Children of Silentown Review – by Fletch (Xbox Nation)

Written by Fletch (Xbox Nation)

As someone who was born in the 1990s, the point-and-click era of gaming is something that was a big part of my introduction to gaming. Tim Schafer played a big role in my early gaming experiences through his titles such as Return to monkey island. However, these games seemed like a sign of the times and the genre seemed to die off. Yet there are some daring developers who do their utmost to keep the point-and-click torch burning bright, and the latest title to carry the torch is Children of Silentown. 

I personally adored my time in Silentown, and I believe that this game is set for success especially amongst gamers in my age bracket or older. Lets dive right into the review!

Let’s kick off with the narrative, seeing as it’s the reason you’ll be motivated to get through a series of mind-bending puzzles. The narrative of Children of Silentown is centred around Silentown which is a remote town located in the heart of a forest. Folks tend their gardens ,Children play in the streets and workers go about their daily lives. However, by night Silentown is a dangerous place where people go missing in the night, taken to the forest, never to return. 

You play as Lucy and she isn’t just a soulless character. She’s a likeable and often quite quirky and funny character! In this game her mother goes missing, and must uncover the secrets within the heart of the forest to rescue her mother and free Silentown from their disease. What’s immediately noticeable from the outset is the game’s dedication to making each character unique and memorable throughout.

Now onto visuals and from the outside looking in, you can see that Children of Silentown is a very distinct-looking game, with a really well crafted storybook illustration aesthetic. However I was shocked at how many times the game offered new artistic approaches to keep things fresh. During Lucy’s nightmares, the game transports players to noire scenes that are spooky and unnerving. Then in rare moments, the game swaps to an animated style. However, apart from the small diversions, it is the 2D hand-drawn visuals that steal the show.

This game sticks to its roots and offers gameplay that’s directly in line with its predecessors. Players will explore the environment, gathering information, items to use and resources, and notes to unlock new powers. Then through this, they will then need to solve situational puzzles to progress through chapters. It’s classic point-and-click gaming.  The areas are always pocket-sized, with the largest open area being the town itself, but the game does a lot with these small spaces.

Now, this is where many players might take issue with this game, but equally, it might be what you love most about the game. As you collect the notes and complete songs, you will gain access to new interactions and you will need to complete a series of puzzles. These range from Button and Thread puzzles, where you must connect buttons without ever overlapping the thread, to puzzles like the cog-related music boxes.

On a positive note, these puzzles are incredibly well put together. They are challenging, clever, and thanks to the new powers that come as the game progresses, you won’t constantly be completing the same type of puzzle on repeat. However, the challenge and the clever design will pose a problem to some. Namely, the fact that these puzzles are damn hard, and get harder as the game goes on. I enjoyed this myself, and the satisfaction of finding the solution was enough to justify this difficulty, but for some, this might be a jumping-off point. 

However, what must be praised is that the puzzles do scale up in complexity, and even in the mid-game, when some puzzle formats are really taxing, the introduction of new formats tends to be breezy by comparison, only to become a pain to solve later. This helps keep player progression at a steady pace. Overall, I think the puzzles on offer are superb and plentiful, but I can see where less dedicated problem solvers will take issue.  

The game also has some situational puzzles which feel a little awkwardly pieced together and, as a result, seem unnecessarily obtuse, leading to sections where you mindlessly try to use items to interact with everything in the scene in the hope of a new clue.  

Then lastly, there doesn’t seem to be a chapter selection option within the game. So if you are a completionist like myself who wants all those stickers hidden throughout this world, then you’ll have to take another lap around the track, so to speak. 

Children of Silentown took me about 12 hours to complete and that’s with discovering every nook and cranny and taking my time in the world. It could certainly be quicker for others to run through and that’s all down to the complexity of the puzzles and how easy you find it. 

So Overall, I have to say that Children of Silentown is a game that keeps on giving. Going in, I had my fears that the game’s simplicity and outdated format would be its downfall, especially looking back at the prologue. However, as the game progressed, the title showed just how incredible point-and-click adventures could be in 2023. The in-game world is pocket-sized but feels like it’s part of something bigger and the narrative is simple but incredibly well-delivered. 

Then the gameplay itself is exactly what you want from a point and click adventure game. It’s low maintenance, moves at the player’s own pace, but offers very challenging, varied puzzles to solve. It wasn’t perfect as the writing was somewhat flakey at times and some may also argue that some puzzles are more obtuse than they need to be. However, as a whole, Children of Silentown is a love letter to the point-and-click games of old, and defies the odds to provide a game out of touch with the modern era that inexplicably hits and exceeds the mark.

Game played and reviewed by Fletch (Xbox Nation). You can interact with Fletch more by following him on twitter, or by heading to his fabulous youtube channel Xbox Nation