Sign of Silence
Renderise
Any good horror game or film invokes a sense of isolation at some point—usually toward the beginning of the tale. This makes the protagonist(s) seem much more vulnerable and apt to get attacked by whatever malevolent forces are in the said form of media.
When it comes to horror games, in particular, starting off with some semblance of safety, i.e. the protagonist(s) are around a bunch of people and/or in a normal setting—such as a residential neighborhood or office—can give you the illusion that all is well.
The best types of games suddenly strip away this sense of safety from you and cast you into someplace where you’re alone. Indie game developer Renderise pulls this element off pretty well.
In their new survival horror game, Sign of Silence, things seem upbeat and cheery at first, and then go south all of a sudden. The game’s description says it all:
“You and your friends go to a mountain camping for the weekend. The path leads you to a detour road passing a ravine. In growing dusk, you cross a shaky bridge, resulting in your car falling to the depths of the darkness. Luckily, all passengers live, but the car is ruined. There is no signal. You are surrounded by an eerie forest. The night’s dark descends… There’s only one way out – to cross the forest and seek help in a small town called Danwille…”
You soon discover that, even though you’ve survived the crash, there’s a fate worse than losing your life…
Although Sign of Silence can be played solo, it’s much more fun when playing (as I did) with friends. That way, you can all freak out together as you try to escape the valley (there are multiple ways to escape).
After you start the game, you’ll start off close to your totally wrecked car. With your only mode of vehicular transportation gone, you’ll have to use your wits and feet to find a way out of the dark, heavily forested valley you’ve fallen into.
There are many different types of monsters that inhabit the haunted valley. Some are more subtle and will stalk you from the shadowy forests; others are more aggressive and will pounce on you as soon as they detect you, in order to drag you back to their lair. The crazy thing about these evil entities is that they can be anywhere on the map. Add to this the fact that different things can trigger them and you’ve got some serious scare-factors going on in the game.
For instance, there’s this certain entity that looks like a slow-moving humanoid—it seems relatively harmless at first as we studied its slow, shuffling movements. But as my friends and I found out, it was anything but harmless. As soon as it heard us make a single loud sound, it virtually teleported over to us and began its attack. Talk about an organic jump scare! There’s also a hideously deformed witch that is more dangerous than most of the other creatures, but I’ll just let you discover that for yourselves…
While the game’s graphics are nice to look at, what Renderise really nailed in Sign of Silence is the game’s outstanding sound design. As you try to navigate through the creepy environs—all the while trying to stay as quiet as possible—you’ll hear odd sounds both close to your proximity, and farther off. This will play tricks with your mind and make you wonder if something is constantly stalking you from the darkness.
As a horror fan, I’m really digging Sign of Silence so far. It can be extremely unnerving at times and has a brilliantly scary atmosphere, terrifying entities, and a slow, creepy pace. Try it out for yourself.
RATING: 8.2/10
Sign of Silence has some pretty good looking graphics that make its horror gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
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