Developer: Chimera Entertainment
Publisher: Chimera Entertainment
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Songs of Silence – Preview
At Gamescom, we had the opportunity to play Chimera Entertainment’s upcoming turn-based strategy game: Songs of Silence. The game is a story-rich adventure, with a narrative-driven campaign. We were, of course, curious about the experience, since we’re not really accustomed to the strategy genre, and have only tried a few of its peers. Even though we only saw a few short segments of the game, we were quite entertained.
The first thing we noticed was the accessibility of the game. Where most games in the genre, have a long tutorial and take a while to get accustomed to, this game was easy to get into for newcomers to the genre, which immediately makes it one of its strengths.
While trying it out, we immediately noticed the RPG elements, combined with a card deck, where you can buy cards, and level them up. Assembling your army, was also a very easy task, since it was fluent and felt very natural. The game can be played with just a mouse, by using both buttons, which can win over gamers who would only use controllers, and never tried a mouse and keyboard combination. This made the placement of our troops an easy task. The short, real-time battles, make it so a map can be played in one evening, contrary to most games in its genre.
The story also seems rich, and it revolves around two empires that have been at war with each other for a very long time. The story does follow a typical format of a battle between a world of light and one of darkness. To make things worse, the Empire of Silence makes its entrance, and it could devour both the light and the dark. According to the devs, the main campaign will take about 20 hours to complete, but they also promise a lot of replay value.
When the game launches, we will be able to play with heroes from both sides. For the demo, however, we got to experience the game as Lorelai, from the light side, who is the queen of the fallen house of Ehrengard. Since we did not play for very long, we only got to experience a hint of the proud leader, and the conflict between both sides, but what we saw, was very promising.
Chimera Games also has a great composer among its ranks, namely Hitoshi Sakimoto, the genius behind soundtracks for Final Fantasy 12, Final Fantasy Tactics, Valkyria Chronicles, and many more. The music just sucks you right into the game, and you will catch yourself, humming the tunes while not playing, since it’s that good.
What can be a hit or miss in big games with so many characters, is the voice acting. In this game, the voice actors all seemed to know what they were doing, which was a welcome surprise. They all come second to the narrator though, who has a deep voice, that expresses the gravity of the situation very well.
Lastly, let’s talk about the hand-drawn graphics, that have a unique, vivid flair, where the interactions between characters are in a 2D style. The battles on the screen are very vibrant, with beautiful animations that occur when you use a card.
Conclusion
Songs of Silence will be released on PC, at the beginning of 2024, and Chimera Games is planning to port it to consoles, but did not have anything written in stone. We’ll just have to wait and see, but one thing is clear, this game has the potential to be a gem. We are looking forward to seeing the game evolve, and we do hope to get our hands on the finished product in the near future.
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[…] year, we already did a short article about Songs of Silence, which we saw at Gamescom 2023. The game already showed a lot of promise, and even though it was […]