Silt Review – Glittering Through Muck

The impeccable graphics and thought-provoking narrative shine so brightly in this puzzle/adventure title that the game’s defects, like the frustrating lack of direction, stand out in grimy, stark contrast. The moment I began playing, I was under the aquatic world’s monochromatic and disquieting spell. The magic faded as I encountered more difficult and imbalanced tasks.

Silt is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful games I’ve played this year. You can see the underwater world in black, grey and white. Although the palette of colors is restricted, they are used well. Brilliant illumination reveals the foggy, dark shadows that give way to a foggloom. It is a beautiful display of artistic details. Each feature is beautifully shaded and decorated in a way that makes me stop to admire it instead of moving on to the next goal. My attention is drawn to both the scenes. One minute I can be seen swimming on an ocean floor choked by reeds. The next I see myself emerging from the gaping mouth a needle-fanged, inert monstrosity. The graphics’ dark and light motifs also spill over wonderfully into the game’s exploration of those themes.

My adventure begins with some ominous, poetic lines that are written on the screen. These aren’t words of encouragement. Rather, they point the way to power with instructions, ending with the phrase “seal my fate.” It’s a captivating opening. The game’s objective is, in simple terms, to find a way to defeat many watery bosses, solve mysteries, and bring the mysterious machine back to life.

Soon after the words vanish, a diver’s limp silhouette appears and flickers to life as a glowing light fills the helmet. I quickly learned I could force this light from my diver’s form into the body of the surrounding aquatic life, thus gaining their powers until I chose to return to the humanoid swimmer. It is both fascinating and unnerving to manipulate other creatures for my own purposes. And the game dives even deeper into them as it exploits one thing video games can inspire that other, non-interactive, forms of entertainment can’t: guilt.

Sometimes I need to have the fish surrounding me in order to solve puzzles that will allow my swimmer to get to the next target. In the beginning, that meant borrowing a toothy fish’s fangs to cut a progress-blocking rope. However, as the game goes on, I increasingly have to put the creatures I control into harm’s way and, eventually, outright sacrifice them for my greater good. When I encounter a puzzle that requires me to guide a group of fish through the maws carnivorous plant-eating plants, I hesitate. Knowing that there is no other option, even if it was my choice, I give up on the harmless, trusting animals. My growing suspicion that I’m not the good guy here is confirmed, and I love it. It’s satisfying whenever developers take advantage of gaming’s ability to make me, the player, complicit in what is happening, and it’s a perfect tool to draw me further into Silt’s mysterious and eerie plot.

These moments of contemplation and beauty are quickly ruined by bad design. Eschewing any form of HUD to leave the art uncovered makes for a stunning experience, but in this case, it also contributes to the player’s confusion. Problem-solving is vital in a puzzle-centric game like this, but many times in my playthrough, I just couldn’t figure out what to do next. Although a helpful nod or extra lighting could have helped, I found myself often lost and confused as I searched the world in search of any hint.

Some challenges can be tedious. For example, there’s a room where I could possess a stingray-like creature with a teleportation dash I could use to fly past several predators, grab an exploding creature, and clear the dangerous path for my diver. It was frustrating that I had to take control of every stingray, destroy each predator, and do it again and again until the end. It took an aggravatingly long time, and anytime I failed – which felt unearned most of the time – I needed to start it all over again.

Because of everything that is spectacular about Silt – its stunning art style, atmospheric environments, and pensive story – I wanted to love this game. It just wouldn’t let me. My progress was slowed by frustrating puzzles that provided no guidance, and I found myself banging against the wall. Even though I recommend the game, it is still a must-have for anyone who wants to enjoy this beautiful title.