Songs of Silence PC Review

Let’s put it out there, Songs of Silence is relying on its looks to bring you in. Somewhere between Heroes of Might and Magic and the Total War series is what it looks like… but if it was created by a water colour artist. So yes, visually Songs of Silence stands out. But what about the gameplay?

As mentioned… the game shows some similarity to Heroes of Might and Magic and Total War… you control a hero (or heroes) and you build your army. Different locations provide options for different troop types and you can mix and match to make your army better suited to a given foe. The actual battles are somewhat hands off, essentially an auto-battler… but you can still influence the end result both before the battle and during. Before the battle you can position your troops which may result in a better defensive line or an aggressive troop having easier access to the enemy. During battle you have access to your cards, these are skills your hero develops through leveling up and range from divine intervention, to rush attack to fly which commands any flying troops you have to target a given location. It doesn’t give you a lot of control over your troops but it might just be enough to turn the battle in your favour.

Outside of battle you are basically moving about taking towns or cities when and where possible and then upgrading them when you can to provide you more resources or troops. There are some side quests that you can come across that might provide bonus artifacts or experience to help along the way. Speaking of experience… I did find it enormously frustrating to finish a battle only to find my hero can’t use the experience they would have gained because they were already at max level for that stage. This isn’t the only game that has this limitation but I find it annoying whenever I come across it. If you don’t want a hero to go beyond a certain level… don’t provide constant sources of experience. The idea that they can face an infinite number of battles and gain no experience because of an arbitrary level cap feels very artificial.

The story itself features some interesting lore and certainly the animated story elements are quite striking to watch. What is annoying however is how many conversations happen during gameplay… or perhaps I should say during holdups in gameplay. You might click end turn… the enemy finishes their turn and just as you attempt to move a hero, you are faced with numerous lines of dialogue that you can’t skip. I don’t mind the dialogue (the voice acting is quite good too)… but not being able to skip it (as you can read the dialogue and that typically takes a fraction of the time listening to it does)… is just frustrating.

Final Thoughts?

There are certainly some lovely elements here. The visuals are a nice change from a lot of what is out there. The gameplay swings between simple enough for people new to the genre to get into and arguably quite repetitive (fortunately there is a fast forward option for battles… so you can use your specialty cards then set to max speed until you can use them again). Some of the mechanics are a bit annoying (I hate being able to take a city/town, only to have it in enemy hands at the start of the next story element… if you knew it was going to be in enemy hands at the start of the next story segment… don’t let me take it beforehand). It’s not super expensive so it could be a good option for those wanting to get into strategy gaming… but hardened gamers might find it too simplistic or even frustrating at times.