A little about Songs of Silence

So, Songs of Silence is a very pleasant step-by-step fantasy strategy/adventure like King’s Bounty, Wartales, Age of Wonders 3-4 or Eisenwald legends. And although it is not without flaws, the game is really good.

I especially like that the local Elves are devoid of elves. We have a world split into the light and darkness, both of which are threatened with complete extinction.

In general, the Ragnarok Fantasy typical of the German school, abundantly involved in medieval sub -Christian fundamentalism and brilliant chivalry.

And all this is driven by a completely functional plot, to some heroes of which you even attach. What for the games of the last decade, frankly, a rare achievement.

Gameplay, we have 4x control of the global map, where we need to get involved in the battles, rebuild the cities, hire troops and get involved in the battles again.

At the same time, I would not call the strategic part of a particularly deep. Settlements are immediately sharpened either under the resource or under the war, two upgrades develop linearly and can get at least some flexibility in development only by pumping a hero who sticks its special class building, and only one for the settlement.

Frankly – not rich, the game is clearly not concentrated on the strategy. That maybe not so bad.

Since the variability of the game is clearly manifested in the asymmetry of races and classes of heroes. Despite the fact that there are only three, even in one race tactics and the game strategy will be completely different among different heroes.

One hero will go to the tag of the masses.cavalry and he will not have to think anything. Another will have fewer troops, but it will use all types, it is good to recover between battles and rely on calls.The third is one warrior in the field.

And this is within the same race. While the races themselves differ among themselves and tactics and strategy. Everyone is completely asymmetric. Something like Age of Mythology with her gods.

The combat system itself is an auto -bank where the troops are fighting themselves, and you will only put class abbers. And you can’t do without a caste: here you have buff and calls and direct damage and team abbers. Without them, the army fights many times worse.

On the one hand, this is a simplification of course, which nullifies all the tactical depth to the initial arrangement of the troops and pumping the hero. On the other hand, this is an extremely dynamic battle system that allows the battles in the game to go very quickly.

And at the same time leaves you the opportunity to directly influence the course of the battle. What bribes directly.

And the second one captures the RoyalOak casino game is the design. She has really good music, for the writing of which the eminent Japanese was attracted (Hitoshi Sakimoto). And it is felt. Music is not intrusive, and perfectly sets tone and mood to the game. With this you can sit for hours and enjoy the game.

The third that captivates is aesthetic graphic design. Where beautifully stylized under the “fable” all menu.

Where in general, a very pleasant 2D, comparable in quality with Banner’s Saga. And all portraits, backgrounds, miniatures are large and colorful. They are sustained in memory, they are bet on them.

But quite common for the 3D engine is not even much remembered. Moreover, the developers prudently do not allow us to bring the camera closer to models.

But in general, anyway, even 3D looks colorful, holistic and not a shame, absolutely modern. Indie did without pixels, well, wow!

True, the problems for Unity are present: there are systemic requirements inadequate graphics and wretched models densely hidden with effects and thick stroke lines.

And of course, the degradation of performance with a long game and the interface. Well – Unity.

Although in Song of Silence these problems are not critical, rather slightly annoying, not Humankind still. And did not interfere with play.

But what really annoyed is the interface. The Germans of the master to make an interface somehow in their own way, it’s not convenient: Gothic, Spellforce 3, Two Worlds 2 ..

City screen with a detachment. Here both the cards and cards of the detachment and everything is everything.

And if to the fact that on one screen you have a city and a hero and two heroes together, and all their skills in a lot, and information about the detachments, you quickly get used to it.

Then to the fact that you are attached to one PKM and the action of “considering the object” and confirmation of movement/attack is completely impossible to get used to it. This is terribly confused and forces to make mistakes.

And the “i” button also works. And I even seem to understand why – management is made universal for the keyboard and gamepad. And it turns out “Procrustean bed”.

And ESC also closes all pop -up menus, but only part. That infuriates separately.

Developers clearly need to be dissected on the topic of control from the keyboard and convince it to redo it.

As for early access: now, in July 2024, the game is still actively developing. They promise new cards, modes, videos and all that way. Russian language, now, have already been lifted.

So far, only four cards of the company are available, three of which were in one race and the fourth for the second. Plus fights and network game. On this so far all. But all fractions and units are most likely already present.

The company is quite interesting, but its complexity “floats”. And the most complex cards are 4 and 1, and 2 and 3 I ran a rink.

Although the structure, from the point of view of the player’s acquaintance with mechanics, looks good. First you are given an introductory mission where you get acquainted with the combat system. Then they make almost a whole card steal without entering the battle, run away for the zones of the influence of the army, study the area and use special objects on the map. Then they give a map where you will have to rebuild from scratch and play a strategy for several fronts. And finally, in the last mission, they give you an invincible enemy and hard timings at your level, forcing you not to go along the “plot intestine”, but to rush on the map and constantly sacrifice cities and heroes.

It is also evident how the balance has already changed with the first demo. It’s hard to achieve in an asymmetric balance system, this is actually an eternal process, but the developers are clearly trying to lick it and shuffle it.

The main character changed the skills, gave them to another class. The class limits of the troops were revised. And some problems of which have complained in the early reviews are already absent.

What else often complain about in reviews is that the modes for fights and the choice of heroes in them are originally blocked behind Achivka. Played for one hero three games – opened the next.

And in fact, I do not see a big problem in this mechanics. Again, the approach very beloved by the Japanese. If you just want to poke the company – here is the company. Do you want to deepen deeper – we will ride you on all pieces of content that we have done. Sit, forami. I would not say that this is a problem.

Although the basic classes were worth opening at once. Start exclusively from one class – this is too much.

And what else is often referred to in reviews is that it is similar to Songs of Silence to Heroes of Might & Magic or not. A strange formulation of the question actually. As for me, games are felt in completely different ways to attribute them to one class.

I understand that Heroes of Might & Magic was mentioned in the company’s promo on Kikstarter, but once again, the claim is strange, Songs of Silence – although in the same “big genre” is not similar. And this is good, it does not make her bad.

As a conclusion: the game is already good, I would like more. Aesthetically pleasant. Simple and funny enough, so as not to be stuffy. And deep enough to make it to figure it out. I want to spend time in it.