This first video game from the British Spiral Circus does not particularly shine with its rather basic gameplay. But its gothic art direction and claustrophobic atmosphere make for a nice calling card.
In the heart of the abyss, no one will hear you die. Silt is an underwater adventure in which nightmarish creatures regularly rise from the depths to seek… to eviscerate you. The discomfort is all the greater in this game as its narration is elliptical to say the least – we will never really know why the mute frogman that we play risks his life in these seabeds… Silt opens with a hazy preamble, following which we discover our diver semi-conscious and chained to the ground. This is the beginning of a fairly short epic where our progress will be rewarded with more questions than answers.
The only weapon of our character is a mysterious power, consisting in being able to take possession of the creatures located in a close perimeter. To invoke it, all it takes is a sustained press of a button. It then materializes in the form of an imposing light beam starting from the mask which is oriented in the direction of its target. Each animal has a unique ability: a fish with a sharp jaw will be very useful for cutting ropes, a shark with a reinforced forehead will act as a ram to smash walls, while electric eels will reactivate machines that have been turned off for a long time.
If the gameplay of “Silt” is limited, the Gothic artistic direction of Tom Mead works wonders.
Spiral Circus
The levels of Silt are articulated around puzzles to be solved with the help of this hostile bestiary. This can give passages of a rather morbid comicality, when a strange food chain unfolds before our eyes. The problem is that these puzzles are far too simple, and the difficulty curve is almost nil. The only parts that really pose a problem are those featuring our diver having to flee from fast predators.
Twenty thousand Lynch under the sea
This limited gameplay is however largely compensated by its splendid artistic direction and its sinister atmosphere at will. Dominic Clark and Tom Mead, the founders of the Spiral Circus studio, are declared lovers of David Lynch. And the influence of the latter is felt in Silt with a universe where reverie can quickly switch to nightmare and confusion. Tom Mead’s pencil stroke, in particular, arouses both wonder and fear. A mysterious and depressing aura wraps up these Gothic decorations and allows Silt to pull out of the game.
This visual madness is accompanied by a remarkable soundtrack that is reminiscent of the film Eraserhead, with its heavy use of oppressive reverbs and tremors. The whole produces a hypnotic atmosphere, a lugubrious song of the sirens towards the depths. Silt Although short – it can be completed in a single evening – it will remain in the memory for much longer for those who will be seduced by its haunting strangeness.
To play
q Silt, by Spiral Circus. Released on 1is June 2022 on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series, Xbox One (included in the Game Pass subscription). Peg 16.