A Visual Masterpiece: Where Art Nouveau Meets 4X Gaming
Strategy and 4X games are traditionally at their best on PC. A keyboard and mouse are generally considered the best methods to navigate the often complex assortment of menus and perform the necessary micro-management associated with the genre. As a result, there aren’t too many strategy games that make their way to home consoles, and the ones that do arrive on living room hardware are often hamstrung by clunky controls and/or simplified design.
Songs of Silence by Chimera Entertainment immediately lays both concerns to rest by playing exceptionally well on a controller and being a bold, fully fledged 4X experience right out of the gate.
More Than Just a Pretty Face: Deep Strategy and Engaging Gameplay
The most immediately obvious thing about Songs of Silence is its striking art style. Comprised of a combination of hand-drawn 2D imagery and beautifully painted 3D model work, the Art-Nouveau-inspired visuals really are a treat for the eyes, looking like a painting that has come to life. Characters and their portraits are filled with tiny details. These insignificant features are entirely unnecessary in the grand scheme of things but add so much to the overall vibe of the game.
The excellent artistic direction extends to the sound design. A foreboding, orchestral soundtrack plays throughout the proceedings. Characters are superbly voiced and dialogue is a pleasure to listen to. Everything about Songs of Silence’ presentation is utterly wonderful.
Gameplay in Songs of Silence is a hybrid of various conventions in other strategy and 4X titles (4X being shorthand for ‘Explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate, for those unfamiliar with the term). The camera hovers far above the world map, clearly showing the terrain and various towns, cities, and units that are scattered across the playing field. Anyone familiar with the games of Sid Meier and the Civilization series will be immediately at home with this setup. In much the same way, the player and AI take turns moving their units around the map and managing their territory.
Waging War with a Twist: Unique Card System Adds Depth to Combat
This management typically takes the form of upping a city’s defense by recruiting and garrisoning units to it and increasing the prosperity of the city itself. This increase in prosperity in turn ups the defensive capabilities of a town and allows it to generate more resources per turn. Neutral and hostile settlements can be attacked, laying siege to the occupants for several turns before eventually breaking down their defenses and, if all goes to plan, defeating the enemies within and claiming the town as your own. Meanwhile, the other factions that inhabit the world are trying to do the same, and will frequently move to acquire new settlements, expanding their sphere of influence in the process.
It’s a familiar setup and it’s done well. Where Songs of Silence differs from the Civilization mold, however, is in how it approaches combat. When a battle is initiated, the scene switches to a much closer, overhead view of the battlefield. Both side’s forces are fully represented, resembling a miniaturised version of a Total War encounter. The two opposing sides then do battle.
Each unit has its strengths and weaknesses as denoted by a series of perks attached to them. Ranged units excel at a distance while receiving a penalty when engaged in hand-to-hand combat for example. It isn’t quite a rock-paper-scissors affair that many games of this type employ, but it’s a similar system and doesn’t take too long to become familiar with what unit types work in each situation.
Where Songs of Silence breaks away from typical genre conventions, however, is the inclusion of a card system. I’m hesitant to call it a deck-building mechanic because that has certain connotations, many of which simply aren’t present in Songs of Silence.
In battle, a limited number of cards are available to be used when off of their cooldowns. These are typically small abilities that can help turn the tide of combat. More cards become available as your hero units level up, generally offering a choice of three each time. Cards are also used outside of battle. New units are recruited based on the available cards, with new and improved cities offering up more cards to buff your army’s ranks.
Missions themselves have varying objectives, though they generally involve not losing specific units or cities, while simultaneously conquering an enemy force. There isn’t a huge number of missions available in the single-player, but they do tend to be very long, it isn’t a short campaign by any means.
A Few Sour Notes: Occasional Framerate Dips
Songs of Silence endeavors to run at a smooth 60 fps throughout, and it moderately succeeds at this. As sessions progress, however, drops start to make their way into things. Going into any city or army menu can see massive, momentary drops to the framerate, and when the larger battles are taking place, it can drop substantially while there are a lot of units and effects still on the screen.
With that said, this genre of game isn’t generally affected by this as much as others. While it is very noticeable and I found it increasingly more annoying as time went on, it ultimately didn’t prevent me from playing the game in any meaningful way, rather being an immersion breaker more than anything. Those who are less sensitive to framerate fluctuations or those with a variable refresh rate TV or monitor may have a better time in this respect, though I suspect the latter can only do so much to reduce it. Not a deal breaker by any means, but something to be aware of nonetheless.
A Harmonious Blend of Strategy and Style
All in all, Songs of Silence is an excellent entry into the 4X and strategy genre, even more so when you consider that titles in this niche are relatively thin on the ground on consoles. It features a robust, lengthy, campaign. It’s beautifully voiced and is visually exceptional. Along with the story mode, it features a series of challenging, stand-alone scenarios, as well as a solid skirmish mode for more casual games and a multiplayer mode.
If you like this sort of thing and want a break from Civilization, then you can’t go wrong with Songs of Silence.
Songs of Silence Links
Songs of Silence Breaks the Quiet, Delivering a Symphony of Strategy on PC and Consoles – https://www.thexboxhub.com/songs-of-silence-breaks-the-quiet-delivering-a-symphony-of-strategy-on-pc-and-consoles/
Buy Songs of Silence on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/p/9NLZ55VQRPGN/0010
