16, 2016, accessed September 29, 2019 .

[4P_SWI-8] Jan Wöbbeking: Test: Silence - The playable painting. Switch. In: 4Players . April 4, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019 .

[PCG-9] PCGames.de: Silence: The Whispered World 2 in the test: Is the cinematic staging of a fairytale story also suitable for die-hard adventure professionals? Retrieved September 8, 2019 .


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