Children of Silentown Review

Keep your voice down, you don’t want the monsters to come for you.

Have you heard about a small town named Silentown? I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t, as it’s one that is quite secluded. The small town is placed in the middle of a forest and while there are tales that the forest was once peaceful and calm, it has since turned against those living in Silentown. It’s safe during the day, but when night comes the monsters that live in the forest come out for anyone that happens to be out wandering around. It doesn’t matter if you’re still in town, and not in the forest, as the monsters will get you if you’re outside.

In Children of Silentown, you play as one of the children, Lucy. It seems like there have been a couple of generations where the town has been under threat of the monsters that reside in the forest. Since then, rules have been put in place. You do not go outside at night, you avoid the forest unless wood is needed, you stay out of trouble, and you keep your voices down. Many adults even believe that the monsters watch and pick who they get next based on how you act and how loud you are. Even see that those taken asked for it by breaking the rules and it’s not an odd occurrence to have some of the older folks tell you that you’ll be next if they hear you yelling or misbehaving. Though, some even believe taking part in hobbies, like singing, leads to being hunted by the monsters.

Lucy was content with her life. Playing with the other kids, helping her parents out, learning how to sing with her mom, and making sure to be inside before sunset. Sure, sometimes she would find out that someone disappeared and see their remaining family grieve, but everything was fine. It wasn’t until Lucy’s mom ends up being the recent victim of the forest monsters that Lucy decides to rebel. Not only is she going to ask around about information on the forest, but maybe she’ll even go looking for her mom. After all, no one seems to go out to look for those that go missing and what if they just need someone to help them lead the way back?

Little does Lucy know, she’ll get acquainted with the forest more than she suspected or even wished.

While Children of Silentown turned out to be smaller scale than I first thought, I did really like how the game builds up. Starting from a naive innocence that the children in this town had and slowly building up the atmosphere of the town as you see Lucy’s nightmares, see what everyone fears (and you may even fear, which I certainly did), learn more about the forest, and hear the bias the adults have on those that are taken.

Children of Silentown follows the usual point and click gameplay where you use your mouse to move Lucy around (though I do wish it implemented a continuous walk when you hold down the mouse button) and to click on various objects around you to either observe them to get a bit of dialogue or to talk to other characters. With the objects you’ll be able to pick up, some will be able to be combined to help serve the purpose you need it for.

There are, of course, puzzles that you’ll have to solve to progress the story. For the most part, the overworld puzzles are logical. There are only a few, but it does follow a line of logic that is easy to follow. The only times I got stuck was when I was overlooking a newly opened area, overlooked an object Lucy could interact with, or needed to sing a song (which became obvious once I figured it out). There is a late game puzzle area that is quite long and I actually thought I softlocked myself, only to realize that I managed to do a sequence break.

Singing also play a big part in this game. Lucy will note down sounds to create melodies. There are four melodies (or songs) that Lucy can learn, with three being the ones you learn through the main story, and once you complete a melody you can use it to help you progress through the story. Singing these songs will also bring a puzzle minigame for you to do, which as I mentioned are the more frequent puzzles you’ll be doing. The first song you get are sung towards characters to evoke spontaneous, sincere thoughts which can give you some insight on a character and get them to talk to you when they otherwise wouldn’t. Some thoughts that you need to evoke to progress will rip and you’ll have to sew them back together. This is done by doing a minigame where you move thread on a board, making sure to thread it through each button without overlapping your path and giving yourself room to get to the middle where the ripped thought is.

Another song you’ll use a lot are sung at objects to recall the memories it holds as well as the memories someone nearby has of the object. This brings up a cog tile puzzle minigame. You need to make a path from the beginning to a house (or multiple houses). Only the first tile can be rotated by itself and you need to place cogs to be able to move the other tiles. This was one that I didn’t like so much, but I did end up figuring it out as you will have a better time identifying which tiles need to be rotated and then figuring out how to get all the tiles to create the path on the same rotation.

As the game progresses, the song puzzle minigames do get more difficult, with the last part of the game adding in another layer.

At certain points, I did wish there was some kind of hint system. Like a hint or a nudge on what you need to do during the long overworld puzzle sequences and for the song puzzle minigames. In particular the cog puzzles. Yes, I did get the hang of it after encountering it a couple times, but I still dreaded every time it popped up and I dread having to do them again on a second playthrough.

Luckily, I wasn’t stuck on any puzzle for long, but if you find yourself stuck and not knowing what you have to do next, odds are that either you didn’t notice an area that you can now go into, you didn’t notice that something was interactable, or you need to sing one of the songs Lucky knows. Or use a hammer on bunny cages.

There are collectibles you can search for in the form of 20 stickers. There aren’t actual stickers you find, but more like the memory sticks in Lucy’s mind and she writes it in her diary. Anyway, you can find stickers by examining objects around you, with the more memorable ones being turned into stickers, like the mirror in Lucy’s house or Squinty’s furball that ended up looking like him. The stickers also include some cute flavor text if you want to read it as well. Though, if you find that you missed a sticker when you find another one, there is a low chance you’ll be able to go back and get it. If you transitioned into the next chapter or barred from entering an area after progressing the story, you won’t be able to get it. I do recommend just playing through, not really stressing on finding all the stickers your first go around (at least until a guide comes out for where they’re all located).

Children of Silentown also seems to have four different endings, depending on the choice you make at the end. I only got one ending so far, but it does seem that one is trickier to get and may be the true end (just basing it on how tricky it seems to be without a guide). Also, I wanted to warn those wanting to get all the achievements that the game does rewrite the save file after you make the decision that determines your ending and the ending achievements don’t unlock until the credits. So you will have to play through the game at least four times. A new game+ does unlock for your save file, which sadly just shows you what ending you already got. I wished it at least showed what stickers you got.

Verdict

Overall, I think Children of Silentown is a good point and click game, albeit with some frustrations. This game may be smaller scale than you might think, though it’s obvious that you’ll spend most chapters inside the town, I do think it does a good job with the areas that you’ll see and building up to the moment where you get to see the forest. And while I did wish there was a hint system, the puzzles this game has are logical and often times being stuck means that you overlooked something (rather than the game being obtuse).

I still have a few questions left after finishing the game, but I enjoyed most of my time with Children of Silentown. If you’re looking for a new point and click game and this one catches your eye, I do recommend picking this up.