Silver Chains (PC) Review - I Didn't Expect This Horror Game To Be So Good!
Silver Chains is a first-person horror game with a strong
emphasis on story and exploration. I went into this one expecting it to be another
sub-par attempt at an indie game, like the endless tons of others we’ve gotten
in the past. To my excitement and
somewhat surprise, I was wrong and Silver Chains ended up being just the hidden
gem that we needed. In the game you
start of dazed and confused after a car accident in a seemingly remote location.
Your only hope of getting help is a nearby dilapidated mansion up ahead. You now
must search for clues within the mansion to unravel the truth about the
terrible events which have happened there.
Key in envelope Silver Chains; PC Horror Game
To start off, the graphics are highly polished and very visually
pleasing. The game is generally dark and
this does obscure a majority of your vision from seeing the entire environment
but it adds to the overall horror aesthetic.
There are well implemented lighting and particle effects in play. The great treat being the mansion
itself. It is a linearly designed so
that you have to keep moving on a forward path, this minimizes the chances of
getting lots and confused. This is a
great choice as usually happens to me in games like this where the location
feels like a stumbling around a dark maze.
You basically know where you are in relation to the rest of the entire mansion
at most times.
The high point of Silver Chains for me was the story. I loved finding the little notes and piecing
together to underlying narrative of the house. Whilst the story is enjoyable,
it is not perfect nor would most consider it good. It is the standard horror narrative, enter scary
location, discover unfortunate tragedies in scary location, get jump scared and
chased in scary location, end. We’ve
seen it all before and Silver Chains is no different, however this is not a
strike against how enjoyable the game actually is.
Room of hanging dolls in Silver Chains; PC Horror Game
Sound design is good with great ambient sounds, and believable
environmental noises. The main stumble
is the voice acting. The voice actors
sound like unpaid interns who are recording on their lunch break. The performances fall flat at being anything close
to being believable. The other point to
note is the length of the game. Silver
Chains come in at approximately 2 - 3 hours of playtime length for a $25
game. For me the length was acceptable for
a full pickup and play horror experience that you can complete in on sitting
but the some may take issue with it.
All in all, Silver Chains is not perfect, the
voice acting is not the best and there are some technical short comings but, as
a short self-contained horror narrative however
– it is worth your time.
No comments:
Post a Comment